Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-07-03

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the Office and on the withered face.
There were those eyes again, and the
vision of the apple blossoms,
Madam, 4 am the Governor. 1t is
unusual to attend to business at this
time in the evening, out I will make
an exception in your case. What is 1t
you WISH"
You--the Governor"
Certainly, madam. Please tell me
what | can do for you"
She unrolled grimy paper and hand
ed it to him. In the dim light he could
see that IL was petition for par
don. And as he strained his eyes over
it in the twilight, the poor little wo-
man in the rusty dress sat with clinch-
ed hands, and wildly beating heart,
waiting DreathIessly.
Him. James Smith, Limestone coun-
ty. Muraer. Not many names on the
petition. On what grounds, madam,
do you base this claim to executive
clemency? From all | can learn, this
case is a particularly horrible one. The
man killed his father, and moreover,
Smith is a man of bad reputation in the
county from which he came
Its not so-it's lie. He has al
ways been good to me. And the man
he--he-killed was not his father; he
was his stepfather only. That wasn't
shown at the trial. we -ad no money to
get lawyer. And Jim was always so
kind to inches all have left of the
happy days before married that
drunken brute. Jim is all have In this
world" she walled.
Madam, do not see that 1t is case
where l can interfere. There Is no
showing made of extenuating circum
stances"
mo 'extenuating circumstances My
God--if you want to know of 'extenuat-
ing circumstances I'll tell you Of them.
| killed that man myself, and Jim said
he did it in order to save me. He was
beating me, as he always did when he
was drunk, and haunting me about Jim,
until in desperation | snatched up the
pistol. I didn't mean to kill him;
just wanted to hurt him, and make him
leave me alone-he was about to hit me
with stick-and I fired. Jim came in
up And he told me that if I said a
word about his not doing it, he would
xii. himself, so 1 was afraid"
You say Jim was not the son of the
man he killed-then, whose son was
he?"
II can't tell you. When I was a girl
here-and I was pretty then, everybody
said so,-but that don't matter now. l
had a sweetheart He was poor boy
came back from the war just twenty
two years old, and worked the farm for
while. Then his people all died, and
he went away. l lived with my old
grandfather-my father died in Pick
etts charge at Gettysburg. And John
finally said he was going away to make
his fortune, and some day he would
come back for me. And | trusted him
and believed him. I will remember the
night we parted, when he went away.
1t was in the spring time, and We sat
under the great lowbranched apple tree
down in the orchard"
The Governor shivered, and his teeth
chartered a little.
GO on-go on" he said in low
voice.
1T was moonlight, and the apple
blossoms were on the ground all about
us, and he pulled great branches of them
and put them in my hair and on my
dress-and he said my eyes looked like
two great violets peeping out of a snow
bank. Well, he went away. | heard
from him for while, and then heard
no more.
Then baby-Jim, who is in prison,
was born Grandfather died soon after,
and | went away. l met the brute
CDdC-IUdJ u6du. he was nut 81 Ddu
then tried to find John-but l could
not He must have died, or he would
have come back to me and made every
thing all right. l married this man. He
thought | was a widow-and in the
sight of God I was. John was surely
dead. We drifted about, first to one
place, and then to another. He was
mean and shiftless. He was cruel to
me, and beat me, and somehow, he
found out about Jim, and then he was
worse than ever, and my life was aw-
full.
Jim was good to me, and he kept us
up. Every cent he made he gave to
me, and comforted me, and never said
an unkind word to me in his life. II
don't get him out III die-Ill die, l
don't care to live without him. Please,
sir. turn him loose and let me have q
little happiness in this life-I have NJ.
much more left, and have had nothing
but sorrow. Let little brightness come