The Portland daily press., 1895-08-08
CASE AGAINST LEWIS.


crowbar away from the door, and go IN
behind the horses. Lewis said Coburn
could not be in there with the barn door
fastened with the crowbar; yet Lewis
we'll knew that, Notwithstanding that,
Coburn could be in the barn, for he well
knew that he could enter through the big
barn door and go to the tieup that way
instead of through the toolHroom.
This statement of Lewis, as well as his
previous conduct, shows that he
WAS 10TH TO ENTER THAT TIEUP.
1t was the instructive aversion which
every murderer, after his blood has
cooled, has to face for the first time and
alone the body of his victim; but not
withstanding his objection Mrs. Kimball
told him to go back and look.
Remember that he had been told that
Coburn had gone to the barn; that he had
been told the occasion of his going the
noise of the horse backing out; that he
knew Coburn's physical infrmity; that
this was the second time he had been sent
to look for Mr.. Coburn; and that he was
told specifically where to look, Sin be-
hind the horses -
| Where, under these circumstances,
would any man have gone who was
actually trying to find Mr.. Coburnt
Lewis went to the small barn door which
opened into the tool room, and by which,
passing through the tool room, you enter
the tieup, took away the crowbar, opened
the door, found the lantern which he had
been informed Mr.. Cohurn took with
him to the barn, and never crossed the
threshold of the barn.
| 1t was bright moonlight evening.
The wind was in the west, SO that he
could have entered the tool room and lit
the lantern, had he desired, but again he
returned to the house and informed Mrs.
Kimball that he did not know where
Coburn was, but. here was the lantern. -
Lewis knew that he had not been set
twice to the bar for the sole purpose OF
finding that lantern.
| He set the lanterns on the tubs and lii
it, and Mrs. Kimball took it and herself
went to the barn to find Mr.. Coburn. and
went directly and instantly to the spot
where his body was lying. Lewis was
obliged to screw his courage to the point
of following behind her for anything else
thai. that would have been an absolute
confession of guilt on his part.
| After reviewing the conduct of Lewis
and his statements and theories of how
the death occurred to Mrs Kimball while
| in the tieup
HIS ANXIETY
that nothing, should be touched until the
coroner came, the Attorney General con
tinued.
| Then Mrs. Kimball sends him to the
Lowell house for help, and he wake d
right out at his usual gait, his usual
walk, and Lewis himself, does not claim
that he went any different. Was his
walking the act of an innocent man go
ing to the nearest neighbors to break to
them the startling news that the head oi
the household had met with sudden death
| by accident; or was it the act of guilty
man taking time to brace himself once
more for the trying ordeal through which
he was passing.
When he came into the door of Lowell S
kitchen, he stopped a second and then
walked over tossthe sink and took drink
oflwater, and then declined chair which
was offered to him, and then Abner
| Lowell began the conversation and asked
| him why he went home, and he said,
''your lamp had gone out and I felt
sleepy" and then, and not till then.
made the startling announcement that
Coburn was dead. Was this the conduct
of
A MAN RUSHING TO A NEIGHBOR'S
to break it upon them with intelligence
such as that? Any knowledge of human
| nature, and the rules of action which
govern conduct of mankind, negatives
such an idea, and stamps this as the con-
duct of a man who was carefully and
deliberately weighing the bearing of what
he should say. He was too cool and too
quiet to be natural if he was innocent.
There are occasions when such GOODNESS
and deliberation are even more unnatural
and suspicious than the most intense ex
citement.
| And then he wanted them all to come
down as witnesses. If he had no sus-
picion that crime had been committed
why should this idea of witnesses, and of
an investigation, be constantly recurring
to his mind? And in answer to an in
quiry he suggests that he thinks a horse
has kicked Coburn, the third fallacious
theory which he has started in almost as
many minutes.
| Attorney General Powers then went
over Lewis's story of how be searched
around the barn and the orchard for
Coburn when sent out by Mrs. Kimball.
He said his whole search as detailed by
himself, as man sent to find Coburn,
whom he had been informed had gone in.
to the barn, is the most striking illustra.
tion on record of chow not to do it. +"
The thing which stands out most
prominently in the respondents account
of his pretended search for Coburn is the
fact that when he went to the north side
of the barn and looked around there and
| then looked up through the orchard and