The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-10-21

N0o PAOoOpuNtOds
Private individuals, selling their tai
ents Tor gold, are conducting it'--the
reference being to newspaper nan.
Now, see MIR. Nelson addressing dra-
matically, William Elliott, Jr.: "Wiil
you not admit that N. q. Gonzales de-
spisei the very ground that b.. r.,
Illlman walks on2" Yes. Yes, it was
B.R. Tillman whose name he called.
Couple this language of Mr.. Croft
and Mr.. Nelson, read 1t In more detail
in the stenograph'c report, ami bark
back to the beginning of this article.
The defense is asking: "For his edito.
torial u%tterauces in The Columbia
State was not N. G.. Gonzales Justly
punished with death?" Yes, they
have tried poor Gonzales for CARRYING
concealed weapons in 1886, II wears
ago, they have tried him again FIR
every charge he made against the pris-
oner at the bar and they are trying
him Tor the reasonable crime of oppos-
ing Senator Tillman! Have | put it too
strong in saying that the Plea of self
defense has been devoured-D!ck FOL
sonback and all?
a man lies dead with n hole shot
through and through his body with the
proJectilo of a n~ew-fangled weapon
such a pist u as ony the prisoner at the
bar appears to be able to masipula.e
here in Lexington. He was not killed
by accident. The agency by which he
met his death Is admitted. If tho argu-
ments Of Messrs. Nelson and Croft
carry the inevitable interpretation
pointed to above, is not the question
asked by the State reduced and re-
formed to: Is murder a crime?
Let the great jury of South Carolin.
ians to whom The State may still speak
make answer.
What the Lexington jury will say in
this case one cannot tell. The Jury
may cling to the remnant of the self
defense, the Dick Holsonback theory,
which the lawyers have so nearly for.
cotton or abandoned. Or the jury may
find a verdict Of guilty. L am not to
pass on the prisoners guilt or inno-
cence and / do not; but with deliber-
%ateness, let me say that to sane men
the method of defense that has been
attempted by the prisoners lawyers
seems q hideous and fantastic Joke.
While Mr.. Nelson vas speaking yes
terday, he referred to the whipping of
the two little negroes when the First
regiment was encamped in Columbia.
The allegation is that they were whip
ped because they stole q pistol from
"Old George" an old servant of the
prisoner. Mr., Nelson called the name
of Old George. Far back among the
spectators Old George raised his ZEN
cradle form. 1t was so unexpected!
Then the lawyer delivered a panegyric
on the negroes services to the prisoners
uncle in the Mexican war.
Now this old negro, the prisoner
swore, told him that the man Hyatt,
he that viewed Mr.. Gonzales through
an inverted telescope, had told him
that he had seer Mr.. Gonzales with a
pistol in his pocket. cold George"
vas not sworn in his masters behalf.
He came into evidence and in the flesh
Just the same.
Concluding his argument for the
state, Mr.. Asbill this morning i'm
pressed with force the testimony of
Spann Bowling as to the aim of the
pistol: eff the ball struck where 1
aimed he is a dead man. 1t will go
straight"
Suppose, for the sake Of argument,
the "white feather" threat we're true,
did that give the prisoner the right to
shoot? This prisoner at the bar is no
better, he is no worse than you or 1,
so far as his position as a man in the
laws eyes are to be regarded. You are
not to consider his former official posi-
tion. He Ia to b, measured by the
anne yardst!ck as any other man. r.
member his numerous threats. When
he told Representative Cause that he
had said before leaving Edgefieid that
he placed those editorials in his peck
cts and might land in the penitentiary
before he got home, for once he told
the truth.
Me-. Crawford opened his lucid and
eloquent speech with the words: "Too
much personal feeling has come into
this tcial. TOO much political feeling
has been brought into it.. If you &C.
cept tie arguments OF Messrs. John
stone and Nelson all that one need Is
to point to words of p~rovocation ard
shoot down the man in his way as he
would a mad dog The positions as
sumed by these distinguished gentle
men present no case of seif-defense
Whatever, and their dependence is up
on arousing your passions and praju-
dices, gentlemen of the jury. II the
law should be construed that words
justify the taking Of life then overy
home in South Carolina would be c)n-
verted into q charnel house.
Mr.. Crawford made q clever point of
the testimony of George LaFaye, who
drew the plans of the scene of the
shooting, In evidence. He declared that
LaFaye had sworn that from the steps
Of the State house one may see another
coming out of the Office Of The State
newspaper. ~ leave to the jury to
consider how far on the day of the
fatal ,naof{nn Tho p,toDnap ,So,, hauo