The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-03

from Miss Ashley. He turned around,
aourshing the weapon in his hand and
faced Crittenden, who doubtless, in his
excitement, thought that Unruh in
tended to assault him. He quickly
threw his right hand TO his hip and partly
drew pistol from his pocket, shouting,
drop that gum"
This new stage in the course of affairs
! awoke the spectators to the fact that two
excited and angry men were confronting
| each other with weapons in their hands.
Highton and Lloyd soon approached
the two, and Clerk James McElroy sprang
between them and, disarming Unruh,
ordered Crittenden not to draw his pistol.
In the meantime Emma Ashley had run
around to the southern part of the room
pursued by Baldwin, angry and excited.
| While they were struggling together
Judge Slack stepped down from behind
his desk and separated them, and the
quiet and dignity of the court came back
again.
Mr.. Crittenden," said the Judge, "have
you a pistol?'
Yes, sir, y answered the lawyer.
Deliver 1t up at once, SIR ordered the
court.
weapons soon lay side by side in the clerks
drawer.
"Mr. Crittenden," said bis Honor
sternly, "you must show cause before this
court why you should not be punished for
contempt. Why do you come here
| armedp
81 live across the bay, your Honor. and
carry a pistol simply for protection. 1
have always done so. would not have
| attempted to draw it had not Mr.. Unruh
made hostile demonstration toward me
with the other gun. He was pointing it
| directly at me, otherwise | should not
| have gone for my own weapon. If | am
| Mt 7 hot NJ I'm =
be treated the same, as his action caused
me to act as did"
livery well. 1 will order you both to
appear before me tomorrow morning at
IL O'Clock"
The court then asked if there were any
more revolvers in the room, and all present
denied that they were armed.
Quiet having settled down upon the
! court the trial was about to proceed, when
Lillian Ashley, who had remained in an
almost fainting condition through all the
tumult seated IN the witness-chair, sud-
denly began to cry.
20, | can't go on" she said, wringing
her hands in pitiful manner; az am all
unstrung. Ny baby is sick unto death at
home and this is the last straw. don t
know what to do-what to do, nor what to
say. What have I done that all this
should come upon me? 1t seems that
haven't had enough to contend with ali
these terrible days, and now this must
come! o, my sister, my babyl | can't
go on now-I can't"
And, utterly broken down, the woman
sobbed in her wretchedness.
81 think we are ali too excited and too
nervous for further proceedings to-day, u
said Judge Slack. 81 will hear the con-
tie mpt proceedings tomorrow morning
and will resume the trial of this case next
Monday morning at IL o'clock"
As Miss Emma Ash ley was being taken
down to the City Prison she acted like a
person demented. She stared up at the
ceiling and sang Nearer, Ny God, to
Thee" and fragments of other hymns. She
wanted to kneel down and pray, and said
she had asked God to direct her, and it
was not his will that her sisters seducer
should die now. One of her sisters attor-
neys walked with her, and she asked him
his name, failing to recognize him.
She stood calmly in the police station.
where she was formally charged with as
| sault to commit murder. In the ma
irons room she walked up and down the
| little apartment, wringing her hands and
| crying.
20, did it, 1 did it. 1 shot him because
he has ruined my poor sister, and ruined
all OF US. l sat in the courtroom and heard
his witnesses from the East accuse her of
| gross immortality. And that dear little
baby, Baldwin's own child, that looks Just
like him, is at home dying, [ think, for
| wan Va plOpcI care, uleuiClDe ana IOOG. L
sat till morning after court adjourned last
night and nursed that poor suffering child,
and this morning l did not take bite of
| nourishment, but came down to the trial.
81 asked God on my knees this morning
If | should do it, and prayed if it were not
right to make me fail. guess it was not
right. But l am trusting in him even in
| this dark hour. / have never done any,
thing wrong in my life. came from nv
| school over two years ago at the call of
Lillian, who was in trouble. | would have
graduated but this came, and my happy
school days were over Nobody knows
| what anguish L have suffered, what hard
ships and poverty have put up with since
/ l came to California.
And neither have I suffered alone. for
! poor Lillian and baby have suffered, too.
! Last THANKSGIVING We sat down to din
! ner OF thin soup and crackers, and while
sitting there over that poor meal we read
in scrap of a newspaper how e. ]. Bald
win entertained party richly. That was
our dessert God only knows now this will
end, but He is our only trust
Then she clasped her hands together.
and, looking upward, began to pray
! In the small Bible which she carried in
her hands during the trial, and which she
must have been reading just before she
| fired the shot at Baldwin, was a mark at