The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1880-08-13

Bless you, madam, he don't do muffin
for me now. | had him goin' on nine
years. but he done lef' me now. has
muffin but de chillun, an nubbudy
wants dem desc days" And there was
actually in her tones an apparent regl ct
that boys and girls had ceased to be val
uable rs chattels.
oned all hope that Miliy might be able
TO contribute to her mothers necessi-
ties. l even inscribed her name on INV
own mental tablets as an object
parted from her with feelings of depres.
sion all the more lively because her own
inherited cheerfnlness had not sue.
cumbed to the pressure of adverse cir
cumstances. She was apparently on
good terms with fate, and disposed 10
make the best of things.
On Isaiah, however, l looked with
sterner eyes. There seemed to be n ma
tural repulsion between himself and
steady work. Odds and ends of work
he would occasionally find 10 do; but he
never secured a months or even a
weeks employment. He came and went
OF my house on errands for his mother,
always exasperatingiy self-satisfied and
good-natured. Perhaps a little whole
some discomfort or discomfort would
have spurred him TO exertion. en-
ployed him to cut the grass in our gar
den, and he really did it well, with such
self-complacency, too, that one felt that
grass-cutting was perhaps his congenial
sphere. However, work must come to
isaiah he would never 90 to look it up.
lie also did little odds and ends of gar
dening for me on this same occasion.
conversing politely meanwhile. AS, for
instance, in making the hay.
In de country dey calls dis var win
nowin'. / worked at harvestin' onst in
Prince Georges. Harvestin' is good fur
de nerves II elder increase 'em or de-
crease 'em. Mine decreased-no, / mean
ter say dey increased"
your" ''-'
"Oh. yes it did. 1t suited me fust
rate. DE nerves increased. 1 was as
hearty as buck"
:" You look strong and well now"
state. This occurs to me as a good
opening for my favorite text. Isaiah,
| wish you could contrive to do more
for your old mother"
Il does try, miss" he declares; 81
does my best" tossing the grass pic
turesquely. Il tries hard"
Lucy had given me to understand that
Isaiah was the rakish and rowing men,
ber of her family, addicted TO singing
about the streets Mt night, never going
to church. l referred to these facts in
his personal history. Isaiah did not
deny them. But he made promises of
amendment. l, for my part, presented
him with an old coat, on the under
standing that he was only to wear it to
church. He had pleaded his deficient
toilet an aynnaa for hia poOlaok of
religious observances.
Not longer than week after that our
town was startled by n murder COM
mitted on the street at night, the victim,
an overbearing, quarrelsome youth of
the white race, who yet elected in his
death the sympathies of the whole COM
munity, so unprovoked and dastardly
was the way Of his end. His murderers
were traced Immediately, and identi-
fed beyond reasonable doubt. Alas,
one of those arrested on suspicion was
the same Isaiah-I Isaiah Carroll-of
whom have written above!
went to see Aunt Lucy directly, and
found her plunged in grief. But she
was confident of her boys innocence.
She bewailed the way of life which had
had caused him to be identified with the
class Of men by whom the murder had
doubtless been committed. II always
tell him so," she kept repeating. II
tell him his company wud be de ruin OBJ
him. 1t war de singin', MISS" she re-
iterated. II allus knowed no good
wud come OBJ it."
followed the evidence carefully. The
feeling OF the public was dead against
the suspected murderers from the start.
/, who had my misgivings as to Isaiah.
of Loo aot ulaA chat ha Il
charity of the law gave the wretched
prisontEs the chance TO defend them
selves. was glad to know also that
Isaiah would have an able counselor;
bnt all that / could hear or read was
against him.
The line of defense chosen by all the
prisoners was to prove for themselves
an alibi. Observe that no one had seen
the murder committed. The fact that
the three men accused of the crime had
been traced from point to point through
the neighborhOod, and on the night OF
the murder, furnished the original
grounds OF arrest. Isaiah, it was shown
by the prosecution, had always been
hand in glove with the two other
prisoners, Smith and Quinby. 1t struck
me, on reading the evidence, tina 1t i'm
plicated the others far more conclu-
sively than Isaiah. But it was shown
that he had been standing about the
street corners on the morning of the MUIR
der with the two others accused; and
1t was also shown that for the last six
months they had been an inseparable
trio. Isaiah had. beyond dispute, been
a companion of thieves-if not worse.
In spite of all which l believed he
could clear himself. Poor old Aunt
Lucy did not see him through the trial.
She could only mourn for him and pray
for him. Poor old Lucy!
The day when l had ascertained that
Isaiah would be questioned, / myself,
against all my previous habits. went
down to the courthouse. 1t was quite
a pitiiul sight when Isaiah, confronted
by badgering lawyer, infinitely moro
anxious 10 win his case than that the
right should prevail, was placed on the
stand. He was attired in his best
clothes, and he stood nervously twirl-
ing his hat in his hand, as / had seen
him do on the occasion of our last meet
ing, when / had bethought me to advise
him rs to his moral and spilitu states.
lie mad evidently been coached by his
lawyer, and he was prepared to go
through the examination as to his
on the day of the murder
with circumstantial precision. He ac-
his lesson thoroughly. His
honest air and heavy. we'll Gaming ex-
preston were all in his favor. My
spirits revived. He appeared to me TO
have told a plain, unvarnished tale
did not recognize any of the
or places he mentioned; he did
not bring in those relatives of his with
whom was acquainted-Milly, Lucy
but there was an air OF heavy, dull
verisimilitude over his whole narration.
Then the cross-examinatiOn began.
Isaiah had accounted for himself on
every hour of the day Of the tragedy up
to ten O'Clock at night, the murder hav-
ing been at seven. He stood his ground
quite we'll at first, when he was called
on to repeat his statement, but on the
redirect examination he suddenly broke
down. can remember having been in
such state of mind myself, when
everything around me has all at once
become blank. Isaiah looked around
him helplessly. 1t suddenly came over
him that he had been betrayed by his
own care1essness In giving an accounS
TO his lawyer OF the day before the
murderi He had been coached on that.
His dull, dependent intellect refused to
think and plan for itself on the spur Of