Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-09-02
Mystery Of the
Bayou Woods
BY WALKER KENNEDY.
CHAPTER ".

Col. Franklin was a man of strong
traits and prejudices. and it was evil
dent to Irving Warde that if he in
terested himself in the Wright case
he would come nearer perhaps than
any one else in solving the mystery
involved in it. He was not an ex-
tensive practitioner of his profession,
but he had accomplished number
Of wonderful feats in cases which
had become historic. 1t was Franklin
who had unravelled an election con-
spiracy and made the demonstration
so clear to the courts that the emf
nently respectable gentleman who
appeared to have been elected
chancellor on the face of the returns
was deprived of the office to which he
had been elevated by one of the
cleverest frauds recorded in the his
tory of electoral rascality. Beside
this, there was the great diamond
sWindle which had fame in it's day
throughout the entire lower Mississ-
ippi valley; a case ramifying into
Nilus, New Orleans and Vicksburg.
1t was Franklin who exposed it, and
by the exposure landed a number of
audacious swindlers in the penitenti-
airy. He was known to be wealthy,
though he did not practice his profess
sion with that assiduity which be-
tokens the born lawyer. Indeed it
was hardly of sufficient scope for the
mans many-sided activity, and though
he took a very sharp interest in that
class of litigation which demands the
readiness of a resourceful intellect
and makes unusual demands upon the
ingenuity, he very cordially despised
that other sort which inficts dull
drudgery. 1t was popularity supposed
that the colonel was interested in a
number of enterprises outside of the
law, which paid him more handsomely
than his profession. In Arkansas he
owned plantation which yielded him
fine cotton crop every year, and it
was said that he had some interests
in common with his friend John T.
Wright. He came to Nilus about 20
years before the opening of this mar
rative, and by his affable manners,
his dash, his decidedly handsome face,
and the meSmerlsm, as it were, of
his personality, he was soon success
fully launched. He happened to win
at the start several cases that occu-
pied notable places in the popular
fancy, and this at once made him
famous. But his financial success
dated from the time when he defend
ed John T. Wright from the charge of
murder In a fit of passion the lat
ter had killed the overseer of his
plantation, and when his anger sub
sided and his reason returned he
found himself in by no means envi-
able position. Public sentiment was
against him, and in those days that
was more potent than the law. While
the invisible statute allowed one man
to kill another for insult or SANDER.
it was often brought to bear with
equal force against the wanton per-
petrator of a crime. Franklin was
employed to defend Wright. He at
once saw the desperate situation of
his client, and the necessity Of secur-
ing an acquittal by other means than
trusting to the luck of a jury trial.
He worked on the case like a remorse-
less machine and he did not hesitate
TO use his clients money freely. Pub
lie sentiment was subsequently van
4uished by the corruption, and Wright
was acquitted. From that time on
close intimacy existed between the
client and his lawyer. The popular
idea was that Wright had given him
an enormous fee and that he had al
lowed him d share in his own business
and ia addition had probably assisted