The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1893-09-20

started Jut, lonvin' Jase to- follow. I
walked out a lit,l. ways and then
looked around to see If .Jnsc was com
in. He ,arn't, and | waited and hol-
lered until | got all out of sorts with
him. A crazy ilea struck me, and
JUS thought I'd shoot toward the cab
in for fun and mebbe that would fetch
him. God knows didn't want to do any
harm. l wus JUS great big foolish
boy and ! got tired of waitin' and |
thought I'll shoot for fun, and mebbc
that would fetch him."
looked ut the man and he was ~
one in agony. His face was drawn,
and n pallor was there which added to
the prison tan and made it ghnstly.
His voice, puerile from the disuse of
twenty years, had sunk into honrsc
whisper. He was staring at the great
stone wall in front of him with dull,
vacant eyes. He seemed obiyious to
everything and kept repeating, "I
didn't mean any harm. | only thought
I'd shoot for fun, and mebbc that
would fetch him"
have looked into murderers' fnccs
on the verge of eternity while the
death warrant was being read, in or
der that might tell the public next
morning whether the lip quivercd or
the eye grew dim, butas | gazcd upon
this picture of weakness and misery
on the wheelbnrrow in front of me il
made me sick. The victim of nm act
done in "fun"- and this was fun
The man presently came to himself
and went on:
GAS ] shot, Jnse came into the door,
and, when the smoke cleared away, i
saw him lyin' just outside in the snow,
face downward / member pickin'
him mp and cnrryin' him inside, and
then startin' out to Pauldin' for help.
After that don't remember nothin'
until found I wns lyn on the ground
and crowd of men ss!ndin' round
me. ! heard one of 'em sny: He
must have tripped up on that grape
vine and hit his head on the root of
the tree. II pears as il Washburn
and Scott must have had racket
over that girl most likely--and Wash
burn killed Scott found out after
ward that II huntin party had stopped
ut the cabin and found Jnsc 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' Mt the foot of tree where | fell.
",iome believed my story and some
didn't. Them as didn't b'lieve it said
'twarn't likely ii what | said was true
'h"' "pulh tIlti W run uNuN.
All | know il meant to set ont for
Pauldin, 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
manslaughtcr. / said il was all along
of my bullheadedness that / am here
now, and so it was. My lawyer want
ed me to plead guilty of the charge
the Jedge offered me. / asked him
what il meant. He said it meant that
/ killed Jase in racket, and then give
me long lingo about malice a'ore-
thought, or something like that, but
/ didn't understand it. | only knew
they wanted me to say l murdered
Jasc in racket. / warn't goin' to
say l done thing when l didn't. /
ilared up aud wouldn't listen to no.
body.
81 couldn't see things right. Well,
the trial didn't take long. Everything
went crossways for me. / told my
story and pleaded guilty to nothin'
except that l 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 was found lying in the snow
miles from Pauldin', ns if / hadn't
been going for help, Then they got
witnesses who swore as how Jnsc
and me were jealous bout Mandy.
how I'd asked her to go to n gathering
with me, and she'd gone with Jase.
'It wnrn't SO, / knowed it, but it
wouldn't do no good for me to say it
warnt. Mandy and me understood
ono Al