Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-03-06


mistaken in this case unless you are
injuring yourself. But you can't hang
Ellis with your prejudiced testimony.
/ thank God that the people Of Neva-
da did not mob you last year, and I
hope that they will not lynch you
now, but you had better get out Of
this community as soon as you can or
I will not vouch for your worthless
life. Get off the witness stand and
get out of my sight
He disappeared. He was almost
scared to death, and the Jury could
see that too. While he was getting
out of the room called for the other
witness, and he came to the stand in
a nervous, trembling manner, which
indicated that l already had him scar
ed almost to DEATH He was very
much excited and evidently expected
me to go after him as I had gone af-
ter the other witness. He could
scarcely stammer his name. and this
IL what I did to him:
"'You saw O'J3rien, the dead man,
raise shovel and try to brain Ellis
here. You saw Ellis run away from
him. You saw O'Brien run after Ellis
clear to the edge of the pit. Your
own eyes witnessed the fact that Ell
lis did not draw his gun until he was
about to be Drained and knocked into
the pit. Now. tell the jury the truth
without any hesitation or quIbbllng.
Out with it,
'The poor fellow began to stutter
and stammer and shake his head. He
raised his arms and waved them
about his head. He stammered and
finally put his hands to his eyes, tears
of vexation flowing. and then I shout
ed:
Tears will not avail you. Let
your conscience work. You know the
truth, and you know that this deed
was done in self defense. Tell the
truth or get off the stand
He got off the stand The jury
did not know that he was a sufferer.
They saw only that the witness was
stricken dumb before a determined
attorney. and they saw from his tears
that he was regretting his direct tes-
timony. My case was won. 1t took
less than five minutes for the jury to
render verdict Of not guilty.
"As soon as the verdict had been
rendered Ellis came to me and asked
If his life was saved, and I replied:
Your life Is safe for just about ten
minutes. These people are now going
to the saloon, ard as soon as their
whisky takes effect they will come
here and run you up on a rope. While
they are drinking you must scoot up
the mountain side and disappear. Now
get out as fast as your legs will carry
you
mo man ever Skinned up a noun
tain side with more expedition than
Ellis did that morning. He disap-
peared in the brush, and nobody ever
saw him again in those diggings. +
got on my horse and also disappeared,
as did not know what the mob might
be tempted to do when they failed to
find Ellis. Of course, after they
cooled down, none of them blamed
me for saving my client, although
they were all satisfied that he was
guilty. Even the jurymen told me
afterward that they Gid not see how
they ever acquitted him.
THAT was my last case in criminal
practice. I declared that I would
never again take the case Of any man
charged with murder. I felt that 1
had done my duty as a lawyer and
had saved the life of a client who
trusted that life to me, but I was
deeply impressed with the belief that
/ could not do it again under any
circumstances. SO l quit criminal
practice and went into politics. But I
had not seen the last of Ellis. L had
dismissed him from my mind entirely,
but ten or twelve years afterward I
was in Salt Lake City participating in
a public meeting. Late at night I
was walking to my hotel when man
rushed out of little alley handed me
a purse of money and said: Take it.
It's yours. You earned more, but that
is all I have now. You saved my
life. I'm Ellis
with that he disappeared, and II
have never seen or heard OF him
since. All of the circumstances were
against him, and yet maybe he was
innocent. A man who will go out OF
his way to pay debt as Ellis did must
have some good qualities in him. In
the purse 1 found the neat sum OF
$3.50, which must have represented
his savings for long time. I pre-
sumo that he had been watching my
and followed me on that
occasion in order to pay for my ser
vices and let me know that he real
lied something of their value to him.
Whether he was innocent or not / did
my plain duty in defending him. No
other course would have saved him
from hanging, and it was we'll for
him that he got out of sight as quick
ly as he did. Those were strenuous
days in the mining regions. If Ellis
Is alive, he will not blame me for tell
ing the story. If he was innocent, he
will be glad to have it told."-Smith