The Bessemer indicator., 1893-07-22
JOE ANDREWS TRIAL.

When the judge had given his
charge TO the jury it seemed inevita-
BILE that Joe Andrews should provide
entertainment for the hangman. APP
parently in the minds of Judge, jury,
council and spectators the barbarous
rope was us good as placed about his
neck. A life had been taken through
violence and everything in the way
of discriminating evidence pointed in
dubitably to Andrews as the criminal.
He was u young fellow with wife
and child and of fair enough repute.
save that at intervals an apparently
inherited weakness for strong drink
overcame him. In the course of one
OF these lamentable ruptures of the
young mans self-rcspcct and attacks
upon the peace and forbearaucc OF
Twinyille u stranger had appeared in
town, ana. the saloon being obviously
his common place of entertainment,
he had fallen in with Andrews, evil
IDENTIFY very much to the strangers
pleasure ard profit,
Their conyivialr elationship, inter
spersed with hours of gambling, had
continued through several days, at
the end of which time tho stranger
had disappeared, and Andrews, his
spree being over, awokc from his
squalid, pleasurable dream to find
himself penniless. He then swore in
the presence of more than one wit
ness that, should he ever find oppor-
tunity. he would certainly take the
life of the man who had wrongcd
him.
Before week had passed the man
of friendly cups and nimble fingers
rode into Twinville again, stopped
over night at the hotel, and the next
morning took the road to Darcey, a
town ten miles to the southwark. He
was iashily dressed person, hand
some but hard-featured. and past
middle-life. The name he left on the
hotel register was Thomas Brad
laugh. The same day on which he
left Twinvillc for Darcy he was
found dead in the road midway be-
tween the two towns, with numerous
savage cuts upon his person and the
fatal knife still buried in his heart
The weapon, Il short dirk, was the
well-lnown property of Joe Andrews,
and sworn witnesses testified that
the unfortunate young fellow had
been seen hunting in that vicinity
upon the day of the tragedy; even
Andrews himself confessed as much.
but night and day protested his inno-
cence.
Surely Lawyer Latin, prosecuting
attorney for the state, had never con
Quoted an easier case. For ten years
Latin, ostensibly bachelor, had
been a citizen of Twinvillc; in every
day life a quiet, cold, Indifferent sort
of II man. in court Il keen and eloquent
advocate. When he stood before the
jury in the present case, pale and
seemingly profoundly moved by the
gravity of the verdict he must urge,
he had pronounced one of the most
remarkable pleas ever heard at the
Twinville bar. After long pause
in which he seemed hesitating as to
his course, and in which the room
grew hushed, his lips suddenly
opened, and he cried out like peal
ing trumpet. ''Whosoever sheds the
blood of man by man shall his
blood be she'd Gentlemen, disobey
Gods command if you dare!" and
then sat down.
Two hours afterward the jury
brought in a verdict of murder in
the first degree.
Andrews was crushed; he seemed
to sink in upon himself like falling
ruin. When commanded to stand
up and receive sentence, he had to be |
held upon his feet; his young wife in
voluntarily rose with him, and stood
staring at the judge like one in a
fascinating. horrible dream. The
baby babbled and tugged at her
skirts, unconscious of the awful doom |
to be pronounced upon his father, and |
indirectly upon its own innocent
head. A death-like silence fell |
upon the room; the world seemed |
wrapped in it, all save the little
child cooling by its mother, and a big |
fly buzzing and mumbling against u
window pane. The judge moved un-
easily in his chair and looked at the |
little family whose happiness his
next words must forever destroy. |
His lips began to move with the fatal
sentence. when suddenly Latlin, the
prosecuting attorney, arose and
stepped out before the judges desk.
His face was strangely pale, but he !
spoke in his dry quiet tones.
"If the court will indulge me
he said, 81 would like to
speak Il few words before final
sentence is passed upon tho pris-
oner." The judge bowed acquiescingly
and settled back in his chair, with
Il look of relief.
'If your honor will bear with me-"
said Laflin, al will relate an incident
which camc under my personal
observation illustrative OF tine
of appearances, or such
evidence as has its base in circum-
stances, as in this CASE The Judge
looked his astonishment at proceed
ing so unusual, but bowed again.
something more than fifteen years
ago." Latlin continued, 1.-THE matter
had its beginning; its final denoue-
ment is of recent date. | was in
acquainted with tho parties
and the circumstances. There was
a young mani will call him Brown
who had but recently graduated from
a college and law school in the East,
and who came West and settled in
town in Iowa He had inherited a
few thousand dollars from his par
ents, with which he bought a farm
near the town. for he was man who
liked room and out door life when
not confined to his office by business.
He brought n young wife with him
from the East, u girl not yet out of
her teens, whom he had known and ,
passionatcly loved from childhood.
What this beautiful girl was to the
YOUNG husband can neYnr be known