Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-10-18

steps were covered with new IalIen snow
but could see no track or find any
trace of her. She was lost to me for
ever. Now thoroughly sobered by my
agony for L loved, yes, worshipped my
beautiful wife, l Immediately made
every effort to recover her. A police
man remembered that woman thinly
clad, passed him on his beat, wringing
her hands and crying; that man also
passed, overlook her, and after few
words took off his cloak, threw it over
her and they passed on out of sight.
"That was ten years ago; offered
rewards for any information that would
lead to her recovery, but all in vain
Conscience stricken aud almost heart
broken, | sought forgetfulness in foreign
travel. visited Baden-Baden, where,
reckless and careless of everything, l
lost nearly all my fortune in gambling
and dissipation. A few months ago l
returned to this country. On the night
of the burglary l was induced by some
of my dissipated companions to visit
one of these hells of infamy that poison
the atmosphere of your city We enter
ed room where there were number of
persons of both sexes, and there, On the
lap of a drunken ruffian, sat my wife,
while he with his polluted hand was
toying with the ringlets of her hair, and
[ saw him press his drunken lips to
that cheek that once had not permitted
the summer wind to kiss too rudely.
Yes, there was my wife the proprietress
of that temple of sin, the owner and
chief attraction. For moment | look
ed at the ruin had wrought, then fled
to the street and the nearest rum-shop,
and remember nothing more till was
in the hands of the officers, accused of a
crime of whose commission | was entire
ly ignorant. Do you think it is in the
power of your laws to increase the pun
ishment of a conscience guilty as mine
or to increase the fires of hell that burn
in my bosom No, let it come. Let
me hide myself in prison from the sight
of my fellow men. and, if die, let them
throw my body to the dogs in the street.
| deserve all, and far more than your
laws can infict."
| left him in frenzy of remorse and
mental agony such as | never wish to
see again. The trial came on. My
client was brought into court, and when
arraigned and asked the usual question,
if he was guilty, refused to answer,
standing mute" in the technical Ian
guage of the law. The court ordered a
plea of not guilty to be entered for him
and the trial to proceed.
No direct evidence was produced
against him, and the only thing proven
that implicated him was his presence
in the room with the burglars and their
booty, and that cloak thrown over him
in his drunken sleep was identified by
the man whose house had been robbed.
| made every effort to save him |
could, but in vain. | scanned the in
dictment closely, and, although an old
common-law pleader would have found
in it abundant reasons to "quash" or to
"move the court in arrest of judgment, .
our loose jointed code ignored all the
time-honored rules of criminal plead
ings, and it was sufficient.
The conduct of the defendant in re-
fusing to plead when arraigned and the
surrounding circumstances were deem
ed conclusive proof by the jury, and
they soon returned with a verdict OF
guilty.
He heard the verdict with the stoi-
cism and Indifference which despair
alone can give, and at the close of the
torn he, with other prisoners, was
brought into court for sentence. When
asked by the judge if he had anything
to say why the sentence should not be
pronounced upon him, he calmly rose
and said:
Il have few words to say to your
honor; not to ask for mercy, not il
hopes of any mitigation of my sentence
for although | am innocent of the crime
of which | am convicted, deserve al
the punishment the law prescribes, anG
infinitely more. This man by my side
who has been convicted of killing fel
low being, is not so guilty as am, ant
if justice is meted out here as 1t shoulC
be, you will take years from his punish
ment and add them to mine. No sen
tence this court can pronounce will b
undeserved by me,-no penalty the LAY
can inhict can add anything to what
now suffer. You have convicted me {
robbing man of his property. Oh
most menial offense.-What is that az
t cusation to one who has brought ute
and irretrievabIe ruin on the being h
, most loved on earth. who by his ac
has robbed human soul of its purit
and innocence, and Heaven of one of i
= angels ?"
: He dropped into his chair, and wit
his head bowed on his hands, SCENE