Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1890-01-31
TIfE T1TEN7J-NINTH or FEB
RUARY

| his chair as the secretary went to the door
and admitted an old man who had been pa
trolling the corridor impatiently.
The governor will see you now, Mr.
Baxter, said the secretary,
The old man, tall, thin, and impetuous,
strobe past the secretary without word of
thanks, and came straight TO where the
governor was sitting.
AT last ~ he cried-'at last I've got a
chance to talk to you face to face. If you
only knew how have longed for this, you
would have let me in before
Take seat, Mr.. Baxter, said the gov
ernor, kindly.
Thank you, but I'd rather stand, " re-
piled the old man. I'm fact, I'd rather
walk. don't seem to be able to sit nor to
stand when get a-talkin' about the boy.
| You know why | wanted to see you, / sup
pose = he inquired, suddenly fixing the
governor with penetrating stare
You wish to urge your sons pardon, |
take it, the governor answered "and
am ready to listen to you have all the
papers here, and he indicated a bundle of
documents at his elbow. Il have just been
reading them
But the men who wrote those papers
didn't know my boy as l know him. and
they cant tell you about him as | can tell
| you. He's in jail, and he's been there near
! ly three years, and he's twenty four years
old today-for todays his birthday-but
/ he's only boy for all that. He isn't man
| yet, to be judged a man, and TO take a
mans punishment. | can't tell you that he
didn't shoot the fellow, for he did but he
| did it in his anger, and he was sorely
| tempted and what's more, he did it in self
| defence. Oh, know that wasn't brought
out on the trial, but just you read this,
and he tore open his coat and pulled out a
package of papers selecting one of them
he thrust it into the governors hands.
That's from the man who sold Bowles a
| pistol and knife on the 2Sth of February,
the day before the fight Then you read
this, too, aud he picked out a second letter
and gave that to the governor with the
same impatient and imperious gesture
"That's from one of Bowes's friends, the
fellow who was with him Just before the
shot was fired. He kept quiet at the trial
and said as little as he could. He knew |
was sick abed, and so he held his peace.
| But I've been at him ever since | got about
again, and now I've pinned him down.
And there's the result the truth must pre-
vail in the end always. There, in that let
ter he says that Bowles had that pistol on
his person on the morning of the 29th and 1
that if it wasn't found on the body, it was
because Bowles dropped it as he fell. The
pistol was picked up that night under a
plank in the sidewalk. 1t was this same
friend of Bowless who found it then, and
he said nothing-the cur Even at the
trial he said nothing But knew he had
something to say, and at last | made him
speak. He's telling the truth now and the
whole truth Read the letter and see if it
isn't. He hated my boy, and he said he
wanted to see him swing but made him
write that letter And if that isn't enough
I'll put him on the stand, and I'll make him
swear to every word of it
The governor adjusted his glasses, and
began to read the letters thus forcihly
placed in his hands.
In his eagerness to be heard the old man
could not brook even this delay, and as the
governor laid down the first letter, he broke
forth again: 'Today's his birthday, the
first he's had since the shooting, the first
that he's ever spent away from me. He
was born on the 2gth of February, and he
has a birthday only once in four years and
it was Just four years ago today that he got
into this scrape, and fired the shot that
caused us all this trouble. He was twenty
years old that morning, for he was born in
1864; that was the year when General
Grant was getting ready to smash jeff
Davis and the rebels that's why we called
him Grant-out of gratitude for the saw
ing of the country Sometimes l think
it's pity he hadn't been born twenty years
before so that he could have died at Cold
Harbor like a man, without ever having
seen the inside of a jail But it was to be,
l suppose. Our lives are laid out for us,
suppose Maybe a boy born on the 29th of
| February is different from other boys; l
don't know He was loved more than
| I hot /
was raised on Cape Cod, and my father
never gave me a caress though | guess he
| loved me, too, in his way. But | moved
out to Lake Erie when | was married, and
out by the edge of the lake we waited, my
wife and |, for a man child to be born to
us. And we waited a score of years and
more; aud when Grant came at last, he
was our only child Both his sisters had
| died in their cradles. So he was the son of
our old age Maybe we spoiled him. Sure
| ly we spared the rod. Why, we loved him
too much ever to say hard word 10 him.
In the main he was good boy, too-wild
at times and skittish-but always loving
and easily led. His mother had only to
| look, and he'd jump TO serve her. So we
| let him do as he pleased and most general
| ly he pleased us. Perhaps | gave him too
much rope I've often thought so, now /
see how near he came TO hanging himself
But he was a good boy and devoted to his
mother always. And she loved him-oh
how she loved him more than she loved
her husband, l know, fond as she was Of
me-"
Here the old man paused in his vehement
| speech, and turned away abruptly.
'Is Mrs. Baxter with you here in the
city :" the governor asked, gently.
Herein the city :" cried the old man,
facing about sharply. shes at home-in
the cemetery That's where she is. She
dropped as soon as ever he was arrested,
but she bore up till the trial was over, hop
ing that he might get off somehow, not be-
lieving that her boy could be found guilty.
But when he was sent off TO Auburn to
serve fifteen years for manslaughter, why,
then there wasn't anything left for her to
live for any longer, with all the joy of her
life locked up in a stone cell So she took
to her bed, and she died She faded away
she had lost her interest in life, and so she
gave up. Now the boys all have, and l
want you TO give him back TO me. That's
what I've come down here for. That's
what I've been pursuing you for these six
months. The boy is all have. | want to
see him back at the old home on the lake
before ! die-and | can't live much longer,
guess Pm seventy now, and for all
| look hale and hearty, there's something Jhe
matter with my heart, the doctors say, and
may 90 out any time, like candle in
gale of wind Well, give me back the boy
and Pm ready TO die. Let me see him at
home once more, free man, aud III carry
the good news to the old woman whenever
the call comes, and gladly"
He paused for a moment and his impas-
stoned speech had lost little of its fierce
fire.
The governor took mp the second letter
and began to read il. The movement of
the governors hand as he raised the paper
aroused the old man again.
"If the district attorney had done his
duty by the people Of the state it wouldn't
have been left for me 10 wiring the truth
out of that coward whose letter you are
reading. Sometimes l half think this cur
was at the bottom Of the whole thing. 1t
was he who introduced Grant to the wom-
an You know that the wedding was to
have taken place that very night-the night
of the shooting Yes, it all came out on
the trial Grant only had one birthday in
four years as I've been telling you, and so
he persuaded the girl 10 set il as the we'd
ding day, too And he was Just twenty-a
mere boy. IL was no wonder they took