Sanders

W. A. Sanders was indicted for forging the name of William Wootton in a draft upon ICutner-Gnldstein Co. for the sum of fourteen hundred dollars, payable to the order of said Sanders, and for uttering and passing the said draft, knowing the same to be false and forged. From the judgment of conviction, and from the order denying him a new trial, he prosecutes these appeals.

The story, as told by the evidence in this case, is extraordinary and, in some respects, without parallel. The defendant.is a man nearly sixty years of age, who has resided in this state for more than half of his lifetime. For many years he was prominent in educational circles. He had been a teacher in the public schools .in different parts of the state. He was well educated, and possessed *222 of much learning, and more than local reputation as an agriculturist, horticulturist, and botanist. Pie was married and the father of children, who were growing up about him in his home in Fresno countv where he had resided for many years, and where he seems to have enjoyed, up to the time of these transactions, the universal regard and respect of his fellow-men. Wootton was an old man, past seventy years of age,…