The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-12-29
,ta,rs. fiat hc often took such walks;

lalI mile west OIL Ufe IQlli, anu tiltI Guss
man wore coat but no vest, and that
after passing him the man hailed him
and wished to buy his vest. and that,
as it was an odd one, he sold it to him,
naming the amount and denominations
of the money paid him, and giving a
minute description of the man; that he
| was in his room at the time John Earl
ing claimed to have visited it; that he
was exceedingly difficult to arouse
when sound asleep, and that he re-
membered hearing some one calling
him as in dream. Nothing could
shake him from this statement, nor was
| any motive for the crime apparent in
the evidence, nor did it appear that the
murdered girl and the prisoner were
in any manner connected prior to the
dark event; that evidence was safe in
John Earnings pocket.
Then, too, scores of Openstoners tes-
tilted to the utterly blameless life he
had lived among them. but at the end
John Earring wished the prisoner re-
called, and when the still man took the
| witness-chair he sat down with dis
tended nostrils and blazing eyes before
him. For a long time he sat there
gazing on the prisoners averted eyes,
and the restless audience grew hushed
and breathless. Still he remained mo-
tionIess, gazing, silent. The audience
thrilled, and at last the black eyes tiut-
tered wildly up and remained gazing
into John Earnings. When they lad
grown steady the young man said,
with slow, deep distinctness:
"Did you ever commit a murder pre-
vious to this onep"
In an instant the prisoner started up
with his thin fingers clasping the chair
and the blood surging into his face;
the counsel for the defense objected,
the judge ruled the question out, and
John Earling said, quietly:
went, weak and trembling, to his seat
But he recovered himself as the az
guments went forward, and he heard
the pleading in his defense, his merits
extolled. his praises borne aloft on beds
of fowery clauses, and all the beaute-
Gus, glittering, perplexing tangle OF
entreaty, doubt, subterfuge, logic,
warning, hope, imprecation and
prayer, that was woven between his
life and the twelve men who were to
Judge it.
But at the last, on the third day of the
speeches in the afternoon, John Earling
walked out before the jury. Oh! for
words that were blazing fire, to scar
up and dissipate the rosy, plausible,
impalpable clouds of doubt with which
the powerful opposing council had en-
veloped them! The great audience
leaned forward breathless and expect
ant he looked so young, so
white, so vivid, so intense with
passion. In a deep vibrating
voice that thrilled throughout the room
he began, and without touching the
evidence, brought the murder at once
before them. All the horror, agony,
fear, pain and terror OF the deed shone
in his voice and face and hands and
eyes. Atom by atom he illuminated it,
moment by moment unfolded it, stroke
by stroke, cash by cash, drop by drop.
breath by breath, cry by cry, until the
dead girl he had loved splashed in the
! dark water from the murderer's reek-
ing hands and Redeemed it with her
sweet young blood. Then lifting him
self as if upon the very wings of pas
sion, he shrieked: ..1here sits the man
whose leperous heart conceived this
SPECIFICS deed! There tremble the
hands over which her sweet blood ran!
There throbs the brain about which
even now are wrapped the flames OF
hell's unimaginable remorse. Let him
have justice"
The audience thrilled, and the prisoner
swayed forward with his face in his
hands and shook as with an ague. Still
the terrible cleaning sentences ran on,
crowding, thickening, flashing, like a
train of bursting stars. The speaker
seemed lifted well-nigh out OF the NOR
tai by his feelings. He pictured before
them the crimes effect.with all its myr-
lad moments of sorrow and singing
pangs. down to the last bitter root.
He held up before them in flaming I'M
agery the crimes incentive, the loath-
some, venomous appetite OF this oily,
noiseless craven, who, to appease his
burning burnings, iiend-like defaced
and ruined one of Gods most beauti-
full creations. Then turning his white
face up to Heaven, he cried in an &C.
stacy of passion:
He may escape now, but God will
blast him from among men! Ven
geance will find him out, for he de-
bauched and murdered Innocence!
Wrath shall take him to its Kissing
bosom! Hate shall encompass him!
Rage shall entwine him! Remorse
shall press upon him! Truth shall for
sake him! Peace shallnever know him!
JOY shall forever leave him! Tears
and gall and shame shall be his por-
ton. till time, and death, and fury,
shall dash and dissipate his foul, pol
luting ashes from the bosom of abhor-
ring Nature, for he murdered Inno-
cence! he murdered Innocence!''
The prisoner, with his fingers grasped
about his neck, and with the Hood
vessels standing out like cords upon his
temples, swung lower and lower under
the pitiless lash OF language. He cow
cred and writhed as if stormy of fire
were beating over him, and when John
Earring drew in his breath to plunge
anew into terrible invective, the weak,
remorse-tormented man sprang gasp
ing up with his eyes starting out, his
face livid, his arms stretched out with
fingers working, and stumbling for
ward shrieked: ..Mercy! mercy!
mercy" and fell crashing among the
chairs at John Earrings feet.
For a moment John Earring, with
his hands stretched up, scintillated
above the PROSTATE man, then rising
to his utmost height he shrilled in a
piercing voice: