The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-06-27
BARKER'S S
CRUEL
DOOM.
Judge Blair Sends Kel-
ler's Assailant to
Prison for Five
Years.
ANU SAYS 1t lS MERGlfUL
Bench Endorses the Trial
and Says tf5 Accused
Chose His Own
Jury.
VICTIMS IRON COURAGE
Leaves His Own Fate and
His Wife's in the Hands
of His Friends.
LOOKS FORWARD TO REUNION
Mr.. Wallis Touching Plea and
Judge BIair's Grim Re-
sponse to 1t.
LOOKS FORWARD TO REUNION
Mr.. Wallis Touching Plea and
Judge BIair's Grim Re-
sponse to 1t.

Thomas G. Barker was this morning
sentenced by Judge Blair to five years
Imprisonment at hard labor in State
Prison on his conviction for having afro
ciously assaulted Rev. John Keller of
Arlington on February 8.
The scene in the General Sessions Court
room when the woiIld-be murderer was
arraigned at the bar for sentence resem-
bled those enacted during the five days
trial which terminated on Friday last.
EvaFs-seat 4sve4sa occupied and crewts stood
in the aisles and in the corridor leading
to the rear stairway. Inside the rallied
enclosure was crowded with lawyers and
court officials. Almost one-half of those
who occupied the spectators benches
were women, many of them members of
Trinity Protestant Episcopal Mission
clergyman is vicar.
When at 1920 o'clock Barker entered in
custody Of Deputy Sheriff Frank Hague,
every eye in the crowded court room was
riveted on the man who many believed
fired the almost fatal shots in supposed
vindication of his wife's honor.
Barker seemed much more nervous than
at any time during the progress of his
trial His piercing black eyes wandered
over the faces of the sea of spectators
as he was taken to seat directly at the
rear of the prisoners pen, in which there
were a dozen or more other offenders
against the law awaiting the courts dis
position of their cases.
The convicted man seemed to be look
ing for some one. His counsel, Messrs.
Van Wrinkle & Wall, were inside the
rallied enclosure as was the mysterious
maxwell F. JONES' whose active but
mysterious connection with the case is
still a matter of speculation. Soon after
Barker entered Lawyers Van Winkle and
Wall went to the seat he occupied The
prisoner arose and satisfied expression
illumined his countenance. Together the
three men talked together in an animat-
ed manner for a. few minutes. Their
conversation was interrupted few min
utes after half past ten when Judge Blair
came from the Judges Chambers and
took his seat on the bench.
One after another of the other prisoners
were called to the bar and sentence inn
posed on them. Barker listened atten-
lively to the disposition of the other
cases and at exactly 1O35 when Judge
assailant of the Arlington clergyman for
an instant looked startled and seeming
" did not realize his position. A nudge
from Constable George Stanton, who
stood by his side, and he quickly recov-
cred his composure, and, arising from his
seat with quick step, he covered the
small intervening space between it and
the bar of the court.
The expression of the prisoners face
was a study as he waited for Judge Blair
to commence the words imposing the
laws penalty for his crime. 1t was a
mingled expression of expectancy and
fear. He stood with one hand on the
clerks desk and the other resting on
the iron railing that separates the en-
closure on the left side of the room in
which those directly participating in the
case on trial are seated.
Counsellor Albert G. Wall, who was
associated with Mr.. Van Wrinkle for the
defence, at once arose and made his plea
for clemency. He said
The time for advocacy is past. said
Mr. Wall And now that your honor is
about to exercise your prerogative of pro-
nouncing sentence upon Thomas G. Bar
ker, our only right to say word in his
behalf rests on that courtesy and kindli-
ness which your Honor took with you to
the bench, and which the bar of Hudson
knows and appreciates so well.
Barker is different man from tie
sodden criminals and old offenders so fire.
quently seen in this court room. The
jury has found him guilty of crime and
TO that finding we must bow. But before
this one act Of violence his life was ex-
emplary, he was a good man, respected of
AL men. He siined, but his sin was what?
An act Of violence. of passion, IL you will,
instlgated by his love Of home, melted by
the holiest and most deeply rooted feeling
known to mantle feelings indeed on