The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-04-04
.........o.eoeo 9 Q 9 oee..e
THE lNEXPEDsENCY
OF AN UNTRUTH
[Original.]

[Original]
The difficulty Of establishing truth
is at times so great that we are often
tempted to produce the effect of a
truth by establishing an untruth. This
is especially so in the law. l once had
client who gave me story of why
he killed man so unreasonable that
though l believed it, l saw no hope of
convincing twelve other men in the
jury box of it. I therefore put in q
plea of my own invention. l erred In
doing So and have never repeated
the device.
Edward Barton, my client, a stoker
on a railway, was on trial for murder
ing the engineer of his train while the
train was in motion. 1t was considera-
bly, ahead of it's time when it pulled up
at station within twenty feet Of an
other tram standing on the same track.
The engineer was lying unconscious in
the cab with a fractured skull. He
never regained consciousness and died
|
was the only person who saw the MUIR
der and was obliged reluctantly to tes-
tify against him. She was accustomed
when his train passed the house in
which she lived, near the track, to
stand in the doorway and throw him
kiss. On the day Of the murder, hear
ing the train coming, she ran to the
door in time to see the train dash past
at a much greater speed than usual
The engineer stood with his hand on
the throttle, and Barton, instead Of
looking out for her, stood behind the
engineer and dealt him a blow with a
huge iron poker. The girl tainted and
the train dashed on.
I exercised all my ingenuity in con-
cocting a scheme of defense, which is
not necessary to my story, so l do not
give it here could not very well put
my client on the stand, for he could
only tell story far different from the
one was attempting to prove. He was
convicted. The day he was sentenced
to be hanged told him to tell his story
as he had told it to me.
"You ask me, judge, why sentence
should not be passed upon me.
killed the engineer, and l did it for a
good reason Before we started on the
run I noticed that he was acting
strangely. We had no sooner got un
der way than he asked me for more
, coal There was plenty in the furnace
and l told him so. He turned upon me
like a fury and ordered me to do as he
| had hidden. put in more coal, and he
| put on more speed. l begged him tt
slow up little, but he paid no atten
! ton to me. Our train was through
train and made no stop for an hour
Meanwhile we were getting ahead O.
our time and liable to meet othe,
. trains. The engineer was big, stron:
5 man, and it would have been impossi
l BILE for me to get him away from tn
r throttle. 1 was in an agony of doub
. and fear. The man had gone mad.
;. Noticing that we We're approachin!
station, looked through the cal
= window and saw but half a mile aheal
:, train standing dead on the sam
. track we were on. The lives of it
J. passengers as we'll as those on OH
t own train depended on me. I though
l that the safety Of the many was o
r more Importance than the life Of one
n I did not have time to think that If
y killed the engineer I would likely b
hanged for murder. / did not know
that l was passing the home Of M
sweetheart. There was no thought i
my brain except to prevent slaugf
ter 1 stepped behind the engineer an
brought my poker down on his skull
a / did not think of stunning him.
q would take no chances. l intended t
d kill him. He fell like log. threy
). back the reverse lever and whistle
}. down brakes, all within few seconds
The train stopped within two lengths
and terrible wreck was averted.