The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-03

court room to the opposing lawyers restless and with some apprehension In them, and his hands are equally rest less. It is solemn thing to be tried for ones life.
 sister By His side. At his back sits his sister. one who has lived her life on tho farm, who shows that she knows the toll and the remoteness of the farm. There are lines in her face that have probably come there since they came in and told her that her brother had killed Walter Rooch with a fence rail. She sits passive and undemonstrative as the quiet solemn drama of the court room is played out. before her. But the cup of sorrow has been to her lips and she shows that she has drank 1t. If they who would do violence, if they who go into danger to kill or be killed, for trifle or a punctilio, could think on the weak and dependent, who would suffer most from the tragedy, their hands would be stayed and the word murder" would aot so often be written in Alabama's court records. No sentence was ever written, which had more of truth and wisdom, than that which says. "No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself" And across the room, at the elbow of the public prosecutor. sits the kith and kindred of Walter Rooch. who believes that he was coldly murdered and who are demanding the punishment of his slayer.
 Court Room Packed. The large court room of the brand new court house of Houston County, was packed this morning until men sat on the window sills, when the case was called. It was a prosperous look - ralI HrA ed, too. They make money on these wiregrass farms. The crowds show 1t. Tn record breaking time. for case in which a white man is being tried. the jury was selected. In less than two hours this was done
 The jury chosen was: J. T. Exurn, Green watford, E. B. Williams, W. B. Dismukes, Charlie Addison. w. B. Fay Tor, John Baxley, W. D. Phillips. A. J. Gelstrop, c. S. McGowin. J. D. Harri- son J. H. Adams.
 The court went into the testimony of the case at two o'clock. the begin ming of the afternoon session.
 The physician witness was first call ed to deveiope the case in the usual way. the witness was Dr. Howell. or Dothan. He was a practising physi- elan of two years experience.
 He had held an autopsy on the body of Walter Roach. The body had been disinterred from the cemetery of Kin sey. He found an external abrasion. there was a fracture of the skull. Down the side considerable blood clot had formed next to the tissues in the interior of the skull and death had resulted from that clot of blood on the brain.
 The defense declined to corss ex- anime pr. Howell
 Eye Witness Called.
 The only eye witness of the tragedy, Fob Fox, a young man engaged in the saw mill business. next took the stand to discribe the fatal difficulty He was driving an OK team that day. As he passed the Roach home, Walter Roach or Doc Roach, as he was commonly called. came out and followed behind the wagon to the field In which MT. Smith was blowing.
 He told the witness he was going to see Mir. Smith and have a talk with him. When they got to MT. Smiths field he was blowing some distance from the fence. Roach asked Smith to come to the fence, but Smith did not come. Roach then climbed over the fence and went to his oxen continued on down the road. Tn his wagon the witness could look back and see the two men talking in the freshly plowed field.
 Roach started back to the fence. Smith quickly followed:. but directed his way to a different place In the fence, walk Ing faster, he reached the fence first. Smith was between Roach and the Roach home. As Smith left the fence he picked up long fence rail and raising 1t In both hands high above L An Al feet away.
 Roach who had a piece of ash stick about two and a half feet long, stop ped and waited as Smith approached him with the rail Smith brought the rail heavily down on Roach's head and the young man fell to the ground with out a word.
 Then Smith threw down the rail and went back to blowing. The witness drove on to the mill 800 yards away. He returned little later, but Roach had gotten up and walked away. Tho witness testimony was not shaken by the cross examination of Mir. Farmer. although the attorneys questions inti- mated that in one particular. the tes- timony of the witness had been differ ent at the habeas corpus proceedings
 The State attached considerable i'm portance to the testimony of Mrs. liar rell in corroborating the evidence oi Mir, Fox. Mrs. Harrell Is a frail ltttlo woman from the farm adjoining the Smith farm.
 Saw Two Men Talking.
 She was standing in little grove of saplings near the hog pen at the time of the difficulty. Where she stood she could see the two men talk ing in the Smith field. She saw the two men start to the fence and she saw Smith climb the fence and Roach was further down the hill and she coul @ot see him after he got over the fence. She saw Smith seize rail and holding 1t high above his shoulder start down the road towards Roach.
 He too passed out of sight at the hill but the witness heard the blow on the head of Walter Roach. MT Farm CT in cross examining sought to estab- fish it as evidence that Mrs. Harrell had shown a party of men the place where she was standing and from which 1t was impossible to see the spot where Smith climbed over the fence and got his rail.
 T sho did" said the witness emphat- ically. J. F. Roper. a farmer repeated a conversation he had with Smith where the latter sent for him on the morning after the difficulty.
 How is Doc?" was his first question. when told that he was dying Smith