Southern shield., 1857-01-24
ELENA PHILLIPS COUNTY ARKANSAS SATURDAY MORNING. JANUARY 2 l8S7

.HSs1sSszs Fsa present examined the prisoner, and reported, as their decided opinion, that the man was seriously i'll, and in fact insane; but it was their opinion that the present insanity was the delirium of fever.
 ''The man is i'll, very i'll, and it is only the violent excitement of his fever that keeps him standing. He should be cared for instantly.''
 Such was the opinion of the doctors, and the court immediately remanded the priso- ner, with orders that he should be attended to with the utmost care. The fever fit, which had but just commenced was already grown violent, and followed him to the jail with an anxiety | could have scarcely be- ieyed possible an hour before. Having taken measures for his comfort, and obtained a nurse for him, left the jail and returned home for itWaa impgss,.5tG to do anvsbipr toward Investigating the charge so long as he remained in this condition. The trial, of course, went of for tho circuit. much to the disappointment of some hundreds of eager howor-scekers, who laid it partly to the Judge and partly to me shat they had not heard the condemnation to death of a man of like passions with themselves.
 And now let me return few weeks and state the particulars of the crime imputed to my unfortunate client. \ farmer of ad- vanced years lived about seven miles from the county town, in his old house, where he was born, and where he had seen the suns of nearly seventy summers ripen successive crops of grain in the broad fields. He had coined the sunshine into gold, and had grown richer than his neighbors, and harder of heart withal.
 Solomon Davis was an iron-handed and stony-hearted man. No one loved him, not even the wife of his bosom, who had trar- eled the journey of life with him for more than forty years. But his wealth had won him some degree of respect, and that 1t will always do, and he was made a director of the bankin the county town when 1t was first established. But the old man never doposi- ted money in the bank. It was for a long. time a subject of wonderment to lis neigh bors what he did with his money between the time of receiving and the time of in- vesting 1t, until some person revealed the fact that there WAS a strong box under the bed in the old mans bedroom. where he doubtless made deposit of his riches till such time as hccOuld purchase lands OF un- doubted securities. It was, in fact, his own son that revealed this secret, for the old man had a son, a craceless boy. who had grown up into a wild and dissipated man, and who at length left home and had never been heard from. Doubtless he was lost at sea, or had died in some distant country, for ten years had passed and no tidings of him had reached any ear.
 The wife of Solomon Davis was woman Of remarkable character. Why she had married him no eInew. She was his ex- l net opposite in every respect. In youth it was said she had been as beautiful as her daughter now vas, and much the same gen tie, lovely person. She had been 8 calm, quiet pcrson--doubtlcss sufferer from the karFinass of her husband, but never com plaining- and now, as old age had come on, and the end could not be very far off. she had grown moro cheerful and pleasant than ever, and seemed to be getting somewhat of tho sunshine of another country on this worlds path.
 Bessie Davis was q sweet girl-a gem in the county. known all over for her beauty and her lovelncss. She was the child of her parents old ago. and as such had been more the pet of the family: but as one and another went away by the dark road that never turns toward homo again, and at last John was gone too, she was the sole stay of her mothers lonesome hearth in the long winter evenings ,when the old man sat silent " adding up the gains of his vcar's labors, or studying, in uncommunicative gloom, the prices current in his paper.
 One evening Mrs. Davis and Bessie had gone to pass the night in distant part of the county. They had driven the old horse with the gig themselves, and Mrs. Davis, having arranged everything for her hus- bands supper, had permitted the servants to go to their friends also, with directions to return by daylight in the morning.
 The morning never came to the old man. When the servants came back he was found lying dead on the floor, with Q bullct-hole through and through his breast, and the bull let was found lying in the corner, near the wall, which it had struck but lightly. The old man had struggled hard before he dicd for there was evidence of a fierce contest | the chairs and table were overturned, and thc room thrown into confusion.
 The strong box was standing on the floor in front of the bed, open, but how much had been abstracted it was impossible to say. Bills, gold, silver and securities lay | scattered about in it, and tho only possible estimate of the amount of the robbery that could be made was no better than guess. and entirely worthless.
 The moment that the discovery was made the news spread like light. and before noon half the county had heard of it, and three men had been arrested on suspicion of the murder.
 The first was hired man of tho next noighbor of Mir. Davis, who was seized for saying that it was no loss to tho country if the old man was dead. This was at first deemed very suspicious, but cool reelection led men to think 1t would hardly do to hang Q man on such evidence, and he was dis charged. Tho second was a half farmer, half horse jockey, who was trading horses in the county town, and having rather an unusual quantity of gold about his person, was required to account for it--a require ment which proved somewhat embarrassing, for although he had not gotten it from Solo, mon Davis, he had cheated near noghbor out of hundred dollars on horse trade, which had made him flush for the time, and he had no desire to meet the cheated farmer until the money was used up. But gold can no more carry evidence of murder on its shining fa:e than it can carry the plague through tho quarantine, and the jockey es- capped for trife paid to a lawyer to haye him discharged on writ of habeds corpus, ,,,,t