The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1909-08-06

ESlIjM try jurist of long expert
MMJ kHH ence whose reverence for
HkAkxsA8 the English bench caused
him unwittingly to assume the person
al appearance Of a wearer of the wis
and ermine Of B~lackstonian days
Judge bennett introduced him as
Judge Tanner and assured the club
that his guest was primed with many
q Renaissance of his long career and
would gladly furnish the story of the
evening. After the pipes of good fel.
towshlp had beer burned for a space
Judge Tanner arose and began his
story of circumstantial evidence.
Il often WONDER" he said, "if there
is a trial judge of any considerable
experience who has not carried some
n case as a load on his mind and
conscience for years after the verdict
or the jury is in and the condemned
led away to execution. 1t is a wise
provision of the law that makes the
Jury the judge both of the law and
the evidence. and the judge but the
medium through which the law
reaches the twelve; and l cannot con.
ceive the condition of mind of those
early English judges, before whom.
when they had arrived at a conviction
or guilt, even the jury was power
less. 1t was from their arbitrary and
unreasonable rulings, now happily not
neld within the power of the Judge.
that most of u records of miscarried
Justice have resulted.
Within my W experience there
has come one case which I believe is
as strange as any of record and which
for years, as l looked back upon it,
caused me to doubt the ability of man
ever infallibly to pass Judgment upon
a fellow creature. The parties now
are all dead and I tell it for the first
time. But to the story,
I'm a little city on the circuit in
which / have held court for more
years than l care to think of there
was at one time a hotel kept by a
very respectable man named iona.
than Miller. 1t vas the favorite stop
ping place for commercial travellers
n thus the most prominent and best
paying hotel in the city.
"One evening a jewelry salesman by
the name of Robert Conway arrived
at the hotel Just before p D He
INSTRUCTED Miller to send his grips I'D
o his room and remarked in the hear
Ing of several at the desk that he did
not care to have them left in the gen.
"eral baggage room as he was carrying
a far more expensive line of samples
thar usual. He also asked that the
door be carefully locked and the key
drought to him.
Supper over, he fell in with a
salesman for a shoe house and one
for a clothing firm and they repaired
to the bar where they played cards
and drank until II o'clock, when they
all retired. 1t happened that the hotel
was we'll filled and the clothing man
and the shoe man had been forced to
take a double room together. This
room was directly across the hall
from the n occupied by the jewelry
salesman.
About two o'clock in the morning
the two roommates were awakened by
groans which seemed to come from
the room of their companion Of the
evening across the hall.
They arose and without stopping TO
dress hurried out to see what the trou.
Die was. You can imagine their hor.
ror to find Conway, the jewelry man
dead, the bed blood-soaked, and stand,
ing over him. a dark lantern in one
hand and a bloody knife in the other,
Jonathan Miller, the landlord, who
-trembled violently and gasped inco.
fherently when they burst into the
chamber Of death.
"The case seemed black nougb
against him. There was not a sus
picion in the mind of anyone in the
city that he could be otherwise than
guilty. Yet when taken before a JUS
tice for a preliminary hearing he most
stoutly maintained his innocence and
told a story which had 1t not paled
into improbability by the side OF
dainning circumstances against him
would have been plausible in the ex
Areme
HE said he had just reached his
room after, as was his custom. sit.
ting up until a train due at half past
Sone, came in. He had not had time
TO remove his clothing when he, too,
heard groans coming from the neigh.
'borhood of Conway's room. Like the
two statesmen. he had hurried to in.
vestigate, and as q weapon of de.
tense he had taken the knife. He
also picbed up the dark lantern which
ne always used In making his last
ronnds Of the hotel and which was
Stiil lighted.
When he Preached the jewelers.
door he was Surprised to find 1t stand
sng open. Yhe groans had ceased.