The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-07

the current sensation was homicide,
and in one Of those places to be wit
ness of the events Immediately follow
ing the crime and almost of the crime
itself. One was in New York City and
the other in the mountains OF Ken
tucky, two regions typical for their
belated civilization.
II was on tho campus of Berea col
lege on commencement day that the
first of these tragedies occurred. The
campus was filed with people. A guard
had been stationed a mile out Of town
on every road leading into town, and
a quantity of moonshinc whisky had
been conhscated. So far as known,
none had made its way into town. The
officers had done their duty well. There
was no drunkenness or rowdylsm, no
sense OF fear or anxiety. My friend,
who edits paper, and ] came out OF
the tabernacle rather late in the after.
noon, and commented on the growth of
good order year by year, and spoke OF
the time when the great gathering had
involved some hazard.
just then pistol shot was heard
over toward q corner Of the campus,
and [ proposed that we 60 that way.
'sCan' It you get into trouble enough
without going into it deliberatelyf"
asked the editor. But we both went.
back that one woman had shot another;
and when we arrived the dead woman
had been carried into one of the small
buildings and the other woman had
been arrested and led away. On the
steps OF the building where the muir
dered woman lay stood q professor who
called for rope to hold the crowd
back from the door, and this was
quickly done. My friend and L passed
tbrnunh an1 ofno1 1,nbtpI him
just outside tho door stood an un-
kempt, barefoot boy, sobbing; the wo-
man who had been shot was his mother.
But his sobbing was not with abandon;
it was as If he felt he had no right to
weep out all the bitterness of his grief.
One Of the professors led him away
and cared for him, and he did not go
inside.
Tho dead woman lay inside alone.
The officers who carried her in were
out hunting a justice and summoning
jury for an inquest. One deputy
guarded the door, and we stood with
him. No man cared to be the first to
90 in.
A woman pressed against the ropes
and asked admission. She knew the
dead woman and was admitted and
asked to remain and identify the body.
"Was the deceased woman Of good
tudl dCICl SuG WAS dSheu.
''No, sir, / couldn t say that Sho
was a-talkin' to married men. "
tTalkin' to- is technical phrase
for love-making.
The justice arrived in all the dignity
Of his Office. He wore a short coat
with the collar turned up and a wide
and weather-beaten straw hat, which
he did not remove at any time during
the trial. He had three weeks
growth of beard, and could not have
been called a dandy. His first Official
the store for tablet Of paper on which
to make his records
We went inside, the justice, the six
Jurors, few witnesses and not many
more, twenty of us, perhaps, altogether
The justice proceeded to swear the jury,
and the way he administered the oath
was the same then and afterward He
lifted his own right hand timidly and
about to the level OF his shoulder as he
began to repeat the oath, and each time
he took breath he gave it a little jerk
upward till he got to the words :" to the
best Of your knowledge and belief; so
help you Cod when one final eleva-
tion brought it as high as he could
reach. In like manner his own conf
dence increased with the progress of
the procedure. AS he questioned the
witnesses he wrote down their replies,
or the gist Of them, in very long hand,
standing all the while, and walking
back and forth around the corpse to get
nearer. to the witness as he asked the
question, and back to the blackboard
TO record the answer. He did not sit,
but wrote against the blackboard. turn
ing his back on the room each time, and
sometimes nearly stepping on the
corpse. Yet there was about it all
certain rude dignity, q sense of official
responsibility, a directness of inquiry,
and something also of familiarity with
the forms of court procedure which
redeemed it in part from tho grotesque.
Indeed there was about it all some
thing bunglingly and anonymously ap-
propriate; reminder that this court
was Of the people, even as to his old
straw hat and desire for Justice.
The dead woman lay on the floor,
Those who brought her in had folded
her hands across the body and laid two
pebbles on her eyes and tied up her
chin with n handkerchief. Her dress
had been opened and her breast was
bare. The bullet, which had entered
from the back, showed under the skin
between the breasts, and slowly, slowly
grew dark and more plainly visible
She wore new shoes and stockings. and
tho shoes had gay buckles upon them.
One witness. only put anything of
life and heart into her story. Tho rest
simply saw the deed or knew one or
both the parties, But this woman g
husband was remote cousin of the
husband Of the defendant. They both
bore the plebeian name of Nubbins.
She told how she stood with her cousin,
the defendant, when the woman now
dead came by and asked for the hus-
band; asking tauntingly, maiciouslv,
and the wife answered: "You'd orter
know; you we seed more of him today
than | have" whereupon the bad wo-
man laughed and tripped away in her
new shoes with the buckles Then the
witness continued.
And Mamie says to me: THAT
woman, better not poster me no more.
She IS been a-worryin' mo now for a
right smart spell. Ef she does that
Just. oncet more she'll git what she
don t want. AM l SAYS. Mamie,
don't you do nothin' rash;' and she
says; / don Il keer what do / IN
that pestered =! dom keer whether ]
live or die Bymeby the Black wo-
man come by again and asst agin where