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Show MRS. HOLMES MAY j HICK TODAY Plaintiff in Will Contest Has Four Witnesses to Present Yet. HUSBAND ON STAND Colonel Edwin F. Holmes Tells of Relations to Mrs. Bransford. Swift progress marked the trial yesterday yes-terday before Judge Harold M. Stephens Steph-ens of the Third district court of the action brought by Mrs. Susauua B. Holmes to recover half of the estate of $S00,000 left to Wallace It. .Bransford ' by his wife, the late Louise Grace Bransford, adopted daughter of Mrs. Holmes. . Examination of five witnesses was completed. Announcement was made that the plaintiff has but four more witnesses to call, and that the plaintiff's plain-tiff's case may be completed today. It is understood that the defense may call nearly a score of witnesses. Colonel Edwin F. Holmes, husband of the plaintiff, was called as a witness yesterday. He. testified ho and Mrs. Holmes, then Mrs. Emery, widow of Albion B. Emery, were married October 12, 1S99. He was questioned as to his whereabouts from the time of the marriage mar-riage until the death of Mrs. Bransford. He testified he had observed that cordial relations always obtained between Mrs. Holmes and her adopted daughter. Dinners Denied. The visit to Hot Springs, Va., where he, Mrs. Holmes and Adele Blood, the actress, were at the time of the death of Mrs. Bransford, was made, he testified, testi-fied, in the interest of his own health. He said the party went from Hot Springs to "Chicago, and that, though a few friends were guests at dinner at the Blackstone hotel there, no formal dinners were given. The defense had endeavored to establish by earlier witnesses wit-nesses that Mrs. Holmes had given formal for-mal dinners at the hotel shortly ' after the death of her- adopted daughter. Two of the witnesses of yesterday went without cross-examination. They were Mrs. S. G. Griffin of 358 East First South street, and Dr. F. S. Bascom. Br. Bascom was asked by counsel for the plaintiff to testify as to the state of health of Grace Emery before being sent to California in 1S98. Counsel for the defense objected under the state statute which imposes sacredness of confidence con-fidence between physician and patient. The court ruled that witness might testify tes-tify as to any advice he gave reflecting upon the solicitude of Mrs. Holmes for the health of her adopted daughter, but that he might not testify as to the nature of the girl's affliction. Dr. Bascom Bas-com said he advised that she be sent to a lower altitude and not sent to school. Fond of Mother. , Mrs. Griffin testified she lived near Mrs. Holmes on East First South street for half a dozen years after Mrs. Holmes moved from Park City to Salt Lake. She said there was evidence of the child's fondness for "her foster mother, that she seemed to prefer the society of oider persons to that of children and that Mrs. Holmes indulged her in everything. Mrs. Nancy Emery, gray-haired sister of the late Albion Emery, former husband hus-band of Mrs. Holmes, was a witness yesterday, She testified concerning what she had known of the child's life from the time of her adoption by Mr. and Mrs. Emery in Boston until her death. She said she had noticed a fondness between be-tween the child and her sister-in-law until shortly before the time Grace was married. Then, she said, their relations appeared to be somewhat strained.1 On cross-examination she admitted she had not been very much in the company of Mrs. Holmes and her adopted daughter during the rearing of the girl. With the opening of the caso yesterday yester-day morning, cross-examination was completed of Mrs. Laura Bransford Clark, cousin of Wallace M. Bransford. She reiterated her testimony on direct examination, that during periods of living liv-ing at the Holmes residence as a chum and associate of Grace she had, seen nothing but evidence of fondness between be-tween the girl and Mrs. Holmes. |