Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-10-20
COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENSE.

SA NhStSSo AlSOhdul. Inc Call-
fornia sun cast its net of fine gol on
the Orange county courthouse, and
vthe hundred yards Of wide, green
lawn. The glistening mesh of that
same net chung to magnolias and
acacia trees, which, lining the great
square, border it with a tunnel of
waxen green. In vain the rose lifted
its red blush to the white magnolia
blooms, for they, dreaming of Cali
fornia's far blue sky, saw it not
Over the binding cement walk. with
pallor on his lined and scornful face,
strobe counsel for the defense, slowly,
slowly. The sun was the sun of early
afternoon; and on him, too, and on
his wide forehead, and his long, gray
hair, it wove its sorceres. The world
was a dream. To the stone steps,
under the sheer red walls of the
counsel for the defense.
There he paused and turned, and
with an air of strange solemnity ne
gazed upon the golden sward and on
the golden trees; and like the eye or
the eagle his eye was raised ana
stared into the California sun. When
he had done thus, and flung way.
ward lock of gray from his brow,
counsel for the defense went in.
The audience in the courtroom
quiet. The furnishings of polished
were ponderous and new. Aloft the
pale judge sat far down in his chair,
his fingers halted as though they
would twist his mustache, but twist
ing it not. The attorney for the prose-
cution, young and fat, strobe to and
fro. And here sat woman; and yon-
der sat a man. The jury wore
rural and unkempt air, and the his
tory of CALIFORNIA; long, unlovely
struggle with the soil was writ neavy,
heavy in deep marks along the jury's
brow.
Counsel for the defense, tossing his
name, wrapped in thought, and
clutching the fingers of his left hand
with his right, stood tall before the
jury-box like a eucalyptus tree that
has bent a thousand times to the
breath of the Pacific, and a thousand
times sprung back, throwing out its
grandly ragged plumage to the sun.
Gentlemen" he said, Il want to
make it simple; | want to clear away
all haze. l wouldn't if could throw
around the naked limbs of this great
tragedy veil of words confusing; as
my friend, counsel for the prosecu-
tion,'' he drew long, cool breath,
. has did"
A litter from the prosecuting coun.
sci, who, with his hands tapping I'M
der the tail of his coat, STROBE to and
fro. A smile went pickering round.
And like beast, wrapped in the
power of beasts subjective mental
ity, counsel for the defense turned
his face of unutterable scorn about
Long was that countenance, shaver
and bony, and time had anchored
down one whole lower quarter of it
into an expression of incredible con-
tempt. Yet in his eyes rose for
moment some ghost of dead humor
and he said wearily:-
They smile at my grammar.
Gentlemen, they stand before this
naked tragedy and smile. They mean
that | should say has done Yet with
that very grammar, gentlemen of the
Jury, have I won more cases, in a life
somewhat long and somewhat stol my,
and freed more innocent men from
punishment ubiquitous, than counsel
for the prosecution is likely ever to
win with his, or by his harnessed
language send the guiltless to the
grave. And now" he again swept the
jury with his eye, and fell again into
his profound subjectivity, now, when
| stand, like some old trunk, not far
from the immeasureable precipice:
now, when the liquid years have so
lidified, and the strata of my soul
have saw their liquid and hardened
into layers geologic, gentlemen of the
jury. l amt a-going to change my
grammar now
The fearful face of the woman was
ever turned upon him. He had not
looked at her.
What, then, are the fundamental
elements of this case-A woman" he
he seemed to dream over the word
...dwells in a tiny in a tiny, rented
voltage on an island in the center o.
Newport bay, with a man-her hus-
band or her paramour. On the night
of May goth that man was shot. ana
died. On that same night two wit
nesses saw, hurrying across the water
in a boat, then running on toward
Newport beach, this defendant"
Without turning his head. he flung
out his arm toward the prisoner, a
man of sneering and trea cherous face,
fine features. small hands, and care
full dress.
ASIDE from medical testimony"
continued counsel for the defense.
''the state has but three witnesses.
First, those two who saw this man
fee; and know and saw no more.
Their testimony you may, in Sitting
this case to its simplest form, dis
miss from your minds; because al
that they say, defendant admits
There remains, then as opposed to the