Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 3).pdf/338

 safe to say that all the evidence tending to establish or indicate such adultery was objected to by the able attorney for the plaintiff in error, and the rulings of the court upon these objections are here for review. The elementary principle which would ordinarily render such evidence inadmissable is too familiar to need mention, and the state, admitting the principle, contends that there has been no violation of it in this case. The shooting affray occurred upon one of the thoroughfares of the City of Grand Forks, in-daylight. Hill, with his wife, was in a building used as a skating rink, and of which he was the proprietor. McGahey was on the sidewalk, on the opposite side of the street. It is undisputed that McGahey fired three shots from a revolver at or in the direction of Hill, and that Hill fired one shot from a rifle at MaGahey. Each party claimed that the other shot first, and on that point the case turned. The shooting occurred about 8 o'clock in the evening on May 24th, 1892. Hill as the principal witness for the state, testified that he was sitting upon a pile of lumber in the rink, talking with his wife; that the door was open, and McGahey came down the other side of the street, and, seeing witness through the door, drew his revolver, and commenced firing; that he (Hill) ran over to an open window, and returned the fire. On cross-examination it developed that, a few hours before, Hill had gone into a store, and procured a repeating rifle, and caused it to be loaded, and taking it with him, went down into the woods by the brewery, where he had been told he would find his wife and McGahey. He was asked, “How did you come to feel the necessity of having a gun just at this time?” He answered, “I knew if I ran against this man at the place I was going to look for him I might have trouble.” From this language, under the circumstances, a strong inference might be drawn that Hill was the aggressor. On redirect examination the question was put, “Why did you think you needed this [the rifle] to protect yourself?” This was objected to as not proper redirect examination. The plain purpose of the question was to enable the witness, by giving antecedent facts and circumstances, to