Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1902-04-03
THE LIGHT OF LOVE
By T. Y. Mcfarland
Copyright. 1909. by Daily Story Publishing Coz

The county courtroom of st. Anne's
was crowded to the door. 1t was an
assemblage unprecedented even in that
country where a trial for murder al
ways exercised an irresistible fascina-
ton. and where the allurements of old
time fiorid oratory conferred upon the
courthouse something of the status of
a theater
Never before within the memory Of
those present had white woman cow
cred under the menace of a possible
capital sentence. Indeed there lurked
some trifiing doubt as to the propriety
of the circumstance now. 1t was not
that her guilt was questioned-in the
popular judgment she was condemned
beyond all peradventure-but with its
innate, fantastic chivalry ST. Anne's
was disposed to be compassionate, and
to meet alien logic with the sentiment
al reminder that ''she is a woman
The crime itself was as old as his
tory-the tragedy familiar to every
stage of life. In this instance its dra-
mats personae were of the lowest type
gross, ignorant and debased. Jenny
Haskell was the wayward wife-her
husband Jim was the victim; and the
third figure was a handsome oyster
man known along the tide water dis
tricts as Bill Thome. 1t had been a
murder startling in its primitive bru-
tally and had acquired full page prom
inence in sensational Sunday papers.
The husbands brains had been shot
out one night while he lay asleep by
his wife's side.
There had been no doubt as to the
identity of the murderer. The circum-
stantial evidence was crushing, and, in
addition, the widow herself had fran
tically denounced Thome as her hus-
bands slayer. His trial had been re-
moved to the state metropolis, and af-
ter his sentence he had been taken to
its jail to await the day set for his ex-
ecution. The reason for this was pure
ly prudential. st. Anne's was pitifully
poor, and there was a growing dispo-
sition to regard the expenses of the
court as excessive. The neighboring
county of Marlborough had averted
the cost of similar trial by a quietly
OlOCl Gu lyACuluS, anu udu UOdSIcu VI
its thrift, and there had been some
warrant in the fear that the example
might prove contagious.
This had been three months before,
and the excitement had begun to sub
side when new sensation was created
| by the arrest of Haskell's relict as an
accessory to the murder, at the instance
| of Willis Howard, the states attorney.
Mr.. Howard was a man of praiseworhy
political ambition, and had achieved
no little notoriety by reason of the
| conviction of Thome. He labored un-
der the dual misfortune, however, of
| not having been born in the county
and of having inspired the natives
| with an ungenerous disposition to as
sociate his Jealous activity with the
approaching nomination for Congress.
1t was the third day of the Haskell
trial, and the interest was intense. An
indefinite rumor was abroad that the
states attorney had a trump card to
play, and a thrill of excitement swept
through the crowd as he arose to ad-
dress the court.
He proposed, he declared, to produce
witness who would testify to the I'M
questioned guilt of the prisoner-to
her Identification with ''the foulest
deed recorded in the criminal annals
of st. Anne's." Then, as he turned to
where the woman-white, panic-strick
en- and abject crouched beside her
counsel, the whistle of an approaching
locomotive sounded shrilly from across
the river The only train scheduled
| for the day would not arrive until
night, and the coming of a special was
an event unparalleled. 1t was like an
effect in melodrama, and the throng
waited breathlessly.
In the intense stiffness every sound
without was audible-the rumbling of
the train; the stoppage at the station;
and the ring of footsteps on the flags
that led from the road to the court
house An instant later there was an
agitation about the entrance and
Thome, the convicted murderer, guard
ed by the officials of the city jail,
crossed the threshold. The woman ut
tered a half-suppressed shrek, and the
states attorney smiled blandly. ''This
is my witness, your honor" he ex-
planned, and then generously, Call
William Thome."
The tension was acute as the man
took the stand. 1t was evident in the
agitation of the kindly, patriarchai
Judge. in the feverish alertness of the
reporters; in the hungry interest of the
country-folk; and even in the unblink-
ing gaze Of the negroes who hung over
the rail at the rear in stolid beatitude.
The prisoner was livid and stared ap-
pealingly at the witness.
Judge" began the latter slowly,
give been doing a heap of thinking
over this business since I've been
sentenced. It's laid heavy on my
mind, and when 1 found it could be
fixed up so could come and tell, was
glad. There was one reason in par
ticular why l was so glad" His eyes
rested upon the prisoner an instant as