, 1902-04-11
The Light Of Love



Copyright. 1872. by Daily Story Pub. COD
The county courtroom of St. Anne's
was crowded to the door. Ii was an
assemblage unprecedented even in that
country where a trial for murder al
ways exercised an irresistible fascina-
ton. and where the a~ilurements of old
time fOrid oratory conferred upon the
courthouse something of the status OF
a theater.
Never before within the memory OF
those present had a white woman cow
cred under the menace OF a possible
capital sentence. Indeed there lurked
some trifing 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 hat 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 bee a
murder startling in its primitive bru-
tality 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 az
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 a similar trial by a quietly
ordered %lynching. and had boosted Of
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 a 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 I'M
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 Vas the third day of the Haskell
trial. and the interest was intense. An
indefinite m 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
q 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 q special was
an event unparalleled. 1t was like an
effect" In melodrama, and the throng
waited breathlessly.
In the intense stiffness every sound