ut you see, that girl, with her dratted yowling--altogether, it
might be that he did only shoot once."

LAWYER.--"And about his attempting to shoot the top of Smith's head
off--didn't he aim at his body, or his legs? Come now."

WITNESS.--(Entirely confused)--"Yes, sir--I think he did--I--I'm pretty
certain of it. Yes, sir, he must a fired at his legs."

(Nothing was elicited on the cross-examination, except that the weapon
used by Mr. Jones was a bowie knife instead of a derringer, and that he
made a number of desperate attempts to scalp the plaintiff instead of
trying to shoot him. It also came out that Sophronia, of doubtful
nativity, did not faint, and was not present during the affray, she
having been discharged from her situation on the previous evening.)

Washington Billings, sworn, said: "I see the row, and it warn't in no
saloon--it was in the street. Both of 'em was drunk, and one was a
comin' up the street, and t'other was a goin' down. Both of 'em was
close to the houses when they fust see each other, and both of 'em made
their calculations to miss each other, but the second time they tacked
across the pavement--driftin'-like, diagonal--they come together, down
by curb--al-mighty soggy, they did--which staggered 'em a moment, and
then, over they went, into the gutter. Smith was up fust, and he made a
dive for a cobble and fell on Jones; Jones dug out and made a dive for a
cobble, and slipped his hold and jammed his head into Smith's stomach.
They each done that over again, twice more, just the same way. After
that, neither of 'em could get up any more, and so they just laid there
in the slush and clawed mud and cussed each other."

(On the cross-examination, the witness could not say whether the parties
continued the fight afterward in the saloon or not--he only knew they
began it in the gutter, and to the best of his knowledge and belief they
were too drunk to get into a saloon, and too drunk to stay in it after
they got there if there were any orifice about it that they could fall
out again. As to weapons, he saw none used except the cobble-stones, and
to the best of his knowledge and belief they missed fire every time
while he was present.)

Jeremiah Driscoll came forward, was sworn, and testified as follows:--"I
saw the fight, your Honor, and it wasn't in a saloon, nor in the street,
nor in a hotel, nor in--"

THE COURT.--"Was it in the city and county of San Francisco!"

WITNESS.--"Yes, your Hon