The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-05
/ The MISSING MAN ' Ia. :!!:!:! .!.
By MApYR. ?. HATCH.
Author of
"The Bank Tragedy"

Court, and he engaged the counsel of
Stone d Ferguson, whose reputation by
many was considered to equal that of
Morley & Stevens.
Mr.. Carter. as it can easily be ina gin
ed, was greatly excited by these pro-
ceedings. To be continually borne on
lie wave of one exciting event to an
other without any act of his own, was
very hard, he considered. Why people
could not be content with the estab-
lished order of events he could not
conceive. This Edes would never, he
reasoned. have dared to put in his alb
surd claim without the encouragement
of his niece. Nothing would come of
1t but scandal and cost, and they had
had enough of that already. Here
were Constance and the children at
the Essex House. he and Vane doing
their best to put up with Tilly's house
keeping, and now this suit 1t was
enough to make a quiet, peaceable man
groan, and Mr.. Carter groaned and
complained accordingly.
Mr.. Hamilton did neither Though
1t was plain to see that he las great
~ moved by these measures, he kept
quietly at his usual duties, except when
in consultation with his lawyers, who
had engaged Detective Bruce to aid
them in ferreting out evidence. Thus
the matter stood when the first Tues
ueNS III ANONCIIlDeI CAME ana WIN II Ine
trial term of the Supreme Court.
The claimant case was one of the first
presented. 1t was to be tried by jury,
and the chief justice and four associate
judges were all in the court room when
the case was called. The plaintiff and
defendant occupied opposite sides of
the room. The members of he bar sat
at one end, the spectators at he other
the judges a little removed " them
selves. The state
ent, likewise representatives of such
papers as the Boston Journal" the
Globe" and the New York and Bos-
ton Herald" for the case was al
ready widely known and commented
upon by the press throughout the coun-
try. The principals sat with their
counsel. Mrs. Hamilton and her uncle
together in the audience.
The court room was small. 1t was
destroyed by fire the next year, but
at this time it's insufficiency to accom-
modate a large audience vas keenly
felt, particularly by the many who
were turned away after the room was
comfortably filed
1 will not describe the preliminaries,
so much the same in all similar cases,
but pass on to more important mat
tiers. Mr.. Morley opened the case for
the plaintiff in something like the fol-
lowing words:
1T is my purpose to narrate rs brief
ly as possible the main facts upon
which the plaintiff relies in support of
his claim to the estate fraudulently
withheld from him by his brother, Vic
tor Hamilton: but 1 pause at -he out
set. almost overwhelmed by a sense of
my own inability to present them in
a manner commensurate with their SUI
preme gravity. One thing l do assure
you: 1 shall seek to justify 70 wrong
doing. l shall not forget the issue
which is at stake here, to re-Astablsh
the plaintiffs claim to his own prop
erty, to his own family. and identity.
of which the defendant has robbed
him.
ITO you. gentlemen of the jury, has
deVolved the task of re-establishment
of returning to the enjoyments of his
| home and the honors of his position
my unhappy client. Upon your lips
! hang the decision whether his home,
his family, his property, are. forfeited
forever. and with them all hopes IF
| happiness in the community, whose
welfare to him up to the time of his
most unfortunate loss of identity was
| second only to that of his wife and
children. Your conclusions must be
reached without fear or without favor.
as no doubt they will be, your con-
science alone being your Judge of the
medltat1onS or your hearts in this great
case, which like many at the outset ap-
pears to be shrouded in mystery.
1.-The great burden of responsibility
thrust upon you deserves, yea, de-
mands the devotion of every faculty
of your minds and the most scrupulous
attention to every point of the case.
If your vision be keen enough, and /
think it is, you will see that each event
is inevitably linked with other acts
which tend to elucidate each other You
will see the mystery vanish, and d
plain, unvarnished tale arise in its
place.
you all know the plaintiff as we'll
as 1 do. 1t was this man who lived
among you more than a dozen years,
and all that time held a responsible
place in the community"
Mr.. Morley then preached the sub
ject of the plaintiffs mysterious year
ly absence as the result of his promise
to dying mother to seek for his twin
brother supposed by all but her to
have died soon after he was stolen.
THE child, like Charlie Ross. of Phil
adelphia, was snatched from his cradle