The La Jara chronicle. (La Jara, Conejos County, Colo.) 1896-19??, 1906-06-22

advises you to take loose grocery store
When l awoke was Mortified to find
myself in a 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
lump Of ice, on my heart. begged
him to explain. Anything but that
awful suspense. Then he told me !
bad murdered MissC., the old landlady.
Ny 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
mo 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
a pause, Il used to believe all lawyers
Taaals until that time. But the way
tina, 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. NJ. and
two A. NJ. on the night of the murder.
But it was of no use. Evidently the
films of memory had been temporarily
desensitized by the Supplying influ-
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. l 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 | knew to bring back the
chain of events of that Hateful night,
but l could only gaze at him stupid
ly. So far l could go. but no further.
At a certain point the cloud of obliv.
ion would drop before my mind, and
could not penetrate it. l thought
that by thinking with great rapidity,
and running with exact sequence
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 1t was without avail.
You can drive a horse at furious
rate right up to the brink of 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 l felt for
his skill would, at times, so absorb
me that felt the part l was taking in
the awful tragedy.
ITO 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, offered a silent prayer of
gratitude that she had not lived to
witness the last act.
ION the morning of the twenty-first,
as the clipping says. l 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
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 commotion in the
crowd and wondered rather impatient
" what the delay was about. Then
hands removed the cap and moose, and
was led back to my cell. When i
reached my cell and sat upon my bed,
/ couldn't realize what had occurred,
and pinched myself to see whether