Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1882-10-21
TIE MISSING WITNESS

said to myself, as l laid down my
brief after reading it over for the
third or fourth time, and leaned
back in my chair to reconsider it for
about the twentieth time. GA bad
case, and | am sorry for it,
| was barrister, young both in
years and in professional standing,
and this was the first brief of any
Importance 1 had ever held. My
client was an italian sailor named
Luigi Bernini, and the crime of
which he was accused was robbery /;
the plumber being the lifelong saw
ings Of woman upwards of eighty
years of age, which the poor creature
kept hidden in the thatch of her lit
tie cabin.
The witnesses were the old woman
herself, who had been stunned by a
severe blow from the perpetrator of
the theft, and a neighbor who de-
posed to having met the prisoner in
the immediate vicinity of the cabin.
When Bernini was arrested some
days later, curious foreign coin,
identified as a part of the stolen
hoard. was found in his pocket.
This, however, he accounted for, by
saying that he had picked it up on
the road. The weak point in the
chain of evidence was a scarcely per-
ceptible hesitation on the part of one
of the witnesses. She had at first
declared positively that the prisoner
was the man whom she had seen 60
ing towards old Joan's cabin, and
had afterwards adhered to this state
ment, with what afterwards appear
ed to be logged obstinacy, rather
than real conviction,
The prisoner himself positively de-
MED having been in the neighbor-
hood at all on the day of the robbery,
but unfortunately he could not speak
with certaintya as to his whereabouts.
He had been lately dismissed from
the hospital, scarcely convalescent,
after bad fever his own ship had
left the port, and he had been reject
ed by the captains to whom he had
offered his services, as not being
sufficiently robust for a sailors work.
He had little money left, and
therefore took to wandering aimless-
ly about the country, intending, as
soon as the Columbia returned, to
ship aboard her again. His mind
had been weakened and confused by
his illness, and although he knew
that for several days preceding and
following that of the robbery, he had
been in p part of the country fully
twenty miles different, he could not
possibly say where he had been, or to
whom he had spoken on the day in
question. Many inquiries had been
made, and many persons interview
ed who remembered ''the poor for
eign chap" but no accurate informa-
ton as to dates was forthcoming.
AS the testimony of a person who
had extended her hospitality to him
''either of a Tuesday or a Thursday,
she couldn't rightly say which,
would not, unfortunately, carry
much weight in a court Of justice, [
had to trust for a defence to the
cross-eXaminati0n of the witnesses, |
whose character, for yeracity I hoped,
by iudiciOus management of the
usual forensic weapons, to compel |
them to annihilate with their own
lips. | much regretted this want of |
evidence, as l was strongly prepos-
sessed in favor Of the prisoner; |
something frank and honest in his |
face making it difficult for me to be- |
lieve him guilty of the cowardly |
crime Of which he was accused. Be-
sides, it was, as | have said, my first !
important case, and self-interest and
professional instinct alike prompte :
me to desire its successful is .no
But of this had little hope,
1 laid aside my brief al orotb
and went W to the DRAWN ! room
where | was greeted by az nonsin
and hostess with some g',at net.,-
liant reproof for having gngar(d :,
long over those musty f,w nanors
Alice and had be -. o,,i1,o,, -
gether-a big girl a 80 it'll hov1
we had grown fro1 -. esI,o.u-;