Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1897-09-23

protesting MS Innocence. Appear
ances are against me-, . he said; sssurelv
this must be the work of Satan arg
his ministry; but He still lives who
Will at his pleasure make nv inno.
cence manifest. Take me to nriaon
In solitude and in chains 7 will awa;+
what lie III His wisdom shall decree ;,
The pastor was arrested and taken
to Jail. Next day the preliminary
judicial examination was held. Two
farm servants and a dairy maid. all in
the employ of the accused nastor
testified that on the day of the murder
they had eeen sitting near the open
window IN the servants room and had
heard the pastor and the man N;els
quarrelling until they came to blows
They added that they had twice be-
fore heard the pastor threaten Niels
with his life. The dairy maid deposed
that on the night when Larsen saw
the pastor in the garden she was living
awake in bed and heard the door lead
ing from the passage into the garden
creak, and that when she rose and
peeped out she saw the pastor in his
dressing gown and nightcap 60 out
INTO the garden. What he did there
she saw not; but about an hour after
ward she again heard the creaking of
the door.
When asked what he had to say in
his defense the pastor replied sol
EMMY: $50 help me God, I will say
nothing but the truth. I struck de-
ceased with the spade, but not other
wise than that he was able to run away
from me and out of the garden. What
became of him afterward or how he
came to be buried in my garden, I
know not.
''As for the evidence of Larsen and
the dairymaid, who say they saw me
in the garden in the night, it is either
foul lie or hellish delusion. I have
no one on earth to speak in my de-
fense."
When, some weeks later, the trial
came on two more witnesses were pro-
duced. They declared that on the
oft-mentioned night they were pro-
ceeding along the road which runs
from the pastors garden to the wood
when they met man carrying sack
on his back, who passed them and
walked in the direction of the garden.
His face they could not see, inasmuch
as it was concealed by the overhang-
ing sack, but as the moon was shining
on his back they could plainly descry
that he was clad in pale-green coat
and white nightoap. He disappeared
near the pastors garden hedge.
No sooner did the pastor hear the
evidence of the witnesses to this effect
than his face turned an ashy hue and
he cried out in faltering voice: II
am fainting, and was SO Frustrated in
body that he had to be taken back to
prison.
There, after period of severe suf
fering, to the intense establishments of
every one, he made to his friend, the
District Magistrate, who had first ar
rested him, the following strange con-
| fession:
''From my childhood, as far back as
I can remember, I have ever been pas
sionate, quarrelsome and proud, I'M
patient of contradiction and ever ready
with blow. Yet have seldom let
the sun go down on my wrath, nor
have I borne ill will to any one.
When but lad I slew in anger dog
which one day ate my dinner which I
had left in his way. When, as a
student, I went on foreign travel, I
entered on slight provocation into a
broil with German youth in Leipsic,
challenged him, and gave him wound
| that ENDANGERED his life"
After pause of anguish he cont1n-
ued: 81 will now confess the crime
which no doubt I have committed,
but of which I am, nevertheless, not
fully conscious. That I struck the
unhappy man with the spade l knew
full we'll, and have already confessed,
whether it were with the fiat side or
with the sharp edge I could not in my
passion discern; that he fell down and
afterward again rose and ran away
that is all that / know to surety.
What follows-heaven help me!--four
witnesses have seen, namely, that l
fetched the corpse from the wood and
buried it, end that this must be sub
stantially true I am obliged to believe,
and 7 will tell you wherefore.
s'Three or four times in my life that
know of, it has happened to me to
walk in my sleep. The last time
about nine years ago-I was next day
to breach a funeral sermon over the
remains of man who had unexpect-
edly met with frightful death. l
was at loss for text, when the
words of wise man among the an
Gent Greeks suddenly occurred to
me: Call no man happy until he be IN
his grave.
sHTo use the words of a heather Tor
the text of Christian discourse was
not, methought, seemly, but then
remembered that the same thougnt'