Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1873-11-07
LAND, FRIDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER I. 1873.

lowed himself to give vent to his feelings
of Indignation. For words spoken on
the occasion he hardly felt himself re-
sponsiblc. In fact, he could not remem-
Der what he did say. After talking until
they had both become exhausted by in
tensity of feeling, and Miss Lattimer had
fallen to crying bitterly, he babe her
farewell, and told her he had troubled
her for the last time, She sat down up
on log by the side of path, still cry
ing, and asked him to leave her. He
obeyed her, and saw her not again until
he saw her dead. In explanation OF the
empty barrels of his gun, and no game,
he said that he had met Miss Lattimer
before he had seen any pigeons, and that
after leaving he had no heart for sport. =
lie had discharged his piece in the
edge of the wood into the empty air, as
he never allowed himself to deposit a
loaded gun in dwelling house.
"There is no need that should give
you the detail. Suffice it for me to say
that | felt my reputation at stake as
Prosecuting Attorney. The State was
my client, and she demanded that I
should succeed. Able lawyers were ar
rayed against me, with money and social
power to back them, and must over
come them in the combat if could. I
marshaled my forces and disposed of
them in the best possible manner. I
threw my whole soul into the work, and
used every means possibly presented. I
took the connection of the prisoner with
the homicide as granted. Then I drew
a picture of the murder. which made the
jury shudder and quake as they sat and
| demanded that outraged justice should
be vindicated; that the community should
be protected; that our homes, and our
highways, and byways, should be safe
to the innocent ones whom we loved. [
held the prisoner up in colors so fright
full and hideous that he tainted outright
in his box; and then this circumstance
| caught up and turned against him. I
fairly carried the jury by storm, and our
sympathetic and good-hearted Chief JUS
tice had allowed all his sympathies to be
expended upon the distressed and heart
broken parents and brothers and sisters
of the deceased. The counsel for the
prisoner were outfanked and overpower-
ed, and they struggled hopelessly. In
the end verdict in the first degree was
rendered, and the prisoner was sentenced
to be executed.
Il was jubilant and proud at the close
of the trial and both bench and bar COM
plimented me. / went to my home, ex-
pecting my wife to congratulate me
warmly. She had seen persons through
most of the trial, and had witnessed my
triumph. But she said not a word -
When asked her if she did not join
with me in gratitude for my success, she
shook her head.
Il am proud of my husbands legal
fame" she said, but cannot feel CRATE
full in the present instance think Ed
ward. you have condemned an innocent
man"
The words struck me like bolt of
lightning-not only the words. but the
more than human feeling with which they
had been spoken. | recovered myself,
and laughed at the gentle woman for her
misplaced sympathy. | asked her to
look at the evidence.
'Look at the evidence she demanded.
"There are unseen evidences as strong
as those which are palpable to sight and
hearing. The heart feels them, and the
calm judgment endorses them. AS live
| do not believe Charles Ashcroft ever
knowingly or willingly did harm to that
dead girl. He knows no more how she
met her death than | do"
The furry of conquest was over, and
in my own sanctuary | sat down and re-
fected. took up now the case for the
defendant, and went over the whole bu-
siness from beginning to end. Shutting
out the evidence directly duplicating the
prisoner, there was no human being who
could have believed him guilty. What,
then, was this evidence Did it directly
connect him with the killing No. On
ly circumstantially was he connected
Herewith. Was it possible that some
one else could have done the deed? Aye,
a thousand times. Was it more proba-
Bile that some one else did it than that
Ashcroft did it Here was the rub. /
had seen guilt in many forms, and had
seen innocence accused. had seen the
guilty wretch attempt to hide his guilt,
and had heard him deny it in toto. And
here came in the evidence which my wife
had experienced, and which | could feel,
but which could never be presented to
jury of ordinary men with moving pow
err. In the bearing of the prisoner there
had been not one shadow of that brazen
impudence which is sure to crop out
somewhere and somehow in the deinean-
or of guilt long struggling to affect in-
nocence. Nor had he displayed the des-
pair Of the hopelessly entrapped crimi-
nal. On the contrary, he had presented,
as / could calmly review the scene, a
crushed and broken heart-a manhood
staggering under frightful incubus, and
a shivering, shuddering seDsitiveness un-
der the suspicious resting upon him.
Now that / had won the victory l could
afford to judge without prejudice, and
found myself, ere long, in trouble.
had condemned the man; had consign-
ed him to the gallows.
How-bow could she have come to her
death if he did not kill her What other
way is possible ?
bad unused aloud at this point. and
my wife heard me.
There are many ways" she said