Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-06-26
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ENDING OF 1T ALL.

THE ENDING OF IT ALL.
Our varied tale may be brought to q
fitting close with much brevity.
Both Gilbert Marlowe and Lawyer
Croak were speedily brought to trial on
the crimes charged to their account
The incidents of the trials were more
than usually dramatic, and they occas-
ioned great public sensation, but on
their conviction, which resulted on all
the counts of their indictment, no SYM
pathy whatever was manifested in their
behalf; nor did they deserve that it should
be otherwise.
They were each sentenced to twenty
years imprisonment at hard labor. Gill
bert Marlowe survived the passing Of his
sentence but one year, at the end of
which time he perished in his prison
cell by his own hand, dying very much as
he had lived-a -blooded, irrepent-
ant. and absolutely selfish man.
Croak was still serving out his sentence
when last heard from, at which time he
had not more than half completed it. Il
may be hoped, but hardly expected with
great confidence, that his i'm mprisonment
will work real reform in his nature, and
that he will issue from it, if at all, bet
ter and more useful man. Such thorough
~ guilt-toughened natures as his are but
seldom truly chastened by even the most
exemplary punishment; or, if any change
is effected at all, it is apt to be in the d.
rection of increased duplicity, cunning
and innate depravity, in manner to rem
der them SO much the more dangerous to
honest society at large.
Wormer and his confederates, whose
trial and conviction preceded those of
the greater criminals alluded to, and
were hurried through with much less
ceremony and interest, resulted in SEN
tences in accordance with the crimes
brought home to them, and they may
we'll be dismissed as unworthy Of an
other thought.
/ Miss Winford, who still continued to
bear this name, had been very pains
taking and saving of the fair wages that
had been paid her for the long service
which she had chiefly devoted to sys-
tematized espionage upon her master, SO
that she found herself enabled to retire
to neighboring village upon small but
sufficient income. She had perhaps been
originally well-meaning woman, and
her personal wrongs had not been incon-
siderable; but the personiication Of
coldly pursued, long-hoarded and i'm
plaChDlo revenge can never Do portrayed
attractiyely, especially in the feminine
form, and she has therefore, even while
playing a useful part, not appeared t6
particular advantage in our story.
Accompanying her in her retirement,
and with future equally assured,
through the remunerative acknowledge
ments Of Jasper Marlowe, went one
whose characterization, though not con-
spicuous, HIS been perhaps even more
unenviable. No degree Of resentment,
no matter how justifiable (and even ade-
quate provocation was not clearly estab-
lished in this instance), can palliate the
heinous. the detestable guilt Of child
stealing by one person as means of re-
taliating upon another; unless there can
be urged in extenuation, as charity will
impel us to do in the case of Mrs. Beane,
. the morbid workings of a diseased or
disordered intelligence. She like Miss
Winford, continued to retain her fictitious
name, and at last accounts they were liv-s
ing together In one cottage, peaceful and
\ inoffensiye lives. ,.