The Home advocate. (Farmerville, La.) 1885-1???, 1885-07-24
AcUuittal of Yseult Dudley.

Public opinion long ago tried and
acquitted Lucille Yseult Dudley,
but not on the ground taken by the
jury-that of insanity. Imagine a
fair-faced, eatly-dressed, we'll
formed young woman, with the
bloom of health on her cheeks and
candid fearlesnes in her clear gray
eyes-a woman who for beauty has
actually been compared with Mrs.
Langtry-standing up with firm
ness and perfect self-possession in
courtroom crowded with noted
people, aud Swallowed by malig-
nant dynamiters, and addressing
the jury in her own behalf. l wish
you to acquit me on the ground tina:
my act was entirely justitiable, She
says, or to convict me. You have
heard the testimony given as to
my insanity. 1t is not for me to de-
termine, it appears, as to my san,
ity: but if l had shot O'Donovan
Rosa for pecuniary gain Drs. Mac
donald and Hardy would not have
pronounced me insane. They do
not enter into my motives at all.
When 1 heard of the dynamite ex-
blossoms in London l was excited,
as every honest Englishman and
woman should have been. / held
O'Donovan Rosa, Patrick Ford
and Prof Mezeroff responsible, for
l had read about them in the pa
pers. 1 felt a desire to see Rosa.
l went to see him. He told me
that the blowing up of men, women
and children was perfectly right;
that the cause of Ireland was be-
fore everything, and that lie would
blow up the House Of Parliament
a. the next opening. determined
that lie should not do this. l be-
lieve now that he was deliberately
lying, but l didn't belieye it then.
If it was wrong to shoot him, it was
wrong for Americans to hang Rugg
for Rugg was a drawer man than
Rosa. He was brave enough to
face the people he killed, but this
cur, Rosa, sheltered himself be-
hind the American flag and collec-
ted funds to send abroad for the
purchase Of dynamite. lie told me
this and considered myself JUST.
fed in doing what did, If l am
homicidally insane is it not strange
that 1 have never attempted to kill
any one besides Rosa? For nine
years l have carried a loaded re-
volver. Ibegan to carry one when
was only sixteen. Al that time
in my part of the country there was
a great scare about mad dogs ana
every woman and girl carried a
pistol. When / first met Rosa /
had my revolver and could have
used it, but 1 wished to actjudici-
ally. I gave him as fair a trial as
a prisoner ever had in the courts Of
New York. He convicted himself
out of his own mouth, and I decid-
ed that he must be shot. If that
was insane, every man who ever
stood up and bled for his country
is insane. Rosa vas Il murderer,
but had not the courage to strike
openly aud risk the consequences.
He was a blood thirsty..imposter,
sending paid tools to do what he
had not the courage to do himself.
l would have killed him if he had
not begged so piteously for his life.
When no fell and looked up at me
imploringly like wounded brute,
had not the heart to 60 further.
I was only q woman, after all, and
one of q race that never strikes a
man when he is down. I emptied
my revolver because l did not want
it loaded in the gathering crowd,
having decided that it was not
worth while to kill the yelping cur
on the ground. 1t occurred to me
Just then that if 1 killed him, Irish.
men the world over would say !:
''See how an Irishman can die for
his country! Behold Jeremiah
ODonovan Rosa, the martyr ~
r., ,,r;oov I hovo hoon ovoruh dim o.3