Santa Fe Daily New Mexican

THE DEFENSE BEGINS.
The Prosecution in the Pollard-Breckenridge Case Rests—Damaging Statements Against the Woman.

Washington, March 21.—When the Pollard-Breckenridge case opened this morning Miss Pollard's face showed lines of worry and a sleepless night. Mr. Butterworth asked if Miss Pollard had a contract with James Rhodes, to which she replied the contract had been given to Mr. Rhodes. There never had been any settlement, but in 1885 she had given a note for three times the amount he advanced for her schooling. “I have never paid Mr. Rhodes, because I never had any money to pay anybody anything,” she said.

Back to the autobiography published in the New York World came Mr. Butterworth. Objection was made by Mr. Wilson that it had been threshed over to weariness, and the same opinion was held by the judge. Nevertheless, the plaintiff continued to be mistress of the situation, for when she had been asked about the trunk she had in Cincinnati, during her first confinement, and Mr. Butterworth read from his manuscript, she insisted that he should give her his undivided attention before she would continue. Great stress had been laid by the defense upon the description of the trunks which she had.

“That’s all Miss Pollard,” said Mr. Butterworth to the surprise of the court, plaintiff and Sister Ellis. Miss Pollard disappeared through the side door, her attorneys remarking they had no further use for her. “Then,” said Mr. Carlisle, “the plaintiff rests her case here.” There was a rustling in the Breckenridge camp of conversation and documents, after which Attorney Butterworth asked for a few moments in which to consult with the defendant. His son, Desha, and five attorneys tripped out through the door by which Miss Pollard had made her exit. The Breckenridge forces were in retirement twenty minutes, then Col. Shelby, the Lexington lawyer, faced the jury to outline the defense.

THE DEFENSE.

“While the case is technically one for breach of promise,” he said, “it includes a wider scope. I am authorized by the defendant to say, and will be corroborated by his solemn oath, that he did not seduce her and that it never was made known to him that she had ever had any children by him, until the filing of this suit last August, nor did he ever, under any circumstances, make any promise of marriage to her.” The defense did not intend, he said, to condone whatever was wrong in the relations of the two and only by the truth the defendant wanted to be judged. In outlining what would be the defense he said Miss Pollard accosted Col. Breckenridge on the train, before which time he had never seen her. Several weeks afterward he received a letter from her asking his advice as to her relations with Rhodes. He had answered it telling her of the legal aspects of the contract. After that he received a letter of authority which Miss Pollard denied, but which would be fully proven, asking him to come to the seminary. He had written her he could not come. She had written him another letter urging him to come to the Wesleyan college to see her and which he declined to do.

WENT TO SEE HER.

On the 1st of August, 1884, he had been in Cincinnati on business and it occurred to him that he had received a request to go to the college. Not having anything else to do he went to the college that day and saw her. He saw that she was not an ignorant girl, unacquainted with the ways of the world, for if there was one fact to be established, it was that the plaintiff was at least 21 or 22 years of age when Col. Breckenridge arrived at the institution. She came into the parlor, saw him and explained her contract with Rhodes, which was that in consideration of his payment of her schooling, she was to marry him. She asked if he could compel her to marry him and also told him she had submitted her person to Rhodes. Col. Breckenridge told her that she was not obliged to carry out the contract.

Then she asked him to take her to the entertainment on Vine street and he consented. That Col. Breckenridge called a closed carriage that night is denied. It is declared that Miss Pollard made the proposition that they ride instead of going to the concert. In the course of the ride that night and without use of seductive means, but in a way which occurs when a woman is not averse to such things, an illicit intimacy was begun.