The silver blade. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1895-1903, 1895-11-02
IT CLOSED TIE ARGUMENT
The Prisoner Alone Unmoved by the
Terrible Excorintion Of the
Prosecutor.

San Francisco, Oct. 3O.-District At
torney Barnes appeared today as the
central figure in the last scene Of the
trial Of Theodore Durrant While the
spectators in the crowded courtroom
craned their necks to catch every word
OF the speaker. he delivered what is
considered in many respects one of
the strongest arguments ever made to
California jury.
Aside from being logical and convinc-
ing in his discussion of the testimony
he made two or three dramatic by
plays that put to severe test the iron
nerves Of the prisoner. While looking
intently at the frame bearing Miss La
InOnt's dress which stood near the jury
box and telling how through the long
days Of the trial he had seen a young
school girl clothed in all her Innocence
and purity. Barnes reached the climax
of the scene. Turning upon Durrant,
who was seated only three feet away,
the district attorney, with clenched
fists and voice of thunder, exclaimed:
IT see her now. There she stands be-
hind him at this very moment, not
praying for vengeance for her deep and
remediless wrongs, not for the laws
retributiOn upon her murderer, but
with uplifted hands and streaming eyes
praying that God will not put it into
our hearts by the mockery Of verdict
OF not guilty to set free this monster
to prey upon other souls. pollute with
vile hands the unsunned snow Of other
children and defy anew that God of
justice whose ministers you are"
Durrant was the least affected person
In the court room. While Mrs. Noble,
the dead girls aunt, wept silently, and
everybody else was thrilled with the
impressiveness Of the scene, Durrant
was stolid and Indifferent.
AS the district attorneys last words
were uttered the prisoner whispered
something in the ear Of his mother.
who sat near him, and smiled as if
pleased with his remark.
Barnes began his argument by dwell
ing upon the personalities of Miss La
mont and Durrant and outlining the
grounds upon which the state bases it's
contention that no one but Durrant
could be the murderer. He spoke in
part as follows:
A POWERFUL ADDRESS.
1.-THE individual who perpetrated the
hideous murder with which the defen-
dant stands charged and which has
narrowed the soul and frozen the blood
of this community is no ordinary GRIM
1nal and his crime in every aspect in
which it may be considered is without
parallel. 1t was in every sense cold
blOOded, vicious murder. Tt was with
out the slightest provocation or appa-
rent palliation. The assassin chose for
his victim an innocent maiden. She was
undeveloped in mind, pure in life and
thought, of simple and unsuspecting
nature and presenting in body none of
the qualities which are supposed 10
arouse the passions of the seducer and
libertine. For the scene of his dreadful
assault the murderer selected church
dedicated to the worship of God. He
took the life of his victim, not with the
savage mercy Of the quick pistol or the
silent knife, but tortured her with the
lingering process of strangulation. He
hid the remains where he thought they
would remain undiscovered and have
no promise of Christian burial None
saw the crime save God, whom he fear
ed not, as he extended the naked and
slender form upon the belfry floor,
laid the thin arms across the undevel-
oped bosom, propped the head and
Strengthened the body in the dust. Not
a human being had beheld his retreat
from the awful presence of death which
was his work. and the secret was safely
locked in his own bosom. The MUIR
derer went his guilty way with his un-
divulged crime. unscathed and un-
whipped by Justice, while the victim