Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-07-18
CHAPTER XIX.

The Jeffries case suddenly entered
Into an entirely new phase, and once
more was deemed of sufficient public
interest to warrant column after col
umn of spicy comment in the news
papers. The town awoke one morn
ing to learn that the long-sought-fOr
witness, the mysterious woman on
whose testimony everything hinged,
had not only been found, but proved
to be the prisoners own wife, who
had been so active in his defense.
This announcement was Supplying
enough to overshadow ali other news
of the day, and satisfied the most
jaded palate for sensatiOnalism.
The first question asked on all sides
was: Why had not the wife come for
ward before? The reason, as glibly
explained by an evening journal of
somewhat yellow proclivities, was log
ical enough. The telling of her mid
night visit to single mans rooms
involved a shameful admission which
any woman might we'll hesitate to
make unless forced to it as last
extremity Confronted, however, with
the alternative of either seeing her
husband suffer for a crime of which
he was innocent or making public &C
acknowledgement of her own frailty, she
had chosen the latter course. Nat
rrally, il meant divorce from the bank
er's son, and undoubtedly this was the
solution most wished for by the family
The whole unsavory affair conveyed
good lesson to reckless young men of
wealth to avoid entangling them
selves il undesirable matrimonial adj
ventures. But it was no less certain,
went on this journalistic mentor, that
this wife, unfaithful as she had proved
herself to be, had really rendered her
husband a signal service in her pres
ent scrape. The letter she had pro-
duced. written to her by Underwood
the day before his death, in which he
stated his determination to kill him
self. was, of course, a complete Vindi-
cation for the man awaiting trial His
liberation now depended only on how
quickly the ponderOus machinery of
the law could take cOgnizance of this
new and most important evidence.
The new turn of affairs was nat
urally most distasteful to the police
If there was one thing more than
another which angered Capt. Clinton it
was to take the trouble to build up
case only to have it suddenly demol-
ished. He scoffed at the suicide let
ter" safely committed to Judge Brew
steers custody, and openly branded it
as a forgery concocted by an immoral
woman for the purpose of defeating
the ends of Justice. He kept Annie
prisoner and detied the counsel for
the defense to do their worst. Judge
Brewster, who loved the fray, accept
ed the challenge. He acted promptly
He secured Annie's release on habeas
corpus proceedings and, his civil suit
against the city having already begun
in the courts, he suddenly called Capt
Clinton to the stand and gave him
a grilling which more than atoned for
any which the police tyrant had pre-
viously made his victims suffer. In
the limelight of a sensational trlal, IN
which public servants were charged
with abusing positions OF trust, ne
showed Capt. Clinton up as bully ana
a CRATER, q bribe-taker. working hand
and glove with dishonest politicians,
not hesitating even to divide loot with
thieves and dive-keepers in his greed
for wealth He proved him to be
consummate liar, a man who would
stop at nothing to gain his own ends
What iurv would take the word or
such a man as this? Yet this was the
man who still insisted that Howard
Jeffries was guilty of the shooting
of Robert Underwood.
But public opinion was too intelli-
gent TO be hoodwinked for any length
Of time by brutal and ignorant POI
liceman. There was a clamor for the