The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-07-08
By T. Y. Mcfarland
Copyright. 1902. by Daily Story Publishing Coz

The county courtroom of st. Annals
was crowded to the door, 1t was IN
assemblage unprecedented even in that
country where a trial for murder al
ways exercised an irresistible fascinR-
ton, and where the allurements of OLD
time forid oratory conferred upon tHa
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 trihing 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-
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 wifes 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
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 IN
der the dual misfortune, however. OF
not having been born in the county
and of having inspired the mattress
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
a witness who would testify to the IN
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 he1
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 half-suppressed shrek, and the
states attorney smiled blandly. "This