The daily sentinel., 1907-07-19
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VS.
JOSIE MANIAH.

/ LbllbN -
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VS..
JOSIE MANIAH.
Murder in the
First Degree.
In the United States Court at Fort
Smith, Arkansas, His Honor Judge
Parker Presiding.
Judge Parker; Josie Maniah,
stand up. You have been found
guilty of a most heinous crime. 1t
was brutal in its conception and
fiendish in its execution. However,
it is not my purpose to dwell longer
on the enormity of your crime: it
now becomes my pleasant duty to
enact a part that will forever put a
quietus upon your most checkered
and damnable career. 1t will soon be
spring time Josie, and down in the
wild woods will be heard the below
ing of the frisky bull, the clinking of
the bells, the lowing of the cattle and
the prattle of the school children as
they come merrily home, making mu-
sic for the weary ear: but you won't
hear any of it. Josie, you won't be
here.
MY dear sir, the violets will soon
be abloom on the hillside and the
meadows will be covered with blue
and red. Nature viii have donned
her fairest garments presenting in
her gorgeous apparel a picture of va
riegated and bewildering beauty She
will indeed present picture that has
ever been the dream of poets and the
despair of the painters brush; but
you won't see any of these, Josie, you
won't be here then.
After summer, and It's quietude
and rest, then comes winter. And
the wailing winds and the chilling
blasts will no doubt make distress
for many a poor unfortunate wretch.
But don't you allow this fact to
worry or cause you any anxiety, for
you won't be here then.
Josie in passing sentence upon
a condemned criminal It is custom
ary in this court to invoke the ten
der mercies of a higher court but
in your case we will dispense with
/ that little formality. We won't use
! it here at all. For if | thought God
Almighty would have any compassion
on the soul of a wretch like YOU I'd
never speak or think of Him only
with perfect contempt.
Josie, on the sixth of this COM
/ ing month, which will be next Fri
day-and l hardly think there will
be an eclipse of the sun or moon
| command that you be hanged by the
neck until you are dead, dead dead!
/ Take him away"
At this juncture Josie arose and
said:
Hold, your honor and gentlemen
of this kangaroo court, have some
4 thing to say ere my final exit which
| am determined you shall hear. That
have taken human life, do not
deny. But 1t was under circumstances
of the greatest provocation. Circum-
stances that, had they been presented
in their true light, would at least
have entitled me to n respectful hear
ing
80 determined was this court to
add another victim to its already long
! list of slaughtered victims that l ear
ly foresaw that my doom was sealed
and every hope that / might have en-
termined was smothered. As it IS
| have been railroaded to the gallows
with a sang froid that must strike
the impartial observer as an act sim
ply appalling lin its atrociousness.
You and your henchmen have set here
through the proceedings of this hell
ish farce with gouhlish glee portray
ed on your every feature.
''You remind me more OF lot of
buzzards lowering over an expected
victim than a body of men supposed
to guard the principles of Justice.
You carry me like a dog to death; fol-
low me. you cringing ours, to the
scaffold and ! will show you how a
man can die.
"I want to say to this aggregation
of apparently half-starved hyenas
that you cannot damn my lofty spirit.
/ shall go to my death secure in the
incontrovertible fact that at last l
shall be judged Alright. ] shall bid
farewell to your sunny slopes and
verdant fields secure and happy in
the incontrovertible fact that the
members of this damnable tribunal
shall soon come to make their beds
with me As your little frail canoes
are padded over the turbulent
stream of death, l hardly think there
will be any believing of the bulls or
tinkling of the bells to relieve the
solemnity of the scene. AS you
stand budding and shivering there
upon those bleak and barren wastes
of despair you viii doubtless long
for some of the mercy that Is denied
the prisoner at your bar today You
sit there like lot of cannibals, who
have congregated to celebrate some oil
their horrid orgies.
"TeH me, do not the spirits of your
butchered victims sometimes hover
around your bed at night and break
ing into your distorted slumbers, do
they not shrek curses into your
shrinking ears? Sad and gloomy isl
the path that lies before you for as
you have showed no mercy here, you
cannot reasonably expect any clemen-
cy when your final summons comes.
ALREADY I note that the hot blood
mounts to your craven cheeks and