Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-02-25

/
sat within ten feet of me- The evil
dence was purely circnmstantial. but
not particularly strong ~ circumstan-
tial evidence. Mrs. Wickham had
section No. land Mrs. Taylor had sec
ton No. 3. Both had handbags. Mrs.
Wickham had said nothing about the
jewelry, but the bag in which it was
stored had disappeared. There were
only four passengers in the sleeper.
The third was an old lady-the fourth
| the president of an eastern college,
and therefore to he considered above
suspicion. II the car porter had
taken the bag he had passed it to some
one during the night, but the defense
did not even hint that he might have
stolen il.
1t was n singular and yet strong
defense. II the prisoner preferred to
fight the case out without revealing
her identity that was to her credit, and
could not be used against her. A
she did not know the contents Of the
bag, why should she be tempted? II
she had taken it what had she done
with it? She was perfectly willing to
be searched, and nothing had been
found. The old lady might have
taken il by mistake-even the college
president might have been tempted.
There was the train conductor, the ear
conductor and the porter. As the bag
had not been opened by it's owner be-
al al AlA lac,
could she swear that the jewelry was
in it at Buffalo aud beyond? Mrs.
Wickham could only say that no one
else but Mrs. Taylor could have taken
the bag, and in all but one thing the
prosecution made out very poor case.
The accused had persistently refused
TO reveal her identity. 1t was argued
that if she were an innocent woman
she would not do this. She would
give no part of her history-say moth
ing whatever except that she was the
wife of respectable and wealthy
man.
had been made foreman of the
jury, and when we retired / found
myself hating between two opinions.
No legal proof had been advanced that
Mrs. Taylor stole the bag, but if there
was nothing wrong about her why
should she conceal her identity? |
was almost Of the belief that she was
an adventures, but yet | had sworn
to be guided by the evidence. On our
first ballot We stood seven for convic.
ton and five for acquittal. On that
ballot | voted for conviction, but five
minutes later / was using arguments
against such verdict. Deep down
i'll my heart believed Mrs. Taylor to
be the thief, but if we were to be
guided by law aud evidence she must
he acquitted The second ballot
showed'eight for acquittal and four for
conviction. The four men were pig
headed and obstinate, and we had been
out seven hours before one Of them
decided to come over To the majority.
The other three vowed they would
hang out till doomsday, and We put in
long night in the jury room. After
breakfast the next morning ! went to
work at them in earnest. ] am neither
an orator nor a magnetic man, but |
went over all the evidence and pre-
scented it, pro and con, in such man
ner that after we had been out about
thirty hours ballot showed that we
were all for acquittal. This was the
verdict announced in court, and Mrs.
Taylor was at once discharged from
custody. Within two hours Mr..
Wickham had compromised with her
for $4,000 in cash.
AS the days went by that verdict
bothered me. Mrs. Taylor had gone
to hotel as soon as discharged, and
Mr.. Wickham had hired detective
TO watch her. Ii was determined to
discover her identity, If nothing more.
The woman probably suspected that
she would he watched. After few
days she went to Chicago, visited a
lawyers Office, bank and two or
three other places, and then bought
her ticket for Buffalo. The detective
had logged her every movement. aud
she had made no sign that she was
aware of his espionage. He suw her
ltbNt Nht hoNtl ia ~ 'ui iihH' W. WIZ
depot, and as there was plenty Ct time
he took a street car instead. When
he went through the train she wss not
to be found. The man worked on the
case fora week without striking her
trail and was then hauled off.
When this instance came to my ears
was conscience-stricken over our
verdict. The woman must surely be
a sharper, and we ought to have
strained point and given her over to
justice.
Two months had gone by, and one
evening was waiting in the union
depot at Cleveland for q train. | sat
reading u newspaper when woman
dropped into the seat beside me and
smilingly asked il she was mistaken
in thinking WAS Mr. SO and 80, Of