Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-03-30
His Last Day
in Court.

time. Ii would be pleasant 10 lhlnh
that he realized on this particular
morning 1 would be anxiously and ner-
youslv waiting, waiting, waiting TOT
his coming. as though he were mes
senger Of great joy, and that he came
the sooner. therefore, TO get me out
from behind these bars and into the
court room, where an occasional va
grant ray of sunshine comes creepulS,
Nobody has told me that the jury VIII
return its verdict this morning, puI l
have gathered in a bitter way so hucI
knowledge of legal practice that l Ieei
that it will be but few quarLer-hou's
until | know whether
NV counsel have not come into the
courtroom as yet. l had hopeu .ney
would be here. 1t is dreadful siIuns
apart to be a prisoner in court chaIs-
ed with-with-it is a horrible worn
Nobody stops TO speak TO you Ino
attorneys have no especial reason 10
caring TO pass a good morning WIN
Won more than they will have TO coruidi-
iv greet the sneak thief who is TO CONS
after in the chair which l now occupy
They hardly notice me now. Inc PeO-
nile who have nothing better TO 90 liiau
Sit around and sit around eyerlastlnS-
" in an idle. inert and clOdlike rashloh
watching the progress Of trials, maze
M for the lapse Of attention oH ouS
part of the lawyers. There are NJ
than one hundred pairs OF eyes OH Iue
now. / know it without LOOKING 'SOGu.
tn meet the gaze which is hurrle'uy
averted in most cases as soon as my
ewes catch those of my observers bIt
these people are not alive. Ihero Is
no smile or even frOwn OF greetlne lioln
any one of them.
There is another jury in the box MY
iurv is not present. THESE JulNI',
Dresume are waiting to try the thief
or wife-beater or pick-pocket VINO VIZ VIZ
follow me in this seat. There Is l uedl
of personality about this jury ann
a student of iuries. l conned mlnc I'M
tu if were an artist l could ske-eh
everv line of the twelve faces, ana
questioned. could tell you which are
negligent in the matter Of shaving, anu
which of the twelve has the pest lIea
of dress. Dress? 1 think OF dress at
- time like this? OF course l do wheh
# is a iurv which is under consldera-
tion and my Jury is more 10 me III
studv than the librarie4 Of the world
7 think they will have made Handrow
foreman. He looks like an executive
and 1 hope his mind is not one easily
biased by the haranguing OF the Il@u
Young assistant States attorney. was
ever such illogical argument, such
stress on incOnsequential tritles? sup
nose 7 did turn and walk away when-
but 7 do not even concede that much.
7 wonder why that man so hates me.
He has doubly exceeded his duty IN this
prosecution. which in his yenomous
fashion he has made a plain persecu-
ton The Jury must be aware or 1t.
II could not be lost upon those twelve
men that this pale-faced, nervous ma
lignant young lawyer considers my lie
rs q pawn in a game of chess and is
Dlaving it simply TO further his own
tame. He doubtless hopes some day to
be states attorney and not assistant,
and is willing to climb 10 that Once
over the grayestOnes of men whom ne
has helped to legally That word
again. Why does it intrude itself so
persistently? 1t was not a murder and
l think the jury realizes 1t.
I wonder if it jeoparded my cause
when 1 rose yesterday and jumped up
on that lying slanderOus william of an
assistant States attorney when he as
sumed. in his insulJngly VidOcq-like
fashion. 10 80 below the surface of the
apparent fact and to produce motive
for every small and immaterial thing
"a motive as black as hell. | was JUS
titled in striking him down as he stood,
and l would have done it if the bailiffs
and my own attorneys had not forced
me back into my chair. Why did not
my counsel let me alone? Did engage
them to back up a vicious, ghoulish at
tack upon my private life? l wonder
if it is possible that they have been
bought over and -. No, no. / pre-
sumo it was as they saba foolish
| thing for me to do in the presence of
the jury. But when / am liberated and
there are no juries present and no bail
| ifs there will be an accounting, and
| this rattlesnake of an assistant States
attorney will know that his efforts to
thrust ms to death have not passed out
of my mind.
1 observe that the people whose duty
it is to care for this courtroom are neg
ligent For seven days l have looked
up to see if any one had removed that
little blue tag from ,le electric light
fixture at the left of the judges bench.
IL tells the price of the fixture, I mag
inc, and I have looked at it hour after
hour through the trial as it swung in
| the little, lazy breeze of the courtroom.
1t should have been cut off when the
fixture was put in place. l have been
a thousand times been on the point Of
rising 10 snatch il OOwn and crush and
trample is under foot as it waved in it's
miserable tantilizing way five feet from
my eyes. 1t is there still pray that
I may have the mental strength to sit
here through the next quarter hour
without leaping TO my feet and shout
ing an eXecratiOn upon the bailiff who
should long ago have removed it. There
he is now at the judges bench. He
reaches over to tear a bit of paper from
a block, and by intuition 1 know that