St. Paul daily globe., 1889-02-11

they came across Charles Cherline
standing at the corner. Lee went
straight up to him and shot him in the
head, piercing his brain with the bullet;
! then he and Moe started off as fast as
some long grass in field, where they
remained all night. Here they were
| found by the marshal in the morning
and securely locked up. Indignation
in the village of Brandon and neighbor-
| ing town of Alexandria was at fever
heat; threats of lynching were heard on
| all sides, and there is little doubt that if
! the popu.ace had laid their hands on the
n,er- -" expense of trial by jury
would have Devn, "a ~aved.
THE TRIAL CANE OFF
before Judge Searle last U6ssooaer.
| County Attorney ii. JeIl.s....,s appeared
for the state, and G. c. Houpt, OF Fer
| gus Falls, was appointed by the court
| to defend the prisoners. The indlct-
| ment against the men was sweeping,
charging Lee with premeditated muir
! der and Moe with melting and aiding
in the crime. The men were willing to
be tried together for the OtfenSe. and
| number of witnesses were called who
| testified to the facts narrated above.
| men were drunk, and that there was no
| premeditation or concerted action. The
| jury, however, found them both gullty
| and Judge Searle pronounced the first
death sentence that ever fell 10 his lot.
/ Since that time the men have been III
confinement in the county Jail at Alex
andria, awaiting the issuance OF the
death warrant, which was received last
week.
Sheriff A. W. De Frate has them
under his care, beng assisted by two
death-watcheS. one of whom is with the
men necessarily. The sheriff is the
first Democrat ever elected to a county
Office in Douglas county, and this Will
be his initiation into the fine art OF eX-
ecutiou. Miss Cherline, sister of the
murdered man, is reported at the point
of death, the tragedy of her brothers
loss, combined with the feeling that it
was Oh her account that he met his
death, having completely prostrated
her, so much so that her friends are
from day to day expecting her to join
her brother.
GIRLS SING HYMNS.
A GLOBE reporter went to the Doug
las county jail to interview the con-
demned men. He was asked by Deputy
Sheriff Lundberg to wait few minutes
until clergyman got through with
hem. This mans voice was distinctly
audible all over the jail, either in
prayer or eXhortation, which continued
for some time in loud monotone. Sud
denly this ceased and the walls of the
substantial stone building fairly quiy-
cred while he sang a ahymn in deep roar
ing profundo voice, which could have
been heard two blocks away. No sooner
had the minister concluded his minis
trationS than a large crowd of girls,
evidently just released from school,
came in and were shown down to the
condemned cell. Their voices rang out
sweet and clear in few simple hymns,
evidently selected at random from
Moody and Sankey's collection. When
the ministering angels had gone, the re-
porter was admitted. The basement of
the Jail is half below and half above
the ground. Window, protected by
heavy iron bars, light it on three sides.
In the center Of the room are four steel
cells, with doors of steel lattice-work.
Each contains cot with wire mattress
on which the prisoners sleep. There
are a dozen wooden chairs round the
corridor which surrounds the quartet
of cells. The prisoners have access
TO this corridor during certain
hours, and it would require more than
ordinary ingenuity to effect an escape,
as the walls are of grey granite, several
feet thick. Leaving the Office of the
Jail an iron door opens on flight OF
stairs, at the foot of which is door Of
steel lattice work. This admits the vis
itor into cage in which there is barely
room for two men. These three doors
were all carefully locked on the outside
as the reporter, in company with the
Il 81, Ahrnr iph hnp
The men were walking up and down
the corridor. but advanced with smile
to shake hands. Moe, however, dropped
his eyes as if ashamed. 1t was difficult
work to induce either of them 10 speak,
as they seemed to know that anything
said by them would be published. No
reply was elected by the question, ''1S
there anything you would like to say to
the Dubic?" Both men sat with their
chairs tilted back against the wall. pick
ing their finger nails and looking
| morOse. A question as to whether they
were satisfied with the verdict had to
be translated into Swedish for Noes
benefit. After brief consultation in
they thought the verdict was all right
on the face of the evidence, but they
were not at all satisfied with the eVi-
dence.
THE DOOMED MEN TALK.
"What particular point in the evil
dence do you object to?''
THAT about premeditation," an
sWered Lee.
"Then the murder was not premedi-
tated?"
"No!" from both of them.
Had you had any trouble with Cher
line before?"
'.None that remember" replied Lee.
"You we're drunk at the time, were
you not?"
"Yes," replied Moe, in his broken
| English, 'We had been on spree for
! nearly week, drinking beer, whisky,
| alcohol"
"Straight alcohol"
"Well," replied he, with smile, tive
did mix water with it. We started out
on Saturday night and kept it up, going
| round from saloon to saloon all day
Sunday. On Sunday evening we We're
| going home but met -, who said he
| had a keg of beer up at the house and
| wanted us to 60 and help him finish it.
We finished it: drank it all up and got
full. We kept that up all the time till
| the day he was shot"
1t would be impossible, and were it
not So it would be unkind to reproduce
the exact language used. it was earn
est and emphatic, rendered more so by
the efforts of the poor fellow to make
| himself thoroughly Ineligible.
"Then what about the evidence given
to the effect that you were threatening
| all day to kill somebody's asked the re-
| porter.
''We may have done so," answered
| Lee, ''but if we did ] remember nothing
| about it. | don't say we didn't; but If
| we did | dom" remember. We were