The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-07-09
LIFE IN ARKANSAS,
BY JUDGE ARLINGTON.
Conclusion. |

Will briefly epltomlZe the substance U
the evidence. About twelve month:
previously the defendant had arrived ii
the town, and opened an establishment
of millinery. Residing in a small room
back of her shop, and all alone, she pre-
pared the various articles OF her trade
with unwearied toll and consummatt
taste. Her habits were secluded
modest and retiring; and hence she
might have hoped to escape notoriety
but for the perilous gift of that extra,
ordinary beauty which too often, and to
the poor and friendless always, proves a
curse. She was soon sought after by
those gay fire-fies of fashion, the busi
ness Of whose life everywhere is sedgc,
ton and ruin. But the beautiful stran'
ger rejected them all alike with unit
terable scorn and loathing.
Among these disappointed admirers
was one of character from which the
fair milliner had everything to fear.
Hiram Shore belonged to family at
once opulent, influential and dissipated;
lie was himself licentious, brave and
revengeful, and duelist of established
and terrible fame. 1t was generally
known that he had made advances to
win the favor of the lovely Emma, and
hadshared the fate ofall her other wooers
a disdainful repulse.
At nine o'clock on Christmas night,
1888, the people of Little Rock were
startled by loud scream, as OF some
one in mortal terror; while following
that, with hardly an interval, came sue,
cessive reports Of tirearms-one, two,
three-a dozen deafening explosions.
They flew to the shop of the milliner,
whence the sounds emanated, and push
ed back the unfastened door A dread
full scene was presented. There she
stood in the center Of the room, with a
revolver in each had, every barrel dis
charged, her features pale, here eyes
flashing wildly, and her lips parted with
an awful smile! And there at her feet,
weltering in his warm blood, his bosom
literally riddled with shot, lay the all,
dreaded duelist, Hiram Shore, gasping
in the last agony. He articulated but a
single sentence-"Tell my mother that
| am dead and gone to h-ll| and in
stantly expired.
ain Gods name, who did this 2 ex-
claimed the appalled, spectators.
Il did it, exclaimed the beautiful
milliner, in her sweet, silvery accents.
81 did it to save my honor|
Such is brief abstract OF the essen
tial circumstances, as developed in the
examination of witnesses The testi-
mony closed and the proceedings be
gan.
First of all, Fowler, Pike and Ashley
(all famous lawyers at that time in the
southwest, spoke in succession for the
prosecution. They about equallyparti-
toned their eloquence between the pris-
oner and her advocate, covering the lat
ter with such sarcastic wit, raillcry and
ridicule as made it a matter Of doubt
whether he or his client was the party
then on trial. As to Denton, however,
he seemed to pay not the slightest at
tcntion to his opponents, but remained
motionless, with his forehead bowed on
his hands, like one buried in deep
thought or in slumber.
When his time came, however, he
suddenly sprang to his feet, crossed the
bar, and took a position almost touching
the foreman of the jury. He then
commenced in a whisper but whisper
so wild, peculiar, and indescribably dis
tinct as TO fill the hall from floor to gal
leries.
At the outset he dwelt in pure logic,
analyzing and combining the proven
facts, till the whole mass Of confused
evidence looked transparent as a globe
of crystal, through which the innocence
of his client shone luminous as a sun
beam, while the jurors nodded to each
other their signs of thorough conviction.
That thrilling whisper, and concentra-
ted argument, and language simple as a
childs, had satisfied the. demands Of
intellect, and this, too, in only twenty
minutes. 1t was like the work of a
mathematical demonstration.
He then changed his posture so as to
sweep the bar with his glance, and, like
a raging lion, rushed upon his adverse
ries, tearing and rending their sophis-
tries into atoms. His sallow face
glowed like red-hot iron, the forked blue
vein swclled and writhed on his brow,
his ewes resembled live Goals, and his
voice was the clangor of trumpet. |
have never, before or. since, listened to
such appalling denunciation. 1t was
like Joves eagle charging a flock of
crows. 1t was like Jove himself hurl-
ing thunderbolts in the shuddering eyes
of inferior gods. And yet in the high
est temper of his fury he seemed won
derfully calm. He employed no gestures
save one-the flash Of long, bony
fore-finger directly at the pallid faces Of
his legal foes. He painted their venal-
ity and unmanly baseness in coalesing
for money to crush helpless female,
till shout Of stitled wrath broke from
the multitude, and some of the sworn
panel cried, Shame" And thus the
orator had carried another point-had
aroused perfect storm Of Indignation
against the prosecutors-and this, also,
in twenty minutes.
He changes his theme once more.
His voice grew mournful as funeral
dirge and his ewes filled with tears, as
he traced vivid picture of the man s
cruelties and woman's wrongs, with
special applications in the case of his
client till half the audience wept like
children.
But it was in the peroration that he
reached the zenith both of terror and
sublimity His features were livid as
those of a corpse; his very hair appear
cd TO stand on end, his nerves shook as
with a palsy he tossed his hands wildly
toward heaven, each finger spread apart
and quivering like the tiameo OF candle,
as he closed with the last words OF the