The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-04-29


they alone considered the facts sworn
to, and left out of account the mans
previous good character, and the slight
provocation, distant in time and appar-
emily forgotten, which only could be
adduced as motive. OF course, you
will not mention this. The man is &C
quilted, and trust the whole affair will
soon beforgotten save by the actors in it. !"
81 certainly shall not mention it, since
you desire me not, said the doctor;
"but your statement accounts to me for
what / have been looking at as a lack of
your usual spirit in concluding the prose-
cution. I, myself, had no doubt of the
mans guilt until the very last; but I
had no means of knowing the circum-
stances which have changed your opin-
ion."
"Neither had Others" replied the
1 lawyer, "who have accused me with
much bitterness, Of not seeking with
sufficient zeal the ends of justice. It is
sometimes difficult, in my profession, to
reconcile conscience and desire for
popular approval. But I see you are
laughing at my unwonted strain" he
continued. perhaps it strikes you as
out of character from the lips of q public
prosecutor, and it may be. I will stop
moralizing, and, if you are disposed to
listen, tell you stSry, an incident of
my profession, as it really occurred,
and which is quite in point.
"Bravo!" cried the doctor, rousing
up from half doze at his proposition.
"Push that bottle nearer-there, that
will do-this is capital. Heidsick, can
you get me some of the same? All. now
give me cigar, and I'm ready"
"You have not forgotten, [ suppose, f"
began the lawyer, !" the case of Roberts,
who, in the year 1856, was tried for
murder on circumstantial evidence, of
the strongest character, and acquitted
too? You doctors never take much in
terest in such matters, / know, unless
you have a hand in them, and fat fees
for medical examinations and testimony
Well the case was this:
ga man named Hamilton, boarder
in a house in Perry street, was found
dead in his room one morning. There
were several wounds upon his person,
some of which he might have inflicted
upon himself, But there were two, at
least, which it was impossible could have
been made by a weapon held in his own
hand, as their situation and direction
made evident.
cat first it had been supposed that he
! had committed suicide, as he was man
of intemperate habits, addicted to gaming
and low company, and had of late been
much depressed in consequence of losing
his business situation, and by long run
of i'll luck. He was morose, sullen man,
and had no friend among his fellow
boarders, who were all of class superior
in morals, if not in position, to himself.
Still, he had never quarrelled with any
one in the house up to the night of his
death, nor did it at first appear, as far as
it's inmates were concerned, that he had
given any one there provocation for the
crime.
" Nevertheless, in the course of the
investigation by the coroner, it was elic-
tied that Hamilton had, on one OF two
occasions, when considerably intoxicated,
addressed provoking and insulting re-
marks to a follow boarder, named Rob
erts, who occupied the room adjoining
his. And Roberts had been heard to
complain that Hamilton annoyed him al
most beyond endurance by the noise he
made on coming in late of nights, that he
had threatened to leave the house if
Hamilton was allowed to continue, and
that, finding his complaints to the land
lord, who was relative of the deceased,
produced no effect, hehad been heard to
declare that he would himself find way
of quoting his disagreeable neighbor.
"Now all this amounted to nothing
more than the impatient ebullitions of a
nervous, excitable man, who had been
subjected to long course of annoyance
from drunken fellow inmate. But it
served to point out one individual, whose
relations with the dead man had been I'M
friendly beyond those of others with
whom he was associated In his own
home.
And when it was further discovered
that Hamilton, on his return home at a
late hour on the night of the murder,
knocked at Roberts door, and demanded
matches for the purpose of procuring a
light, arousing him from his sleep, and
that pretty high words had followed on
Roberts refusing the accommodation,
suspicion fixed firmly upon this man.
And this was changed to certainty when
another boarder testified that during the
quarrel Roberts had threatened Hamil-
toms life, and had risen from his bed, and
by main force thurst his prosecutor into
his own reom, where he had been heard
to fall heavily upon the floor. Another
boarder who occupied room beneath
Hamilton had heard trampling over
head at a still later hour, but none Of
these things, though now serving to fix
suspicion on Roberts, had been treated
at the time as other than matters Of ordi-
nary occurrence.
Roberts statement was that Hamil-
ton was very drunk when he came home.
That when pushed into his own room he
fell violently upon the floor, and that,
leaving him there, he returnedto his own
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