The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-02-11

terest OF the United States government
at the time to prevent supplies from
being carried through the lines to the
COnfederates, and for this purpose
spies were employed to watch for per-
sons engaged in such traffic. The spy
system, Notwithstanding that it has
figured largely in romance, is not likely
to enlist those who are inspired by
the highest motives.
Some of these INSCRIPTIONS persons
found a victim In the old clergyman.
Hearing him lament the loss of slis
fortune, they suggested a way for him
to recover it. They told him that the
southern people were greatly in need,
among other things, of quinine and
percussion caps and would pay enor-
NOUS prices for these articles. Whether
Mr.. Luckett was aware that such
traffic was forbidden by the United
States government and that the pun
ishment. attached to it was death does
not appear. And even if he was his
being drawn into such trap is hardly
conceivable In a man of sound MUD
OF course the men who induced him
to ship the supplies stopped them be
fore they had crossed the lines, and
Mr.. Luckett was arrested. That court
martial should have found him guilty
of furnishing aid and comfort to the
enemy is moi surprising. Courts mar
tial are makeshifts in wartime, just
as Judge Lynch is used in newly set
tied countries overrun by criminals
where the protection afforded by the
law Of the land tends rather to defeat
than to establish justice But for any
body Of United States officers to con-
denim broken down old man to death
for such an offense is to say the least
unmerciful.. Nevertheless Mr.. Luck
EFT, who had spent his life preaching
the gospel, was sentenced to be shot.
The scene of our story now shifts to
the capital of the nation, where eyerv
one from the president down to the
scullion in the kitchen was absorbed
in the great struggle between the
north and south. A gentleman and his
wife who had come from the west
alighted from train and pursued their
way through streets crowded with
army wagons, soldiers. pedestrians
marching cavalrymen and artillery to
the house of representatives. Arriving
rnere, the gentleman sent his caro- to a
member of cOngress-V oorhees of In
diana, afterward a senator Of national
reputation. The card bore the name
OF Bullitt, resident of the congress
sional district represented by Mr.. Voor-
bees. The latter arose from his desk.
ioined Mr. Bullitt, with whom he was
well acquainted, and the two went to
the anteroom, where Mrs. Bullitt await
ed them They found her very much
agitated, and she greeted Mr.. Voor-
bees with the words:
MY father is to be shot the day
after tomorrow"
1t behooved the congressman to do
what he could for the unfortunate wo
man, though 1t hardly seemed possible
amid the turmoil of a great war at the
capital, where it was being directed,
to do anything. The matter of sup
plying aid and comfort to the enemy
was a crime as serious as giving infor-
nation of military movements, which
Is punishable with the halter.
The only material at hand with which
to work was documents that Mr.. and
Mrs. Bullitt had collected where the
latter's father was known, testifying
to his good character. Nevertheless
Mr.. Voorhees, entered heartily into the
cause of his friends. Senators are sup
posed to be more powerful In Wash
ington than representatives, and Mr..
Voorhees, applied to the two senators
from Indiana, Hendricks and Lane, to
go with him to the president and in
tercede with him for the life Of Mr..
Luckett Senator Lane refused to ask
for a pardon for any man who had
been guilty of supplying the Confeder-
ates with quinine and ammunition.
Senator Hendricks was more tractable
and consented But later woman's
more impressible nature came in to
break down the steFnness Of Senst0r