The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1883-03-23


cane TO me and turned around TO 90
out. ! let The cane stand right behind
the door The cane was produced aud
Mr. Jennings identified it.
THE WOUND DESCRIBED.
Dr. ]. b. Ewing was sworn.-I saw
Capt. Mutt living after he was shot. He
was lying on bed in back room in
the Jennings House, up stairs. He liv.
ed probably fifteen or twenty minutes.
He was bleeding very profusely, was
unconscious and had all the appearance
OF man who had received fatal
wound. The ball entered back of and
a little below the under angle of the
left eye, passing through the eyeball
through the orbit iuto the brain, rather
upward backward and little to the
right A pistol shot caused his death.
The immediate cause was hemorrhage
from the nose and mouth His right
arm was moving about and his hand
was grasping various objects about him.
The muscles of his face were moving;
the respiratory muscles were moving
very vigorously. There was bruise
on his cheek and confusion on the
right side at the top of his head | oh.
served also the marks of four finger
nails at the top of the head and wound
on the lip. His left eye was somewhat
confused, having the appearance of
having been struck. l would say it was
rather sudden blow that caused the
wound on the top of the head.
COUNSEL PLEADS.
G. 4. Boyle, Esq, was counsel for
Dukes and took the plea of selfde-
Tense. He talked very forcibly for
two hours and fifteen minutes
Hon. w. II. Playford gave very
able and eloquent address for the
prosecution for about one hour and
three quarters.
THE CHARGE.
About 3 p. m. Hon Judge Wilson
began his charge to the jury. His
Honor occupied little over an hour,
and his charge was universally pro-
nounced fair.
Shortly after four o'clock the jurors
retired to the jury room, and the vast
crowd filed out of the Court House to
speculate as to what would be the ver-
dict.
THE VERDICT.
About 8 o'clock in the evening the
verdict of "not guilty" was returned to
Court, and Mr.. Dukes was again a
free man.
When the jury rendered the verdict,
few friends of Dukes tried to raise |
an applause, but il was defeated by |
the Kisses of the crowd, who deemed it |
the greatest burlesqe ever played.
INDIGNATION MEETING.
On Wednesday evening an indigna-
tion meeting was held, and in ten min
utes the large hall was packed, floor,
gallery and aisles, and many unable to
gain admission. Rev. N. p. Kerr,
spoke for his profession in the follow
ing words:
"Well may parents tremble for their
daughters, he said, when twelve men
can be found who are so base, so lost
to all sense of manhood, decency and
honor as to render, directly contrary to
all the evidence, the verdict which &C
quilted Lyman Dukes of the murder
of Captain Mutt and of the response
bility for the terrible blot which he
had attempted to put upon the fair
name of his family. May the names
of the jurors go down to posterity as
the black list of Fayette county, to he
remembered only with shame and in
eXpressible disgust, to be remembered
throughout the State as those who had
committed the monumental act of in
fanny; and as for Nicholas Lyman
Dukes, continued the preacher, raising
his voice in impreca,ion until the cell
ing rang, may he go forth to learn as
Cain did what it is to bear upon his
brow the brand of murderer May
he learn that there is punishment
which no bribery can avail, and no
treachery turn aside. Let him go forth
to learn that when he shall stand in the
presence of purity and innocence his =
conscience shall sting him and accuse
him of the lowest forms of licenscious-
ness and debauchery. Let him learn
that the curse of Cain is upon him
whithersoeyer his footsteps may go.
Let HIM learn that the hand that penn
ed such letters as he wrote to Captain
Mutt is the hand of cowardly assassin.
Let him learn that, all in all, he is a
man who would shame the most abau-
doned inhabitant Of the internal re.
gions.
A committee was appointed who re-
ported set of resolutions, among which ,,
are the following:
WHEREAS, A great public calamity
has befallen us. An esteemed citizen
has fallen by the hand of the base ira
ducer of the honor of his family, and
with shame and humiliation be it said
a jury has been found in Fayette county
so grossly disqualified for the proper
discharge of their high trust as to make
exemption from punishment premium
upon crime
RESOLVED, That the acquittal of n.
J.. Dukes, the murderer of Captain A.
c. Mutt, by Fayette county jury is a
to the intelligence and decency
of our people and destroys public con
tidence in the intelligence and purity of I
the decisions of the jury-box.
ACTION OF THE LEGISLATURE. :
Dukes was elected member of the &
last fall, but on account of $
his difficulty with Capt, Mutt, he did {
not appear on the lst of December to
be sworn in office. On Monday the s
matter of claiming his seat in the legis s
lature was brought up for consideration
and referred to Subcommittee of
five members of the house judiciary 6
The committee decided on S
Tuesday to ''recommend the expulsion Z
of Nicholas l., Dukes, without hear
ing, on the grounds thaC 7S days of the
session have passed and he has not !
offered to take OATH" The committee t
should have had the courage to recon- I
mend his expulsion, on the ground I
that he was an unmiligated scoundrel I
and unfit to associate with honest c