Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-06-29

WaltlnS trlal, anu the prison pall0r, the
CHASTITY yellow tinge that would make
saint look like convict. was upon
him. The spectacle Of his little mother
on the stand had shaken his nerve. and
his hand trembled as he took the Bible
and made his oath. His story was sim.
pie enough despite the havoc wrought
with 1t by the district attorney.
When the factory closed he left Ny.
ack and came to New York, bringing
his kit of tools with him. He had nev,
er heard of the Hell's Kitchen section
and was asking work along Tenth and
Eleventh avenues because factories
were located there. He met a mar
who seemed to take an interest in him
This man introduced him to another
and they bought him his supper at 6
restaurant near the river. They told
him that they could get him work, but
he would have to work at night. They
looked over his kit of tools, and one OF
them admired steel drill and said II
was fine oAe.
After nightfall," Montgomery told
the jury, II went with the men q num-
Der of blocks east One of them took
my tools and bade me wait at corner.
l was beginning to suspect that some
thing was wrong when / heard dull
explosion as IL in cellar. A minute
after one of the men passed me, run
ming. He dropped the kit of tools and
the wrench. My tools were all that
stood between me and starvation. If
they were lost could not hope to get
work at my trade. l grabbed up the
wrench, threw it into the bag and
started to run away when I was ar
rested"
The cross examination furnished the
young prosecutor with excellent prac-
tice in those sophistries supposed to be
necessary in the practice of law. The
boy was as wax in the hands of the
questioner before him. After an hour
of misery and bewilderment he was
excused from the stand.
The court and counsel conferred in
whispers. The arguments followed.
They were brief. While the rules of
evidence would not permit the mother
of the prisoner to beg for his life and
proclaim her belief in his innocence.
they allowed the prosecutor in his adj
dress to the jury to paint him as a des-
perate young thief, crouching in the
dark with a heavy iron wrench uplift-
ed and quick to do murder for the sake
Of loot.
Garrett's address was short and
weak. His vocabulary was that of
the money hungry lawyer who sits in
a hole in the great city shutting bonds
and mortgages through his fingers and
always nibbling away at the little
hoardings Of ignorant clients. His
sense of humanity and his apprecia-
ton of the pity and horror of the
whole drama in which he was par
ticipating were nil.
The judges instructions to the jury
We're string of empty words, mouthed
hurriedly and tonelessly.
The case was entirely circumstan-
tia, There was one way for the jury
to avoid the risk of sending an inno-
cent man to his death in the electric
chair. They took it. The clerk order
ed the prisoner to stand and face the
jury and the jury to look upon the
prisoner.
Gentlemen, have you reached a YER
dict?" asked the clerk.
1--WE have" replied the foreman.
eve find the defendant guilty of MUIR
der in the second degree"
The country people who had jour.
neyed to the metropolis to do what
little they could for the widows son
took Mrs. Montgomery back with
them. What little brightness of hope
had been within her during the trial
of her boy vanished with his convic-
ton.
She had tried the day after the trial
to reach the judge and appeal to him
for mercy and light sentence, but
the importunings of widows, wives and
children are avoided by the judiciary
as much as possible. The legal repre-
sentative of great banking institu
ton or some mighty estate or corpora.
ton has the open sesame to the cham.
bers of the men wearing the ermine
but there is not such great number
of these and the poor are mighty
multitude
At every turn the mother of James
Montgomery met with an obstacle
She had no big Mike" This or Little
Mike" That, with political power
enough to make judge tremble, bach
of her. She had no money with which
to allay the itching of the palms OF
petty grafters who would sell the right
eous for silver and the poor for a pail
Of shoes, as they have been doing since
Isaiah's time.
ITo be Continued.1