Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/540

 Legal Reminiscences. was given, through the press, that on a cer tain day the motion would be decided. The court-room is unusually large, — the bench and its approach, elevated above the floor, occupies one side. In front on the right is the clerk's, on the left the marshal's desks. Beyond the passage in front of these desks are the seats and tables of the bar, in the form of an amphitheatre. Around and on three sides of the bar are the seats for the public. Terry and his wife occupied seats within the bar in the second tier from the front, the wife directly in front of the presiding jus tice. The audience was not large, and there were not more than twenty persons inside the bar. Two judges — Hoffman of the District, and the judge for the District of Nevada — entered with Judge Field. The Bar rose to receive the court, but Terry and his wife kept, their seats. Judge Field, having taken his seat, announced that the opinion and order of the court would be read. The opinion commenced with a full and eminently fair statement of the facts, read in his ordinary tone, without any feeling or excitement. As he approached the inevit able result to which the facts tended, the woman in a 'shrill, piercing voice exclaimed, "How much of the Sharon money do you get for that opinion? " Almost without raising his voice Judge Field said, " The

marshal must preserve order! Those who do not preserve order must be removed!" The woman had been muttering some thing which I did not distinctly hear; her final words were, " I suppose the next thing will be your order that I give up the marriage contract!" Judge Field then said, pointing to her, " The marshal will remove that per son from the court-room!" Two marshals were quickly beside her; one took the right, the other her left arm. There was a flash of steel above the heads of the crowd; and Terry yelled with a vulgar oath that " no man should lay a hand on his wife!" His arm had been grasped with such force that he could not bring it down. The knifehilt was seized in his clutch, the blade kept extended, until the marshals laid him on the floor, where he continued to struggle and blaspheme until he was disarmed and carried into the adjoining or consultation room, where he was kept until committed to prison. I do not think the interruption exceeded ten minutes. Judge Field resumed and com pleted the reading of his opinion and order. The marshals acted quickly and effectively, but I do not recall that either said a word. One of them was the man who killed Terry afterwards in the railroad station at Lathrop. The whole scene impressed me as dignified, proper, and discreditable to no one con cerned except Terry and his wife.