Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-07-31

would return a verdict in accordance
with the evidence.
The jury retired and ten minutes
later filed again into court, with a
verdict Of Guilty on all the counts"
Now, your honor" the district at
torney said, Il ask that the accused
be given the full penalty of the law
Jim Farren is menace to this town
and to this county. He is now %
years of age; the maximum penalty
of 80 years on the six counts will rid
the world Of him until he is So. 1t will
relieve this community of a pest, a
social pariah, vulgar incendiary, an
insensate brute and vagabond who
Is rotten to the very core"
The prosecutor sat down-satisfied.
The crowd was weary of waiting.
HAS the defense anything to offer?"
asked the judge.
Before you sentence the prisoner"
a few remarks"
Silence fell on the assembly. What
could be said on behalf of the culprit?
Jim Farren," he said, was born in
this town. His father was drunkard
and was killed in drunken brawl.
His mother was a poor characterless
creature who died a year after her hus-
band, leaving Jim at the age of nine
to push for himself.
when the landlord took posses
sion of the shack called a home, Jim
just went out and began the battle of
life. Began it as little animal; not
a domestic animal, for then he would
have had care, but as wild animal,
without the ferocity or fleetness of the
forest.
He lived on refuse, and if he craved
for anything else there was but one
way to get it-steal it. In the winter
he crept into your haylOfts or stables
and partook of the shelter of your
cows, your horses, your swine.
your honor, in % years the prison
er never had the touch of a kindly
hand nor the sound of tender word
from human soul; but in manhood
as in childhood whoever was able
kicked him, and his experience, among
men and women looking at him in this
courtroom. led him to believe in but
one law. 1t was the law he saw in
the wild and he saw it among men and
women and children-it was the law
of the survival of the fittest
Il do not accuse these people of
crime, but Jim Farren is what this
community made him by neglect. l
said moment ago that not single
soul had done him kindness. / will
modify that: there was one, just one
and not another. He was man who
smiled occasionally at the wastrel. He
put his hand sometimes on his I'M
kempt head and even lent him small
sums of money-very small sums
SO cents was the largest sum.
HE paid back the loans, but how
could man of the type described by
the district attorney pay back
smile, or kind word? AN insensate
brute couldn't and a man rotten to
the very core wouldn't. But Jim Far
rem paid back the smile. A week ago
plot was Matched in the Jail over
there, by four of the most desperate
men ever corralled by process of law
Between these men and the wide-open
country and liberty was one man, a
keeper. Jim Farren was selected to
strike the blow that meant liberty to
four men and death to one A day
and an hour were set.
Your honor, in the providence of
God, when that day dawned the keeper
was at home sick and the man who
came through the cells that day was
the sheriff himself
Never mind they said; what does
it matter whether it's one man or an
other? Strike the blow!' But it did
matter to Jim Farren. 1t mattered
much which man he struck, for the
sheriff was the man who had smiled
at him when a boy, said a kind word
to him in youth, and encouraged him
Just little-When a man.
" If you don't strike the blow We'll
do it and kill you for your cowardice.'
Your honor, an insensate brute
would have saved his own skin-'a
man rotten to the core would have
made dash for liberty, but Jim Far
rem turned around and said: All right.
You'll kill the sheriff over my dead
body and the prisoner at the bar put
his life in the scales for the only
human being that ever famed that
spark in him that we call soul, and he
fought three desperadoes, and he won!
Mr. Sheriff." said the lawyer. will
you kindly stand up?"
The sheriff stood
Have related the facts?"
You have, sir. Farren saved my
life at the risk of his own"
That is all, your honor"
When the judge spoke there was
something strange and entirely new
in his voice:
"Farren," he said, your record is
bad-very bad. You have been found
guilty of burglary on six counts. But
am unable to ignore the fact that you
responded to the only appeal ever
made to your nobility. On the first
count l will give you the minimum
year; on the second, the
minimum-one year; and I will sus-
pend Judgment on the rest. Before |
your attorney spoke was in hurry |
to give you 80 years."
There was long pause The mar
rator rose and walked over to the
window and looked out over the roofs
OF the houses at the binding snow
storm
"Fwhat liver becomed av' imp"
asked an Irish ex-soldier.
He became insane at the end of
his first year in prison."
AN tn lahyer?"
The lawyer" he said, as if talking
to himself. the LAWYER for tho dofo,,eo