The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-07
A STUDY IN TRAGEDY
Contrast Between Dealing With Murderer' IN the
Mount.;n, and With Those In the Metropolis
the Hills OF Kentucky ETC.

deed ont of court she might deny it
in court, but with desire to have all
proceedings regular he sent for her,
The accused woman was brought in
with her husband and little daugh-
ter of three. She was seated on the
front seat, within q yard or two OF
to her only alf-intelligible proceedings
that followed she had nothing to divert
her attention from the one horrible OBJ
ject before her
I sat within n yard OF her and looked
hard at her. Did she regret 1T? If so
she did not show it. Her face was pale,
but firm There was no hysterla. no
weeping. What does n woman think
when she has killed another, and has
to sit for an hour and look ut her dead
body first at the pebbles GU her eyes
and then at the buckles on her new
shoes, and then at the place whore
the bullet lodgedl And what does the
man think who sits between them, his
living wife and his dead mistress, and
realize that his. conduct has killed
one woman and made another mur.
deress9 And what does little girl
think who sits in her fathers lap and
turns wondering looks, first at him,
then at mother, and then at the dead
woman on the floor
There are two deputy sheriffs near
Mamie and her husband, one on the
seat beside them and one who has
slipped In just behind, He is a young
lawyer from the county seat, who, hav~
ing no pressure of business from cl1-
ents, has resolved to earn nm honest
two dollars this day as deputy sheriff.
to him the opportunity opens prosper
ously, Sitting behind he whispers to
Mamie and her husband advising them
,nf 70 bnr tn
in court the confession she has made
outside. They heed him, and accept his
services with n mere nod or two. But
that is enough He who entered the
room as deputy sheriff is now trans
formed into attorney for the defend
ant; 1T is more profitable job, and,
for that matter, leaves him still free
to finish his days work as deputy.
The verdict of the Justices inquest
is short and direct, finding that the
woman came to her death as the result
of pistol shot fred by Mamie Nub-
bins, who is held to an examining trial
two days later,
So we went out, leaving the body in
the hands of the village undertaken, to
be buried by the town.
Two days later / went down on the
train with the husband Of Mamie, a
decent appearing fellow. I did not
address him, but j wondered much
what he had been thinking In the in
tervening thirty six hours. He showed
nothing from which a judgment could
be formed, and he walked to the court
house where Nannie awaited him.
The examining trial was shorter than
was fewer and the facts were elected
more promptly. The young lawyer
made his brief and fervent plea, and
the verdict followed quickly. "Not
guity-self- defense This was the
verdict. Self defense; and the dead
woman was unarued and shot in the
back! But the theory of self-defense
more flexible; she was defending her
home, her honor, the good name Of her
children. Yes, it was clear case of
self f-defense, as adjudged in Ken
lucky,
There were some reporters present at
the Berea Commencement, and so the
shooting became known to the world,
That was an accident which cannot
we'll be helped, and is not TO be at
tributed to the custom of the country.
The theory there is that the thing is
done, and the woman needed killing,
and while the manner is to be deplored,
the least said about it the better.
Very soon after this event j visited
New York City, which also, like tho
kentucky mountains, is Il place of be-
lated civilization. There shooting had
occurred, somewhat similar, In that
case there were two men and one wo-
man, and so 1T was a man who shot
another man, and the woman had more
new shoes with buckles Otherwise
the cases were practically similar. And
tho city was proaaching about it and
talking about it and the newspapers
had unearthed as many as forty pic
lures of the woman, and were blocking
the streets with their cameras in eff
forts to obtain more, and were telling
about the millions that would be spent
on the trial, and were publishing the
growsome details, not merely Of the
crime, which would have been relative
ly wholesome, but of the sins that pro-
duced the crime.
And | have been wondering which,
after all, is the better way, the crude
method of the Dark ard Bloody Ground
or the alleged civilized method of
darker New York.
And IN tho long run, which is tho