The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-06-29

and plot and lay his plans as well as
he may, but the Almighty has some
eye always to see HIS acts that they
may be known of men. And so the
State does not rely entirely upon the
testimony of the prosecutor to make
out its case; the testimony of the three
policemen, and of Robt. Guest and
Claude Tidwell, corroborate his story.
And besides that, the defendants story,
| think it not extravagant to say, is so
utterly unreasonable that as reason
able men you cannot believe it. In
the first place, gentlemen, if he had
wanted that book, which he tells you
he was going after, why did he not go
for 1t in the early hours of the night,
which he was Willing away at Boyd
Andrews saloon. And after he got
his book, he says, he was going to
room to sing To a room which Henry
Benner tells you they had rented to
oluS III IhCs NohbOo W 0AASt
and to drink In when they wanted to
drink. How many songs did they ex-
pect to sing after that hour of the
night? How many drinks did they ex-
pect to take? And was the defendant
so literary, so hungry for detective
stories, that after he was done sing
H. III. he fnfnInd 10 rnod
the balance of the night? Looking for
a book? Here's the book he was look
ing for, said Mr.. VOORHEES,, pointing to
Mr.. fowler, the prosecutor. If he had
been going for book, gentlemen, he
could have gone to that bookstore and
back several times, between the time
he passed Gamble and Digger and
fowler on the postof1ce corner, and
the time of the difficulty; for in the
meantime you remember, fowler had
gone and gotten his pistol from his
office, and come back and talked with
his friends at the corner, and then
gone to the place where the difficulty
occurred.
Going for that book, he tells you, he
cut across the square from the bank
to Adams & Martins corner; but COM
ing back he came across from Adams
& Martins corner to the Mitchell-Ash-
ley corner. And why? Because he
heard a man whipping a horse down
the stI eet: and the thought of it so
outraged his tender feelings that he
became unconscious of his surround
ings and lost himself and his where
abouts, and did not know where he
was or what he was doing until he felt
the sting of bullet And then, ac-
cording to his story, another remark
able thing occurred. Will fowler,
great big, double-fsted Sandow that
he is, grabbed this poor, weak little
defendant, and dragged him from the
corner down the street to where he
wanted to be. | was down there,
thought the defendant; they will prove
that on me; and | must account for it
some way, or the jury will know that
I put myself there with murder in my
heart; so | will just say that this
great big double-fsted, powerful fell I
low, Will fowler, dragged me there.
But the defendants most interest
ing theory does not stop at that. He
tells you that the second shot that
struck him, utterly paralized his left
hand and arm; that he could not move
it for days. And then ne tells you,
that when he had taken Towler's pis- ,
tel from him, and fired the last shot I
that was in it at him as he ran for
his home, that he was so careful with I
that pistol that he hung it upon the |
palised little niger of his left hand I
while he reached around to his left |
hip pocket with his right hand and T
drew his own pistol; following his I
fleeing antagonist all the time, that |
pistol still dangling from the poor, par
allied, little finger of his palsied arm.
That was the most unreasonable story .
gentlemen, that l ever heard told in .
a court ROOM I wondered while he I
was telling it, that he didn't just drop
that pistol and be done with it, But
learned later why. He was saving
it to throw at his enemy; to throw it
clear away; to take it in his right
hand with his other pistol, and while
he held on to his own to throw the
other one away. I say that no rre.