The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-11

lie estimate of an occurance Is cast.
 A murder in the gambling house o1 Brookf1eld. although. mainly depend- ent upon causes utterly unconnected
 with the business of the establish ment, was soon accepted as a natural consequence of that business, as an unanswerable argument for the oss tracism of the proprietor.
 The game at Brookfield's closed.
 The public attributed this to fear. The real cause was Brookfield's senSi- tiveness and sympathy. An irrepara- ble calamity had befalien the woman he loved. Her son was to be tried for his life, because of an offence growing out of a situation for which he felt himself measurably responsi- ble. Viola. the niece whom Brook field loved with 8 tenderness exceeding that of many father. was suffering an affliction almost equal to that of Helen herself.
 During the first weeks of. Clay's imprisonment. the time covered by the notoriety and comment, by the application for bail and it's refusal, by the coroner's inquiry and the in- dictment. Hardmuth mad approached BrookfieId with a covert proposal to lessen the rigor of the prosecution if given assurance that Viola would ac- cept him as suitor. The arrange.
 l4V4AS AA0A OCOa S066SHtS0 W1LA an l0- direction of which Hardmuth was a master, but this approach. skillful as 1t was. precipitated . collision be- tween him and Brookfeld that stops ped all sentimental pretence on Hard muth's side and all hope in the mind of Brookfield for any consideration at the hands of the prosecution.
 Brookfield's energies and resources were at once conserved and applied to the task of liberating Clay from the consequences of Denning'S death.
 The best legal talent was retained. The paraphernalia of the gam bling house was sold. Mrs. Campbell and Viola were induced to give up their own apartments and again make their home with Brookfield. Helen, whose need to be near her son made a pro tracted stay in Louisville probable. was persuaded to join them. Their common affliction united them. in one Intimate and sympathetic family group. ,, The long delay necessary to the prosecution and by the defence. was anxiety. .
 All that money and affection cou,d provide in the prison conditions as they then existed in Louisville was procured tor Clay. The old Jefferson JS-~S WeAo AOb 0 SaulEdIY SCIuC. ture. That part of the building in which Clay was lodged was lighted and ventilated only by a skyiiEht above the court, around which ran three tiers of cells, each tier opening onto an iron gallery or balcony, on which the prisoners took their daily exercise. The associates of the boy, during this waiting period of incar. ceration, were two or three men like himself. under indictment for capi- tai offences, and varying number from thirty to fifty charged with felo- nies and lesser crimes.
 Through the influence of Brookfield and the sympathy of the jailer, Clay was permitted to have a little cell to himself. Permission was also giv. en to furnish the cell with such sim pie necessities as the boy had been accustomed to have, and to send in meals superior to the usual prison fare from an adjacent restaurant.
 The most liberal construction in rules that governed visits to the pris- oners by their friends. At some time during every day Viola. and his mother called on him. There were encour- aging visits from the attorneys, and once or twice each week Brookf1eld dropped in to cheer him.
 Brookfeld's time. however. in the 1AoAAs was OCtOSC0 Io SSSuf1uk SUCH expert testimony as would strengthen the contention of the defence, which the lawyers had decided should rest upon the inherited physical aversion that Clay had for the cats eye. To establish the existence of these idio- syncrasies. Brookf1eld read all the books upon the subject of which the conversation of the experts gave him any hint.
 H~ a>YA A which this reading opened up to him. Brookfeld found that a fascinating had been made since the date of the textbooks he had perfunctOrily read in his college days.
 Naturally superstitious as he was, with an imagination more than nor mally active. Brookfield found himself the presence of a pow CT. knowledge of which he believed would explain all that had been mys- terious and baleful in his life. IL seemed to him as though behind the screen of material appearance, and behind the web of tangible events, there was 2 force at work with an in- artistic weaver--an intent to combine apparently. unrelated threads into fig ure, pattern, and design-a force thr owing its willing, unconscious, reluctant, or rebelHous shuttics through the warp of time, weaving with events it's own robe. through the form and texture and decoration of which the spirit of things might be faintly apprehended. In the hands of these forces 1t seem. ed to Brookfeld that he himself and all his friends and acQuaintances were but puppets.
 No event. no material thing. seem- ed accident or accidental
 The visit of the opera company that had brought Hardmuth and Clay in- to relation and into opposition over Viola was 8 thread in the web of fate: his own boyish desire for the paper-cutter two-and-twenty years before was an immediate antecedent to its readiness as 8 weapon when Clay was 'impeiled to strike: Helen's acidentalc dropping of 1t from the ta- ble to the floor when Brookf1eid was to her was notable intf- nation. by fate, that there would be this interruption to the courtship. This and thousand other facts and incidents in his career seemed so closely interknit and articulated that Brookfield felt himself helpless In of steel.
 spection and apprehension when he found one night, after 8 busy and day of interviews. a somewhat substantial packet on his able bearing the postmark Washing ton." Brookfieid opened it. The pac. ket contained note from Justice Prentice and a book on psychic phe> nomena. which the jurist on his visit had promised to send him and now to his attention.
 Brookfeld read the book in one night. It was a scientific treatise all