The Delawarean., 1900-06-23
HORSE AS A WITNESS.
Settled Celebrated Murder Case in
Tennessee,

Il believe that my State produced
one of the most peculiarly remarkable
murder trials and convictions on rec
ord said Representative Brownlow
of Tennessee, according 10 the Phila
delphia Press.
In this celebrated case a horse
strange to say, figured as the chief wit.
ness, and the guilty mans conviction
was due almost entirely to the sagacity
of the animal
"A terrible murder had been commit.
ted near Raleigh, Shelby county, and
the trial came off in a district divided
from one of another jurisdiction by the
highway on which the dark deed was
committed. The dead body was found
40 or 80 feet from the road, from which
it had evidently been dragged, and the
doubt arose as to in which civil dis
trict the murder had been committed
The indications were that the guilty
party would escape punishment. Sew
eral months elapsed before the trial
when one of the witnesses, mounted on
the deceased's horse, and accompanied
by several persons, was riding toward
the courthouse.
when the horse reached the scene
of the murder he began to exhibit
symptoms of alarm, which conduct
greatly surprised all who witnessed it,
for the other horses in the company
showed no signs of fear
AS the party proceeded onward the
agitation of the animal increased, and
when he reached a point in the road
opposite to where the body was found
the excitement of the horse was so
great that he became altogether un-
manageable.
THE gentlemen present looked on
with amazement. The horses flesh
quivered, his nostrils distended, and
with his eyes glancing steadily into the
woods near by he stood snorting and
neighing-a picture of the widest ex-
citement.
Zone of the gentlemen, suspecting
the real cause of the horses agitation,
suggested that he should have a loose
rein, which, being granted, the noble
animal INSTANTLY jumped into the
and, coming to a certain tree,
commenced paving at it's roots, then
trotting further into the woods he cir
cled round and round back to the same
tree, where he stood paving and trem-
bling until forced away.
Similar conduct was observed in the
horse whenever he passed that partic-
ular spot.
Upon the trial the startling testi-
mony of this eloquent witness against
the prisoner caused a tremendous SEN
sation; it was like an electric shock to
the honest and hardy people who were
in the courtroom.
NO blood had ever been seen on the
road and ne appearance of any unusu-
al struggle was visible. If the killing
took place in the highway the horse
would have known nothing of the tree
in the forest; if the fatal deed had been
where the body was found
in the road, then the court had no iu
and the murderer would
probably escape
But all this was not to be. The in
telligent horse-whose sagacity in his
neighborhood was proverbial. whose
to his master was such that
he followed him like a spaniel about
the farmyard-in thrilling pantomime
enacted the scene Of the terrible mur-
der, pictured the decoy into the woods.
the robbers demand for gold or blood.
and the death struggle under the fatal
tree.
Mature eloquent vndicated by a
seeming miracle the unerring certain
ty of retributive justice-the venue, by
this voiceless witness. was proved be-
yond a doubt-proved by faithful af-
fections steeled to the wiles of the cor
ruptor' and whose testimony was CON
strong as proof of HOLY
Writ.
THE doom of the prisoner was sealed
by the evidence of the dead mans
horse"