The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-03-01

Persol S familiar with the early
history OF this country are well
aware of the potent influence Of elo-
quence on the uncuitivated masses
and how the fervent oratory of Pat
rick Henry and Clay, and Webster
and Corwin. and Crittenden, and
Tom Marshall, and tnose old-time
men of the primitive bar of human
pleading.
An episode of a similar nature oc-
Cured out in the early days of Cali
forming mining, of which the writer
was spectator. The circumstan-
ces were as follows:
! Aminer had been caught stealing
gold dust. That kind of business
couldn't be permitted in the mines (;
forcible examples had to be made
Of all such offenders. Murder regu-
lated itself there was a rough code
of honor recognized and based upon
! public sentiment. If the man who
killed another had justifiable proyo-
cation, he went unmolested but if
be had killed his man without suffi-
cient cause, he probably paid the
penalty with his own life the first
tilnea relative or friend of the mur-
dered man got the drop on him.
The only other public offence was
theft /; that was SO contemptibly
mean and so vitality effected the in
terests OF the miners and their sense
of safety, that they rarely ever failed
to string the offender, even after
rough courts were established and
trial by jury granted.
On this special occasion bag OF
gold dust had been taken from un-
der miners bunk by one of his
working companions, and he had
been captured with it on his way to
San Francisco and brought back for
quick and effective trial.
Have you any counsel z" asked
the judge.
NO, l amt get no friends, nor
anybody to talk for me; so you
might as well cut the chinnin' short
and pull me up"
'If you will allow me to act rs
counsel for the prisoner, I'll say a
few words for him. remarked a
tall, ungainly miner, who was a
stranger at that peculiar "diggins.'
"All right, there's the jury. Bring
up your client and let him plead to
the charge"
The prisoner stood up and admit
ted the theft. and at the request of
the stranger stated the circumstan-
ces which had tempted him to take
the dust. He had just gotten a let
ter from his wife in the States, In
which she wrote that her mother and
one Of his children had died and
she begged him if he loved her to
come home, even if he had TO bor-
row the money of some Of his
friends, and she would help him to
work and pay it back. He also sta
ted that as he had been unable to
borrow the money, he had taken the
dust with the intention of paying it
back when he returned home.
The letters were produced in
court to substantiatc the truth of
his statement, and it evidently
weakened some of the jury, but
there were stern, unmoved men in
! the crowd, all belted round with
knives and pistols, who knew that
any letting up on theft would render
gold dust unsafe besides they
spoke up right and left, saying that
they got just such letters from home
as well that the same kind Of sor-
row in their own domestic life came
up every day or week to some of
them, and the very mutual condi-
ton of deprivation and tell should
establish code of honesty above
everything else. OF course, said
they, the fellow can have his coun-
sci to chin for him but we must
graft him to a hub all the same.
1t happened, however, that this
tall, ungainly old miner who had
undertaken the defense, was an old
Methodist campmceting revival
preacher, and, although he began
very quietly, and cautiously tread
ing on the dangerous ground OF
talking in the prisoners defence,
the first Judge, jury and spectators
knew, he had got warmed up to his
old work, and, although he had the
sing-song style of delivery of those
old revivalists, his words rang out
with all the thrilling eloquenee of
Clay and the fervid devotional ora
tory of a Wesley or a Bascom. One
by one the human icieies began to
melt around him one by one be-
gan to turn back to their early lives,
TO their old homes, their fathers,
mothers, brothers and sisters, the
old church and Sunday school, and
all such tender influences. Many a
oneof them was carried by that pecu-
liar voice and style to his old camp
meeting days. 1t was no longer
a mining camp It was no longer q
court room, no longer a trial twas
a camp-meeting, and the old preach
er was leading them by still waters;
he was reaching down and lifting
them up out of the mire and clay );
and when he closed and solemnly
said, Let US pray for the soul of
the man whom we that are innocent
are going to slay," there was not
a dry eye in the court room, the
writer's included, And that prayerl
who can repeat or describe its Ter
vent words for the soul going to its
Maker, for the wife and little chill
dren waiting in their distant home
with love and hopes and tremulous
expectation for him who would
never return, listening to every
footstep, responding to every sound?
Never before or since has been
such trial and such defence in
the mines of California. The Judge
jury and audience rose to a man
and cleared the prisoner.-They did
more they made up purse and
sent the poor fellow home TO his