The National tribune., 1899-08-31
MURDER TRIAL
IN NEW MEXICO.
The Prisoners-The Audience.
The Witnesses, Lawyers and
Jury.

l Hillsboro, little town in southwestern
aims. was live and humming with Interest
in the days of the great trial, and the new
courthouse with its tower was filled till
people bulged out of the windows onto the
broad sills. Far into the night it was
twinkling with lights and droning with
| voices, as the trial went on every morning.
afternoon and evening. The thin-faced
Judge sat listening, the two blue-coated
men trailed the jury back and forth, law
yers wrangled over every inch of the way,
and the jurors sat always patiently atten-
| tive.
| Hillsboro's one street shaded by huge
| cottonwoods was busy with passing men,
The stage rolled in every evening with
passengers inside and out, the hotel was
overflowing everywhere in front of the Jail,
at the hitching rails of the saloons and in
the tiny space of the postoffice were big
bronZed cattlemen discussing the merits
and probabilities of the case. All agreed
| that two of New MeXico'S Sharpest lawyers
were ptted against each other, each sup
| ported by two good men of well known legal
ability. Indeed, at least one of the counsel
| for each side had been Delegate from the
Territory to the Capitol at Washington.
There were witnesses and friends of both
sides on hand, to say nothing of 20 good
fighting men for each side. 1t was the
quletest trial and the most peaceable town
imaginable, but each side had 20 good
fighting men at hand. The men of neither
side would brook the presence of SYM
pathizers with the other, but as surely as
men of one side drinking together would
recognize any men of the other, they would
stalk haughtily out of the saloon and
patronize the towns other bar
The wives and daughters and babies, too
were IN town, and the trial was the gala
affair of the season. Every afternoon
housewives would hurry up the dinner
dishes and take the babies and go, and
young girls would put on their pinkest
shirtwaists, their highest collars. narrowest
neckties and Sunday millinery and go
In the evening the village beaux would es-
cort the girls there.
Many dark -browed Mexicans lounged
about the courthouse, and occasionally
Catholic priest would be seen in the door
way watching the whole scene with kind
and serene eyes. Sometimes man all
booted and spurred would clump and rattle
across the quiet scene-for our justice holds
even such turbulent and hot-tempered men
as these to quiet ways, and the trial was
almost as polite as a dinner party.
Inc scene was furthermore adorned by
the gay handkerchiefs that seem to be pet
vanity of the cattlemen-great squares of
purple, scarlet, blue or orange were the
handkerchlefs that were used to mop the
warm faces and play peek" with the babies.
SA1 1LLMEN of
These cattlemen are as gallant a lot of
men as ever swept broad -brimmed hats to
the ground in Difference to the smiles of a
lady. And their chivalrous bearing does
the feminine heart good, for the ladies love
the gallant man the world over One is
continually reminded of Dumas heroes by
these big, quietspoken, daring, hot-headed
men of our Southwest. They seem to be of
day forgotten in our crowded, unpictur-
East Whara m nI To,
check their gallantry and ladies have
learned to save their smiles.
The proceedings at the courthouse de-
veloped their story slowly and with many
little excursions into side tales in
story has. it was like living 70
mance-not quite SO definite or carefully
balanced as a written one, but with the
characters themselves coming forth to tell
how everything happened, and of their
fears and hopes and sins and virtues.
Six lawyers argued hotly over every inch
of it, three of them trying to bring the tale
to one conclusiOn-the conviction of guilt
in the prisoners and their death; three
others fought as fiercely to end it happily
with the declaration of innocence and free
dom of the two men accused
InaSmuch as it was not absolutely cer-
tain that the man and his son had been
murdered, much less that the prisoners had
done it, as there were no painful details of
death to pain the gentle hearted, nor rough
ness, nor profanity of speech to shock the
dainty, and as it all ended happily-as far
as the careless observer could see-the trial
was as pleasant play.
Sometimes one realized that the two
quiet, unfearlng men were on trial for their
lives. but from the first the case was in their
favor and there was only enough doubt TO
keep the lawyers keen and interest from
tagging.
PRISONERS CHARGED WITH MURDER.
The trial was on the accusation that these
two cattlemen, the prisoners before us, had
most cruelty murdered well known law
yer, Col. Fountain, and his little son. Henry.
Col. FOUNTAIN had been engaged by the