The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-15
PATHETIC SCENE
IN COURT ROOM
JUDGE "'FUDGED' A LITTLE"
IN PRONoUNCING SENTENCE on
YOUTH FROM JOHNSTON STATION.

Aged Mother, Clad In Faded Calico
Dress, Blue Apron and Old Blue
sun-Bonnet, Chung Trembling to
Gray-Haired Husbands Hand
while Sentence Was Pronounced
by Judge Emory speer in United
states CONTEMPLATION Testified
That Boy Was HaIf-IdiOt.
During the session of the United
States courts yesterday morning C.
S. Hardee, a 16-year-old boy, plead
guilty to fraudulently raising a money
order of the United States. In calling
the attention of the court to the plea,
Mr.. Alderman stated that he had one
witness whose evidence he wished to
introduce.
The boys physician was called. and
after stating that he had been treat
ing the defendant, who is only 16 years
old, for more than twelve years. the
physician stated that he did not be-
lieve the boy was mentally balanced
do you mean that he is insane?"
asked the court.
Not that exactly" was the reply,
but he will do whatever is suggested
to him. 1 would suggest that he be
sent to reform school rather than
the penitentiary
Mr.. Alderman replied that he con-
Cured with the physician, but there
was one difficulty, in that the boy was
a few months over the age at which
boys could be sent to the reformatory
IF your honor remembers a term
that the boys used in marbles" said
Mr.. Alderman, 1.-THE defendant can only
be sent to the reform school in case
the court should fudge a little.''
Then will fudge little.' said
Judge Speer, land sentence the de-
PENDANT to two years in the Reform
School in the District of Columbia.
Parents Much Affected.
A touching incident of this case was
the pathetic interest displayed by the
parents of young Hardee. The father,
old and gray-haired, his shoulders
bent with age, came into the court
room early in the morning. In his
hand he carried an old and much-worn
handbag, filled with the few necessi-
ties which he and his wife had needed
for their short visit to Savannah.
Leaning on his arm, and seemingly
bewildered by the number of persons
about the court room was the mother
of the defendant. Clad in black and
white striped calico dress, and wear
ing a short blue apron and faded blue,
old-fashioned sun-bonnet, the woman
presented a strange appearance in the
midst of the attorneys and officers of
the court.
With all the tenderness of a knight
Grant the old man lead her to a place
in the court room and not once, dur
ing the arguments on the peonage
case. did he move from her side. Twice
she turned to him and said, in half
audible voice:
Where's our boy?"
The old man attempted to answer
her, but could not, and her insistent
questioning was only stopped when one
of the marshals told her she must
keep quiet. ssT yF~T'. =. 'T"~~'
t-a Grief at Parting.
During the course of the arguments
on the peonage cases. the mother, evil
IDENTIFY tired from an all-night journey,
dozed several times. When Mr.. Aker-
man rose and presented the case to
the court, however, she at once be-
came wide awake.
AS the boy, with dishevelled hair
and a half-idiotic look on his face,
stepped forward to make his plea, she
reached out one of the trembling with
cred hands and clasped that of her
husband, and then, breathless with
anxiety, chung close to him until the
sentence was pronounced.
AS the boy walked from the court
room in the custody of Marshal
Barnes, the mother and father, both
trembling, followed silently after him.
In the corridor they stopped him and
told him good-by.
AS the door of the marshars office
closed on the boy the old woman, her
eyes filled with tears, looked up into
the face of her husband and sobbed:
"He couldn't hep it! He couldn't hep
it,"
The defendant had raised a postof-
flee money order from Sears Roebuck
& Co. for 80 cents to $4,000 His APP
pearance fully justified the statements
Of the physician, the entire face hav-
ing an expression of half-idiocy and
only comprehension of what was
going on. Every one in the court room
inwardly thanked Judge Speer for