Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-14
THE LAWS REVENGE.
He Was There to Die, and He Made No
 Protest.

LAW Q nCNCNSCs He Was There to Die, and He Made No
 Protest.
 Arrested, fined, convicted and sentenced to be hung for murder-that is, the law called it murder. The prisoner had thought it all over many times, and he couldn't see how it was murder. He had taken up an estray mule. The owner came along and refused to pay the trifling sum demanded for expenses. There had to be fight, of course, and when mountaineers fight they mean to kill each other. He killed the owner of the mule. What was there wrong about that? Didn't he receive five knife wounds in the mans efforts to kill himS Wasn't it kill or be killed?
 And why should they arrest him and confine him in jail? He had no idea of go- ing away. Why should he goY And why must he have a lawyer and a jury and n trial lasting four days when he could have told the judge all about it in five minutes? He summed up the whole case in his quaint, ignorant way when he rose up in reply to the formal query and said
 "Why, jedge, l reckon they want to hang me, but doggone my hide if kin see what I've done to deserve it."
 He received the sentence with puzzled look on his face. Why put off it's execu tion two months? It seemed foolish to wait beyond day to hang man who had been sentenced to die on the gallows He knew every man on the jury, and he couldn't figure it out why they were all down on him. There were men there who'd slept in his cabin, eaten at his ta- ble and hunted over the mountains with him, and the idea that they should bring in verdict of guilty astounded him. It nifyhh 1nir oo they would be done by. The jailer thought to console him, but was waved aside with the exclamation:
 Don't, George! My head is so full of this fussin around that I can't stand any more of itl Jest think of it! They called it murder and ar gwine to hang me fur itr'
 Twenty-four hours later he was imper- turba able-stoical-as cool and calm as a man sitting by his own fireside. It had become clear to him that he was to die It wasn't that he deserved it, and he could scarcely recall an incident of the trial, but he had to die, and that ended the mat ter with him.
 He differed from an Indian only in the color of his skin. One day his wife was admitted to see him. She had said to one of her neighbors:
 
 fur that killini"
 "Yes, reck on he'll jest hang"
 'Shoo! Pears like right smart of fussin over nuthin. Tom had ter do it. 7" 'Reckon he did
 "Reckon I orter go down and see he un?'
 "Yes, reckon yo' had"
 "Then will"
 And one day. after a walk of l2 miles over the mountain roads, she arrived at the jail and quietly rcmarked:
 "You uns has got my Tom locked up yere."
 "Yes."
 And he un is to be hung purity soon?" "Yes"
 "Shool How trif1in. Reckon I'd better step in and see he un fur a bit"
 They brought him out of his cell into the corridor He advanced and sat down beside the woman as if at their own door step, and she glanced all around her be- fore saying:
 ''Heap better place than our ole cabin, Tom?''
 'Yes, heaps better, and good eatin How's the crops git on?"
 ''Mighty pore, Tom. Reckon that co n never will be knee high, and them taters is all dried up in the ground
 "Reckon yoll git along somehow arter all.'
 "Bound to, Tom-bound to. Doan' you un worry bout me tall. What they uns gwine to hang yo' fur?"
 Eur that killin, yo' know.'
 "Shoo! Yo' had ter do it"
 ''Of co'se."
 ''That yere Sam Andrews was jest a-slicin of yo' to dawgmeat."
  ''Cut yo' mighty bad afore yo did fur him."
 1T showed lem the cuts.'
 But they uns ar gwine to hang yo' un jest the same, eh?'
 "Jest the same. "
 "How trifiin, Waal, Tom, what yo' un gwine to do bout it all?''
 "Jest hang, I reckon"
 "Hain't gwine ter raise no fussi'
 "How kin I?'
 They sat side by side, staring at the cell door across the corridor, for three or four minutes without another word. Then she said:
 "Yor brother Jim will kill Bill An drews, in co'se?'
 'In co'se," he replied.
 "And I'll shute if I kin find the chance. " ''Fur shoo. Reckon yo'd best cl'ar lem all out, wimin and all"
 s'Yes, reckon I had. Gwine ter talk when they uns hangs yo', Tom?"
 "Reckon not. never did like talkin. v "Reckon I'd best cum down that day?" "Do as yo' mind, but reckon folks might talk.
 "Yes, reckon they would. Reckon I'd best stay home. Gwine ter say any mo- to me, Tom''
 "Skassly. Doggone mean to hang me fur that killin!'
 ''So 'tis, but they uns is determined. l reckon. Mebbe I'll cum down next week -=fnebbe not"
 s'Jest as yo' mind. Gwine home now'' sYes, gwine right back. Goodby. Tom. y s'Goodby, Linda"
 Not a tear-not kiss--not hand shake. It was their way. It was born ln the flesh. She did not come again. When he was taken out to suffer death before g crowd of 5000 people, he did not look about as if hoping to see her face once again. She seemed to have gone out of his memory. He did not even take fare we'll glance at earth and sky. He just died==that was all. He was there to die, and he died: It might as well have been a log of wood at the end of the rope.
 M. QUAD.