The Carlisle independent., 1909-07-15

Melvin Lessure stood with white face, clenched hands and gritted teeth while Lucille threw herself at her fathers feet and weepingly begged and implored him to mitigate the harsh sentence. But he cast her rudely from him with curse, and, turning to Lessure with murder in his eyes, said:
 You dog! You want my daugh. ter-youI Why, shot your father down in cold blood because he differed with me politically Do you think I'll do less for you for trying to rob me of my daughter?'
 "'So it was you who killed my father returned Lessure in a voice beneath the quiet of which lay the tense fzedness of stern, unbending resolve. Then, Col Farrar, I tell you that I will have your daughter and I will aVenge my father. Are you mine till death, Lucile?'
 "T am yours till death, said the girl as she went over and placed her oA All RAO0d4g oOO0L DAS ACNh+ ~Very little was seen of Lessure in town after that and it was whis- pered that he was staying out on his farm and keeping out of the irate colonel's way.
 "Ahout two weeks after his unsuc- cessful interview with Farrar, which was noised abroad as such things are in small town, Lucille Farrar disappeared, and the tongues began to Vag in earnest. When for a week she had not turned up the towns peo- l pie. who had little love for Farrar at s best, were ready to believe anything. His threat against his daughter was ! known and the bolder ones did not l hesitate to whisper that he had put 1 it into execution. These hints took form by degrees and at last witness came forward who told of passing the colonel's house, situated on the edge of town, late at night, and of hearing 1 low moans and pleadings
 At last suspicion took such fierce root that the sheriff headed an in- vestigating party. Col. Jim was away 1 and they had free run of the prem l ises.
 The search led to a cave in the side of the hill, once used as a cellar but long since abandoned. There they found torn pieces of a dress, a bloody hatchet and some tangled locks of black hair drenched with blood. The dress and the hair were easily Identified as belonging 10 Lucille Far Tar, the hatehet as the property of l the colonel.
 When charged with the crime his knees tottered and he nearly tainted. He made no direct denial but moaned and cried like child During the trial that followed he seemed stunned and oblivious to what was going on.
 T will admit that the courts of | to-day would be loath to accept so inadequate a corpus delicti, but our blood was hot in those times and it seems to me we hanged more than we do now. Service was had on Les sure and he testified to the facts of the | quarrel and the threat Upon this | evidence and the prisoners failure to deny they found their verdict of guilty and fixed upon the death penalty. As the day of execution approach. | ed Col. Farrar continued in a state of almost total insensibility. But when the sheriff came to read the death warrant he reused and raising his hand to heaven, said:
 Before my maker I swear that ] am guiltless of my childs death
 They led him to the scaffold and On the way he passed Melvin Lessure
 who was watching the scene like a bird fascinated by snake Col. Far. Tar requested the sheriff to stop. and