The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1901-10-18
w. C. T. u. COLUMN
CONDUCTED BY MRS. N. L. HOBBS.
RED RUM.

"Wher | slowly awoke, or recov'
cred consciousness ii was still dark
but fel, that | was in a strange
Iplace. Something, certain sub
tie, inLer consciousness that goes
on recording our actions when the
brain itself is incapacitated, seemed
striving to tell me that some awful
dis aster had befallen me. l started
up and stood upon the floor. II
was hard ana Geld. An awful
shudder ran over me. spread out
my arms to the full length, and, 10
my horror touched the two opposite
sides Of my room at once-stone
walls.
II was thoroughly terrified. Co.
ing in the direction | belieyed the
door to be in, l put out my hand
and thrust it through what seemed
a hole, but later proved to be one
of the interstices between iron bars.
/ must have dropped in a faint, be-
cause | do not remember going
back to my bed. However, when
| next came to, it was broad day
light. The iailer stood at the door,
locking in, and evidently waiting
for me to awaken; for as soon as
he caught my eye, he exclaimed:
Remember, any thing you say
may be used against you.
A great dread sat, like lump Of
ice on my heart. l begged him TO
explain. Anything but that awful
|suspensel
Then he told me | had murder
ed Miss G..
My trial was put down for date
about a month away, and my angel
mother secured the ablest counsel
lin the country to defend me; but,
best Of all, she came to me in my
agony and pu, her hand upon my
forehead, and then kissed me and
told me that she believed me inno-
cent. How she could logically do
liz, with evidence enough against
me to damn an angel, l do not
know, but she did it with her wo-
mans heart, and her woman's
heart broke when, at length, the
Jury told her she had been mis-
taken.
.Gentlemen," resumed Barclay,
after a pause, II used to believe all
lawyers rascals until that time.
But the way that man worked for
me was nothing short Of sublime
He labored with me dav in and
day out, morning noon and night,
striving by all means known TO phil
osophy, science and practice, to
recover from the sensitive plates OF
my memory the pictures printed on
them by a rum enfeebled spirit be-
tween the hours OF eleven p. n.
and two a. m. on the night OF the
murder. But it was Of 10 use.
Evidently the films Of memory had
been temporarily desensitized by
the supplying influence Of the al
cohol. Anyway, nothing could
bring the dreaded pictures OF that
awful period to the surface.
/ shall not bore you with the har-
rowing details Of the crime. Ii
was shown. how ever, that | had
been discovered in Miss C's room.
l was on the floor in a drunken
sleep, when the officers arrived,
and was completely dressed, even
to my overcoat and hat. Near my
right hand, as if | had but recently
my hold upon il, lay my
pistol. One OF the cartridges had
been discharged and the bullet
found in Miss C's body fitted the
empty shell.
Ny lawyer used to come TO my
cell and implore me to use every
trick and device that / knew OF to-
bring back the chain Of events Of
that fateful night, but | could only
gaze at him stupidly. So far 1
could go but no further. At cer-
lain point the cloud Of oblivion
would drop before my mind, and l
could not penetrate it. l thought
hat, by thinking with great rapidi-
", and running with exact Sc
luence along the chain of occur
rences leading up to a certain hour,
he mental momentum thus ac-
luired might carry me through into
he realms Of my mental darkness.
But it was without avail. You can
irive horse at a furious rate right
up TO the brink of a lake, but there
he will stop, and not bulge an inch
|urther; and the blackness Of the