The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-14
u am al your service. sir

I am al your service. sir
The black cap was drawn down over
his eyes. the signal given. and he danEled
In the air corpse. The law was salts
fed. but there were tears Of sympathy for
that brave man In the eyes Of many who
witnessed his death.
i mentioned the hanging OF one inno-
cent man as having been witnessed by me.
he was poor. shiftless. nc'er-dO-well
named Lee, who was hanged at Wauke-
gan, Ill. In 1855. for the supposed murder
OF an old widow named Ruth Brfden. for
whom he worked on her farm. That he
was lazy, worthless. abjectly poor. and
liable to get drunk when kind fortune gave
him chance, was all true. but no act Of
violence was ever known TO have been per-
petrated by him. and though much effort
was expended upon trying to make him
out petty thief. even that was not proved.
He hadn't energy enough TO kill anybody.
even II he could have got as much as SO
which would have been fortune TO him
by IL. And he hadn't any temper. There
was absolutely no object for him to kill
the old woman. no discoverable good eN-
cuse for supposing he might have done Il,
beyond the fact that he was near enough
somewhere about the farm at the time
when she was supposed 10 have been
killed, and could have killed her
If so minded The circumstan-
tial evidence on his trial-and there was
no other-amounted 20 that and nothing
more. But the sense of the community was
that somebody ought to be hanged for a
murder. and he could be spared better
than anybody else at hand. / studied the
evidence in the case very closely and could
not see any other basis for the verdict Of
guilty recorded against him. And l said
as much TO the deputy sheriff the night
before the execution. at the same time
pointing out a man who would have de-
rived benefit from the old woman's DEATH
a man of means who was particularly
jealous in pressing for the poor vagabond's
conviction.
" OF course I said, its no concern of
mine. but that is the man who killed Ruth
Briden. and Lee did not
The deputy was very much amused and
laughed heartily at me. The next morning
they led the prisoner up stairs from his
cell to the court room, where In the wide
doorway dangled the moose that was 10
take his life. Bright sunshine flooded the
little hall where truth had been twisted to
a lie and justice had thrown away her
scales. Through the open windows foated
the songs of birds and the laughter of
children from the trees and grass OF the
court house square. The poor wretch stand
ing in the door with the fatal cord about
his neck. looked his last upon the light
listened TO the sweet sounds, and sighed.
Then there was moisture dimming his eyes,
but no apparent fear, as he looked toward
heaven and said simply, in a clear, steady
voice:
" I call God to witness my innocence of
the crime for which I am about to die"
1.-The sheriff gave a signal and in few
minutes the vagabond's heart had ceased
to beat. Six months later, in Chicago,
met the deputy sheriff to whom 1 had
avowed my belief in the mans innocence.
He was a big hearty, manly looking fell
low, with frank, open countenance. TAX
ing my hand, he said abruptly, as II
must, of course be thinking OF what was
uppermost in his mind and understand in
tuitively what he referred to:
""What you said raised doubts in my
mind, and the more l thought of 1t the
more it troubled me. and at last ] set to
work TO find out the truth I've spent more
than 81 100 out of my own pocket on It In
detectives and travel and so on. And I'm
convinced you were right Though l can't
prove 1t on him. l know who killed Ruth
Briden and why he did II. As for poor Lee
well. God help US; we hanged an innocent
man that day."