The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1909-08-28

him unwittingly to assume the person
n appearance OF wearer of the wig
and ermine Of Blackstonian days.
Judge bennett introduced him as
Judge Tanner and assured the club
that his guest was primed with many
"reminiscences of his long career and
would gladly furnish the story of the
evening. After the pipes of good fell
lowship had been burned for a space
Judge Tanner arose and began his
story OF circumstantial evidence.
I often wonder" he said. "if there
Is trial judge Of any considerable
experience who has not carried some
one case as load on his mind and
conscience for years after the verdict
OF 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 I cannot con-
cetYe the condition of mind Of those
early English judges. before whom,
when they had arrived at a conviction
OF guilt, even the jury was power
less. 1t was from their arbitrary and
unreasonable rulings, now happily not
held within the power of the Judge,
hat most Of our records of miscarried
Justice have resulted.
within my own experience there
has come one case which I believe is
as strange as any OF record and which
for years, as / looked back upon 1t,
caused me to doubt the ability of man
ever infallibly to pass judgment upon
q fellow creature. The parties now
are all dead and tell II for the first
time. But to the story.
In little city on the circuit In
which / have held court for more,
years than / care to think of there
was at one time hotel kept by a
very respectable man named iona
than Miller. 1t was the favorite STOP
ping place for commercial travellers
and thus the most prominent and best
paying hotel in the city.
!, One evening jewelry salesman by
the name Of Robert Conway arrived
at the hotel Just before supper He
instructed Miller to send his grips up
to his room and remarked in the hear
dng 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
than usual. He also asked that the
door be carefully locked and the key
brought to him.
Supper over. he fell in with q
salesman for a shoe house and one
for q clothing firm and they repaired
to the bar where they played cards
and drank until IL o'clock, when they
all retired. It happened that the hotel
was well filed and the clothing man
and the shoe man had been forced to
take q double room together. This
room was directly across the hall
from the one 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-
bic was. You can imagine their hor-
ror to find Conway, the jewelry man.
dead. the bed blood-soaked, and stand
ing over him, dark lantern in one
hand and bloody knife In the other,
Jonathan Miller. the landlord, who
trembled violently and gasped inco-
herently when they burst into the
chamber of death.
The case seemed black enough
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 q JUS
<ice for preliminary hearing he most
stoutly maintained his innocence and
told a story which had it not paled
into improbability by the side of
damning circumstances against him
would have been plausible in the ex-
treme
He said he had Just reached his
room after, as was his custom, sit
ting up until train due at half past
one, 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 a weapon of de-
Tense he had taken the knife. He
also picked up the dark lantern which
he always used in making his last
rounds of the hotel and which was
still lighted.
when he reached the jewelers.
door he was surprised to find 1t stand
ing open. The groans had ceased,