The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-09-11


the pity with which he had eyed the
poor prisoner. And yet
With start he realized that now
he. that same little boy. was the pris-
oner. 1t surprised him to notice how
the thought stung him. But then that
man had been tried for murder. the
murder of lifelong enemy, in a pas
sion of rage, and had been sentenced
to death. And though his crime was
not SO monstrous. the penalty doomed
unutterably worse.
He saw himself, In a convict's suit,
and with close shaver head. pounding
stone on the public road, marching in
automatic lock-step, or sitting, a SOL
itary figure, in a dim cell, the monot-
ony Of the prison life added to the
never-ceasing cruelty of his thoughts.
slowly eating away his sanity; and
then, to 60 out into the world, to run
across old friends again, with the
brand of jailbird ever upon him! His
fingers clutched fiercely at the arm Of
his chair; it had all passed through
his mind in one brief instant-and
again the sweetly persuasive tones Of
the lawyer:
Gentlemen, we are not yet so old
or so hardened that we cannot smile
with condescension upon the indiscre-
lions of the young Surely you have
not forgotten your own college days.
Perhaps, as ! draw for you the scene
of the-the-er-unfort escapade
Of these thoughtless young men. some
similar scene from your own expert
ence will rise before you and move
you to pity.
1T Is a very dark night. no moon.
only few stars. Several young men
In huge Packard are returning from
midnight revel, rendered perhaps
Observation-Disclosures get my
meaning, gentlemen, by long reveling
and much champagne.
One Of the young fellows Is In
rather low spirits because Of large
losses at cards early in the evening
very hard luck he had had that night
and the crowd devises a crazy
scheme Of hiding at q corner and-er
picking somebody's pocket. And 90
they draw up in dark side street
leading from the park, and the ono
young gentleman gets out-..nd waits
not many minutes before footsteps are
heard-and you know the rest, gen.
| tlemen.
In the excitement Of the moment
no doubt he struck harder than was
intended-and the old gentleman was
not strong-but surely to jurymen Of
your discrimination the affair will not
be regarded as serious. especially 40
the old gentleman is reported out Of
danger. The law Is punisher-nOt
an avenger, and when we administer
law without mercy we Cypress the
people,"
In an unconscious way he heard the
lawyers voice going on, but his head
teemed with a surge Of thoughts:
Yes, II this were the old, dogmatic.
narrow-minded system of law. he
agreed. an eye for an eye and tooth
for tooth, why, he, who had done a
criminals deed The could face the cold
facts now, would have to pay the cor
responding penalty.
But the defendant had no fears.
That old, narrow law was out of date.
He could trust these modern, intelli-
gent turymen to discern between q
cold-blooded crime and a sad mistake.
How kind and broadminded they
looked; how ready to listen to reason
and be convinced. He thought that he
had never seen such a benevolent face
at the judges. It recalled a verse
from some old book, Charity suffereth
long, and ia kind" Yes, that was the
judges face exactly.
What a splendid thing this Ameri-
can system OF law is, thought the &C.
cused. No hanging a man by a crazy
mob, swayed for an instant by blind
fury against some poor wretch. No
tyranny Of headstrong king, Danish
Ing noble to the Tower for a mo-
mentary dislike or the within of q fav-
or1te. What a difference now-noth-
| ing rash or emotional-all GOODNESS
and keen Judgment, justice and
mercy!
How alert his every sense was! Now
his lawyer had finished the appeal.
had taken his seat amid a burst Of
applause. and the jurymen adjourned
to the next room. He watched them
until the door shut.
There was no look in a single one Of
the faces, of that hard "reminiscences
, that he had been used to; the very
broadness Of their comfortable backs
seemed tolerant with that charity for
a human being that was stirring all
humanity.
The jurymen were not out of the
room ten minutes. The facts of the
case were quite clear to them; they
were in hurry to get home, and this
was but trifle; the murder trial on
for tomorrow promised some excite
ment. One must have held back, vot-
ing against the decision of the others,
but the outer room and its furnace
breath had overcome his slight re-
luctance
In the court room the accused sat