The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-01-02
SHADOW UF THE
HANCMAK' s ROPE.
FALLS ACROSS PATHWAY or Wo-
MAN CONDEMNED TO DIE FOR
MURDER OF HUSBAND.
DUE TO AN ACCIDENT
She Claims--Strong Efforts to Prevent
Hanging of West Virginia Wo-
man---Rogers Case ParaI-
IeIed.

Clay, w. Va. January lon New
Years Day In small steel cell In the
l.tle log jail that nestles on the hill
side overlooking this town quietly sits
a young woman, over whom the gal
lows casts It's darkening shadow,
She Ii Sarah Ann Legg, convicted or
the murdc. of her husband and SEN
fenced to suffer the extreme penalty
She calmly sits and reads as she
confidently waits for the highest court
CT the state to lift The shadow and
let Id the sunshine of promised life.
She is slight of figure-supple ana
svelte, not bony-with yoluptousness
that is sometimes found in the women
OF slender. frame, through whose veins
animal life runs In riotous course; her
countenance is attractive withal,
though her gray-blue eyes have a bad
habit Of refusing open encounter with
those that challenge them, even with
friendly interest.
She completed her twenty-iifth year
on the twelfth day Of the present
month, and she is the mother of two
children, girl years old the middle
of June. and a boy during the lact
days Of the same month.
A noticeable thing Is her hand
Though she comes from the lower
walks Of life-nay, the lowest-her
hand Ii small and shapely, with an
aristocratic taper to the finger, and
the smooth plumpness of child's.
She easily thrust It between the bars
of her cell 10 shake hands with news
paper representative when they were
introduced by her attorney.
Why She is in Prison.
On the afternoon of February 10,
1904. Jay Legg the husband Of this
woman, was shot through the body by
a rife in the hands Of his wife in the r
two-room house that stands on the
bank of the Elk River. In the extreme
northeastern edge OF Clay county. She
claims It. was accidental; the states
attorney declared IL was intentional,
and the jury agreed with the Attor-
new and found her guilty of murder In
the first degree, refusing to make a
recommendation for mercy, which LEFT
no discretion with that honorable
official but to sentence her to death
This was done at the last April term
of the court, and she was condemned
TO die on the scaffold July last Hei
attorneys secured a writ of error from
the Supreme Court of Appeals, which
acted as stay of execution, ant
the argument of her case before th(
court cf last resort is fixed for Marcf
g.
The tory OF the killing Of Legg Il
very brief one. and yet there Is
something about it that leaves the
hearer unsatisfed as to how il wal
done Legg had been away from home
a day or two and on the night preced
ing the day of his death two youni
blades of the neighborhood Jaool
Eagle and Cary Hays, went to hi
home, carrying with them banjo. an,
there spent the night with Mrs. Legi
and her young brother, George Dickey
playing the banjo and violin, leavinl
at 4 o'clock In the morning. after /
carousal which, according TO their tec
timony-cr their refusal to give testi
mony-and the womans undispute'
reputation. would have given usua
grounds for pair of killing by th'
husband had he returned in time.
Husband Was Away.
until the afternoon. and when he go
TO the house he found his mother ther'
with his wife. The brother of Mrs
Concluded on Fifth Page.)