Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/854

 840 FEDEfiAL EEPOETEB, �ruary, 1878; discharged at Charleston 9th November, 1880. This claim is as follows : �12 months' wages, at 25.50 marks, from 17th Feb- ruary, 1878, to 17th February, 1879, - - marks 360 00 �16 months' wages, at 23 marks, from 17th Febru- ary, 1879, to 17th January, 1880, - - 368 00 �4 months' and 25 days' wages, at 33 marks, from 17th June, 1880, to November 9, 1880, - 159 50 �2 J months' wages, to pay home passase. - 82 50 ���marks 970 00 Less amount paid him by captain, - - 412 86 ���marks 557 14 == $133 61 �The aforesaid libellants are represented by Capt. Prundt, under a power of attorney. The power of attorney authorizes Capt. Prundt to-^emand and sue for the wages and compensation due the said libellants for services rendered by them as seamen on board of the barkentine Trautvetter, and purports to have been signed on the twenty-sixth of November, 1880, by the said seamen-, in presence of P. Belt, chief officer of the ship Neptune, aboard which ship they had sailed. As P. Belt, the witness to the signatures of the said seamen, sailed with them on the day of the execution of the said power of attorney, it was attempted to prove the same by the testimony of Capt. Prundt. Capt. Prundt testified that he saw the said seamen sign the power of attorney on the morning of the twenty-sixth of November, 1880, in the presence of P. Belt, chief of&cer of the ship Neptune, in the cabin of the said vessel. �It was contended that the signatures to the power of attorney were not genuine, but were written by the same party, and that the power of attorney was illegal. �Witnesses who had much experience in deciphering handwriting were called upon to testify as to the genuineness of the signatures. �Messrs. E. H. Sparkman and William Thayer testified that in their opinion the signatures to the power of attorney were by the same party, and did not correspond with the signatures to the shipping articles. �Messrs. E. A. Pringle, M. W. Wilson, and J. E. Philips, on the other hand, testified that in their opinion the signatures to the power of attorney were by different parties, and corresponded to the ship- ping articles. �W. M. Oglivie, a olerk of Capt. Gard, testified that he was ac- ��� �