Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1906-06-22

mislead you. Whenever one of them
advises you to take loose grocery store
When l awoke / was Mortified to find
myself in a prison cell. The iailer
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. ] 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 date
about month of 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
it, with evidence enough against me
to damn an angel, l don't know, but
she did 1t 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
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 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 Supplying infu-
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 / had been dis
covered in Miss C's room. | 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 1t, lay
lmy 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 / knew to bring back the
chain of events of that fateful night
but / could only gaze at him stupid
| ly. So far l 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 rapidly
} and running with exact sequence
J 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 menta
(, darkness. But it was without avail
You can drive a horse at a furious
rate right up to the brink Of lake
I but there he will stop, and not bulge
an inch further; and the blackness o.
a the lake in front of him is no blackel
3 than the blackness of that hell-bor1
r period of five or six hours of oblivion
t that confronted me. o, the helplessnes'
e Of it all. / used to sit and watch m!
e lawyer fight against such overwhelm
t ing odds that the admiration / felt TO
e his skill would, at times, so absorI
!. me that felt the part was taking il
: the awful tragedy.
"To make a long story short, tn
case finally went to the jury. Yo1
have seen the newspaper clippings
= The verdict killed my mother who ha,
!, never once left my side during tn
!, trial, except at night, and then only t
. resume her place the first thing II
the morning. She had been hopini
!, against hope. When mother droppe'
. dead, | offered a silent prayer o
d gratitude that she had not lived t
o witness the last act.
: ION the morning Of the twenty-tirst
e as the clipping says, was brough
e before the judge, an old friend OF m,
e father, and sentenced to be hanged b,
@ the neck until dead. Gentlemen
' there's an experience not many eve
r had and lived to tell Of it. Words ar
but feeble when one tries to describ
i it.
Y Talk about timely rescues in tn
: dramas-all nicely planned to occu
e with the regularity Of eloekwork-wh
they actually had that awful black ca
drawn over my face, and the moose az
5; justed before the governors stay a.
= rived l heard a eommotion in tn
crowd and wondered rather impatien
Of " what the delay was about. The
hands removed the cap and moose. an
b. was led back to my cell. When
reached my cell and sat upon my be-
ne couldn't realize what had oecure
g and pinched myself to see whether