The Lamar register., 1893-10-07

to do any harm. was JUS a great
big foolish boy and i got tired of
waitin' and thought I'd shoot for fun.
and mebbe that would fetch him."
l looked at the man. and he was as
one in agony. His face was drawn,
and pallor was there which added to
the prison tan and made it ghastly.
His voice, puerile from the disuse of
twenty years, had sunk into hoar.o
whisper. He was staring at the great
stone wall in front of him with dull,
vacant eyes. He seemed oblivious to
everything and kept repeating. 81
didn't mean any harm. only thought
I'd shoot for fun, and mebbe that
would fetch him"
/ have looked into murderers' faces
on the verge of eternity while the
death warrant was being read. in
order that might tell the public next
morning whether the lip quivered or
the eye grew dim, but as / gazed at
this picture of weakness and misery
on the wheelbarrow in front of me, it
made me sick. The victim of an act
done in the name of 'fun"-and this
was funl
The man presently came to himself
and went on:
"As l shot, Jase come into the door,
and when the smoke cleared away l
saw him lyin' just outside in the snow,
face downward. | member picxin'
/ him up and carryin' him inside, and
then startin' out to Pauldin' for help.
| After that / don't remember nothin'
until found l was lyin' down on the
] ground and crowd of men standin'
round me. l heerd one of 'em say:
| He must have tripped up on that dry
grapevine and hit his head on the root
! of the tree 1t pears as If Washburn
4 and Scott must have had a racket
| over that gal, most lilSely-and Wash
burn killed Scott l found out af-
terward that huntin' party had
| stopped ut the ca bin and found Jase
\ lyin' on the floor dead, with my bullet
/ through his heart. They looked for
me and finally saw my tracks in the
snow and followed them. They found
me couple of miles away in the
woods, lyin' ut the foot of tree
where ] fell
| Some believed my story and some
didn't. Them as didn't b'lieve it said
'twarn't likely if what l said was true
that l would "a tried to run away. All
| know is l meant to set out for Pauld-
in. but it pears as If I'd gone wrong
some way.
The jedge. as he said, wanted to
low me fightin' chance and give me
the privilege of enterin' plea of man
slaughter. / said it was all along of
my bullheadedness that l am here
now, and SO it was. My lawyer wanted
me to plead guilty to the charge the
ledge offered me. / asked him what il
meant He said it meant that l killed
Jase in n racket, and then give me a
long lingo about malice aforethought,
or something like that, but l didn't
understand it. / only knew they
wanted me to say / murdered Jase in
racket i warn't going to say i
done thing when l didn't l flared
up and wouldn't listen to nobody.
couldn't see things right Well, the
trial didn't take long. Everythin'went
crossways for me. l told my story
and pleaded guilty to nothin' except
didn't mean anything. just shot to
scare him. / didn't care much what
they done with me for that The
other side showed how Jase had been
found dead in the cabin, how l was
found lyin' in the snow miles from
Pauldin' as If l hadn't been goin' for
help. Then they got witnesses who
swore as how Jase and me were
Jealous bout Mandy, how I'd asked
her to go to gatherin' with me and
she'd gone with Jase- 1t warn't so,
knowed it, but it wouldn't do no good
| for me to say 1t warn L NANCY anu
me understood one another, though
there warn't much betwixt us then.
s'pose she might have told what she
knowcd about it on the stand, but
wasn't going to have her mixed up in
the thing. lowed they couldn't con
vict me because what l said was true.
THE jury fetched in verdict OF
murder in the second degree. and ac-
cordin' to law that meant for life.
They carried Mandy out of the
courtroom. Seems as though she
thought it was her fault some way or
mother. Mandy's been trying to get
me out ever since. She said If it hadn't
been for her they couldn't "a shown
no motive and couldn't "a sent me for
life. | don't see what good that would
"a done when they was all a'gin me. y
made q note of Mandy. She was
good material from n reportoria
standpoint When | went out l asked
the warden who Mandy was 'Sc
you've been talkin' with Washburn,
have you?" said he. ''Well, Mandy is
his girl Thev say she has been com
ing down here from Paulding once
every year with petitions and sigma
lures to place before the board OF
pardons. Yesterday Washburn's SEN
tence was commu:ed, which, by the
way, Won will find by looking on the
press book" 4 picture of n faded lit
tie woman who had asked me the
year before in the capitol if l would
please tell her what time the pardon
board met, rose in my mind. said to