Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-05-16


Ny heart was failing me fast. The
mercury of hope was sinking rapidly
| | asked for the next witness. Ny
client hesitated. He looked vacantlv
and helplessly around. Great heavens !,
is this all of his case-all the defense
he can make?
At last his eye rested on a muscular
| looking man who stood in distant
| part OF the crowd of spectators, and we
called up John Kline. The man
elbowed his way to the witness-stand,
| holding under his arm parcel done up
in newspaper. Being sworn, he de-
sired to know what was wanted Of him.
1--WE want to know what you know
about this case about Stuben stealing
those hams? 2"
"Ich knows noting about dot"
:" Did you ever see these hams be-
fore ?"
Cant say for sure oder not
"Why, Mr.. Stuben here says that
YOU butchered his hog for him, and
that these hams We're cut from that
hog"
"Ya. Ich kills dot hook for Stuben.
and cuts him up, but don't know dat
desc be selfst-same hams oder not.
Ich can see vor sure ven zee lets me
dry desc lecks on EN- At the same
time he unrolled the parcel, displaying
four legs of a hog, boots and all on.
Itch haber cuts off desc feer lecks
Won Stuben's schweln-yot you calls
him ?-hock-ya. Won students hook.
Ich haben cuts tree nit der saw und
ems nit den AK. Ich haben looks de
futses to mein hause, and dere dey
bees. Ven dose hams was de selfts-
same hams den desc futses fit yoost de
same us ever before vas.
Here was business. There was ex-
element for you. Triumph or ruin
for poor Stuben in the air. His fate
is lushing upon him, with stayless
footsteps. The test of his guilt or in
nocence, beyond cavil or gain-saying
is before us as if furnished by magic
genii, and within one brief minute is
to be applied. Should these bones fail
to match, Peter Stuben' s fate is sealed,
as surely as that of Lucifer. Dun
geon walls, the brand of thief, the So
cial ban for all time, are his. Should
they dove-tail together, he arises a
free man, free of bonds, and free of
suspicion as the Angel Gabriel. Home
instead of prison CRATES shall receive
him; and "f~au and kinder and
friends shall cheer and make happy
his future days.
My first impulse was to postpone the
test, till | could ascertain if there was
any chance that the legs had been tam
pered with. Instinctively | desired to
do something to avert what | feared
was about to prove overwhelming
disaster TO my client.
But the crowd presses in on all sides
in Juror of excitement. The jury
are all on their Jeet and clustering at
! the table, where the witness is already
manipulating the several members,
and applying them to the amputed
| ends of the larcenous bacon. Before
| can myself reach the table, a shout
goes up from those closest to it, which
is joined in by the nearest bystanders,
and then taken up as by contagion by
the entire assembled mass, TIL the hall
| fairly shakes with the uproarlous yo-
ciferation. The legs fitted, bone to
! bone, muscle to muscle, marrow to
marrow. My client, from suspicion
clouded prisoner at the bar, was, as
by the Presto, change' of enchant-
ment, transformed into an honest, re-
spected, prosecuted citizen, neighbor
and friend.
But, "Silence in court" is com
manded. The form of acouittal must
be observed. The verdict of. the jury
must be recorded, upon which alone Il
discharge of the prisoner can be an
nounced, as a proper benedlctlon to
close this exciting ordeal.
Any appeal to the jurors in behalf of
the accused seemed now superfluous
but all parties evidently expected that
| should make one. and would be dis
appointed if | failed to do so. 1t
would never do to have lefty lyar ="
and no speech.
What | said after | was on my feet,
/ never since could recall to memory,
except here and there fragmentary
sentences. 1t was no argument, or
summing up of testimony, but rather
! chant of victory, interpreted with
anathemas upon Stuben's enemies who
had sought by their perjury to accom-
plish his ruin. 1t must, 50 far as !
can recall it, have been an incoherent
rhapsody, ending with kind of Dutch
apotheosis in which my honest and
abused client figured as a representa-
tive Of the Teutonic race. 1t was my
maiden effort at public harangue; but
no embarrassment or hesitation mar
red my delivery as they have done
at times since when ! have made full
preparation Of what / was to say. 1t
was an illustration of the magnetic eff
feet OF an audience massed together,