Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/686

 settled by the judge who tried the case, for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, the motion being made at an exclusively criminal term held under section 658 of the Revised Statutes, before the circuit judge and the two district judges named in section 613 of the Revised Statutes.

The evidence given on the trial showed these facts: The defendant arrived in the city of New York on the second of November, 1879, in a steamer from Europe, having with him seven boys, of whom the three persons named in the indictment were three. He came on shore with the seven boys. Mr. Jackson, superintendent of the depot at Castle Garden, where he landed, had a conversation with him there immediately after he landed. Mr. Jackson testified: "I asked this man if those children were with him, and he said they were. I then asked his name, and he told me Ancarola. I brought him up to the register's desk, and he registered their names. I asked him where they were going, and he said to Montreal, to their relatives there. I brought them inside then, and he handed me their passage ticket to Montreal, as evidence that they were going there." The children were not allowed to go with him. He was arrested on the eighth of November. At the trial no evidence was introduced by the defendant, The chief testimony for the government was that of the three boys named in the indictments, Quirino being 13 years old, and Libonati and Givrieri being each 11 years old.

The story of Libonati is this: He was born at Calvello, Italy. His mother is living there. His father is dead, The boy was working in a blacksmith shop for two and a half cents a day, making nails. He had two sisters and a brother in Calvello, and a brother and a cousin in New York. His family were poor. He could not play upon any musical instruments. His father had gone to New York, and had died there. The boy, being at his shop, was sent for by his mother, and went and found with her her brother and the defendant. His mother asked him if he wanted to go to America, and he said "Yes." His uncle said, "Go to America with this man?" and the boy said "Yes." The defendant said to the mother, "Will you give me your son?" and she said