Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-09-02
TIE CRIMINAL WIT
NESS.

In the Spring of1S4l,I 1 was called
to Jackson, Alabama TO attend court
having been engaged to defend a
young man who had been accused
of robbing the mail The stolen
mail bag had been recovered,as well
as the letters from which money had
been ri1ed. These letters were Civ
en- me for examination, and l re-
turned them to the prosecuting at
torney. Having got through my
private preliminaries about noon.
and as the case would not come off
before the next day, l went into
court in the afternoon to see what
was going on.
/ The first case that came up was 4
iyoung girl not more than seventeen
years of age, named Elizabeth Mad
worth. She was very pretty and bore
that mild, innocent look which you
seldom fiud in culprit. She had
been weeping profusely, but as she
found SO many eyes upon her, she
became too frightened to weep any
more
The complaint against her set
| forth that she had stolcd a hundred
dollars from a Mrs. Naseby, a
wealthy widow living in the town,
Was the girls mistress. The poor
girl declared her innocence in the
widest terms, but circumstances
were hard against her. A hundred
dollars in bank notes had been sto-
len from her mistress room, and
she was the only one that had ac-
cess there. At this jGncture, when
the mistress was upon the witness
island, young man caught me by
the arm. He was q fine looking
young man and big tears stood i'll
| his eyes.
'1'hey tell me you are a good lsw
YER he whispered.
i am a lawyer l answered.
Then do save her. You can do it,
for she is innocent
is she your sister?
No sir he added but here he
hesitatcd.
| Has she no counsel?' 2 | asked.
None that is worth anything
nobody that will do anything for her.
Oh, save her. and III give you all
I've got. can't give you much, but
| can raise something.'
| reflected a moment. l cast my
o,-av tnz.rl- Tho nriSnnn,.- anH Cha
was at that moment looking at me.
She caught my eye and the volume
Of humble entreaty l read in her
glance resolved me in a moment.
| l arose and went to the girl and
asked her if she wanted me to defend
her. She said yes. l then Informed
! the court that l was ready to enter
into tie case, and the murmur OF
satisfaction that run quickly through
t the room, told me where the sympa-
thies of the people were. asked
for moments cessation, that |
might speak with my client. l
went and sat down by her side aud
asked her to state candidly the case.
| Sue told me she had lived with Mrs.
Naseby .wo years and had never had
any trouble before. And two weeks
ago, she said, her mistress lost one
hundred dollors.
She missed it from her drawer.
and asked me about it. l said l
knew nothing about it. On the same
evening / know Nancy Luther told
Mrs. Naseby that she saw me take
the money from the drawer; that
she watched me thro' the keyhole.
They went to my trunk and found
twenty five dollars of the missing
money there. But sir, l Inever took
it. and somebody must have put it
there
/ then asked her if she had sus-
pected any one.
i don't know who could have done
1t but Nancy. She has never liked
me, because she thought me better
treated then she. She is cook | was
the chambermaid.'
She pointed Nancy Luther out to
! me. She was stout, bold-faced
girl, somewhere about five and TWEEN
ty years, with low forehead, small
grey eyes, pugnose and thick lips.
| caught her glance at once as it
rested upon the fair young prisoner,
and the moment detected the look
of hatred which l lead there, / was
-oonvinced that she was the rogue
Nancy Luther, did you say that
girls name was" l asked, for
new light had broken in upon me.
Yes, sir
| left the court room and.we It to
the prosecuting attorney and asked
him for the letters / handed him
the ones that had been stolen from
the mail bag. He gave them, to me
and having selected one, returned
the rest and told him / would see he
had the one l kept before night. i
then returned to the court room and
the case went on.
Mrs. Naseby resumed her testimo-
ny. She said she entrusted. the room
to the prisoners care. and that NO