Amador ledger., 1906-06-22

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When I awoke was Mortified to find
myself in prison cell. The jailer
stood at the door and cautioned, RE
member anything you say may be used
against you." A great dread sat, like
a lump Of ice, on my heart. I begged
him to explain. Anything but that
awful suspense. Then he told me /
had murdered MissC., the old landlady.
MY trial was set down for a date
about a month off and my angel moth
er secured the best and ablest coun-
sci to defend me; but best of all, she
came to me in my agony and put her
hand on my forehead, and then kissed
me and told me that she believed me
innocent. How she could logically do
1t, with evidence enough against me
to damn an angel, I don't know, but
she did it with her woman's heart, and
her woman's heart broke when, at
length, the jury told her she had been
mistaken"
Gentlemen" resumed Barclay, after
a pause, Il used to believe all lawyers
rascals until that time. But the way
that man worked for me was nothing
short of sublime. He labored with me
day in and day out, morning, noon,
and night, striving by all means
known to philosophy, science and prac-
tice, to recover from the sensitive
plates of my memory the picture print
ed on them by a rum-enfeebled spirit
between the hours of eleven P. M. and
two A. M. on the night of the murder
But it was of no use. Evidently the
films Of memory had been temporarily
desensitized by the stupefying infiu-
ence of the alcohol. Anyway, nothing
could bring the dreaded pictures of
that awful period to the surface.
81 shall not bore you with the har-
RAISING details of the trial. 1t was
shown, however, that I had been dis
covered in Miss C's room. 1 was on
the floor in a drunken sleep when the
officers arrived, and was completely
dressed, even to my overcoat and hat.
Near my right hand, as if had but
recently relaxed my hold upon it, lay
my pistol. One of the cartridges had
been discharged and the bullet found
in Miss C's body fitted the empty
shell.
| MY lawyer used to come to my cell
and implore me to use every trick and
device that l knew to bring back the
chain of events of that fateful night,
but 1 could only gaze at him stupid
ly. So far I could go, but no further.
At certain point the cloud of obliv-
ion would drop before my mind, and
could not penetrate it. I thought
that by thinking with great rapidity,
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along the chain of occurrences leading
up to a certain hour, the mental NOM
entum thus acquired might carry me
through into the realms of my mental
darkness. But it was without avail
You can drive horse at a furious
rate right up to the brink of a lake,
but there he will stop, and not bulge
an inch further; and the blackness of
the lake in front of him is no blacker
than the blackness Of that hell-born
period of five or six hours of oblivion
that confronted me- o, the helplessness
of it all. l used to sit and watch my
lawyer fight against such overwhelm-
ing odds that the admiration felt for
his skill would, at times, so absorb
me that felt the part I was taking in
the awful tragedy.
"To make a long story short, the
case finally went to the jury. You
have seen the newspaper clippings.
The verdict killed my mother who had
never once left my side during the
trial, except at night, and then only to
resume her place the first thing in
the morning. She had been hoping
against hope. When mother dropped
dead, I offered silent prayer of
gratitude that she had not lived to
witness the last act.
"On the morning of the twenty-first,
as the clipping says, I was brought
before the judge, an old friend of my
father, and sentenced to be hanged by
the neck until dead. Gentlemen,
there's an experience not many ever
had and lived to tell Of it. Words are
but feeble when one tries to describe
it.
'Talk about timely rescues in the
dramas-all nicely planned to occur
with the regularity of clockwork-why
they actually had that awful black cap
drawn over my face, and the moose ad-
justed before the governors stay ar
rived. I heard a commotion in the
crowd and wondered rather impatient
ly what the delay was about. Then
hands removed the cap and moose, and
l was led back to my cell. When 1
reached my cell and sat upon my bed,
I couldn't realize what had occurred,
and pinched myself to see whether 1