The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-23
vytrNGS HA We NOT BEEN SHOT,


"HYLL-NGS IA TE NOT BEEN SHOT,"
Tur public has rarely or never been more
daeply interested in a criminal trial than in
tba case now pending in the Court of Quarter
Seasjons. The result deeply concerns the
entire community. 1t involves two questions
Of the highest importance; whether the
whisky ring can set at defiance all laws, and
,ybatber assassins can be tolerated in this
community. 1t is for the Court and jury to
datar,nine whether Marrow and Dougherty
ora guilty or innocent, and this question we
do not propose to discuss here, but the nature
oF the efforts made to secure their acquittal
ia in the highest degree reprehensible, and
scarcely less criminal and outrageous than
their own imputed crime. On the first day of
the trial. Mclaughlin, when produced in court,
directly contradicted the statements he had
nreyiousiy made to the Mayor, and this Cir
crmstance is best explained by the extraor-
dinarv efforts of the special friends of the
prisoners. or their counsel to obtain opportu-
mites for changing his apparent determine
iion to tell the truth. These Vaccinations
were only too successful, and a display of the
kindred talent for spiriting away witnesses
was made yesterday, in the mysterious alb
sence of police officer who Is supposed to
be able to complete the chain of evidence
offered on behalf of the Commonwealth.
With Mclaughlin ready to forswear himself,
and Officer Kelly absent in defiance of an
order of the Mayor, the chances of the de-
PENDANTS for acquittal were materially i'm
oroved. and there was even fair
cbanca that reasonable doubt
of their identity might have been created
If Detective Brooks had also been unable to
appear in court But deeply as he was in
iured his assalants were only murderers in
Thought or in moral sense, and while they
cannot be hung for their crime on the one
hand, neither can they escape on the other
the recognition which they had wickedly but
vainly hoped to avoid by completion of
their Infamous task. The counsel for the
prisoners, therefore, saw that despite all the
tsmpering with Mclaughlin, and all the
efforts that had been made to ensure the alb
sence of Officer Kelly, their clients were still
in peril, if the force of the testimony given
by Mr.. Brooks was not broken. His state
neut was wonderfully clear and concise. No
man can read it without being struck with the
earnest desire to ''tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, by which
it is pervaded, and the careful avoid
ance of any declaration which he did
not know to be absolutely and unqualifedly
true. After he swore at a critical stage of the
proceedings that Marrow was one of three
men he had seen in Keenans store, and that
he believed Dougherty to be the man he had
subsequently seen enter the carriage on Front
street, it seemed that he had been providen-
TALLY rescued from the grave to confront and
confound his assailants. The vile and despi-
cable tactics which have made modern crimi-
nal lawyers scarcely less infamous than the
scoundrels they turn loose upon the com
munity, became very essential to the
defense. A rigid cross-examination
was to have been expected, but
no one could have been prepared for the
brutal and totally unjustifable remark fol
which Mr.. Mann was properly rebuked by the
Court. Bearing in mind that the clients fol
whom he speaks are on trial for the attempted
assassination of an officer distinguished fol
his conscientious devotion to an important
public duty, because he possessed the rar,
virtue of discharging that duty thorough,
and well, and that his partial recovery from
the severe wound the prisoners are alleged t.
have inflicted is almost miraculous, no brow
beating champion OF crime has ever said any
thing more outrageous than tn
exclamation to Mr.. Brooks; eff this case is t
be decided by noise, can beat you, for NJ
lltngs haze not been shot! !" We do not won
der that a portion of the audience erie
''Shame !" in as loud tone as the prophetic
of the place and the occasion would permit
and we are only astonished that the courts d
not follow up the condemnation of such lar
guage by striking from the roll attorneys VIII
permit themselves to use it, 1t is enough fc
the prisoners to clear themselves of IL
charge on which they are arraigned, and the
can be no excuse for adding to the deep, b
fortunately not fatal, injury already inAicte
this wanton insult.
II is reported that proposition is on 70
I,o family thair o,f