Ellsworth American., 1922-05-31
Sentiment and
the Law

Ey DOROTHY WHITCOMB


| Copyright. 1922, Western Newspaper Union
But law and sentiment are the
| same thing" said Rogers the old
| corporation lawyer Somebody had
been lamenting the average juryman's
liability to bring in verdict upon
| the evidence alone. Sentiment Is
law" Rogers repeated. 1T is law
| In its embryonic state, uncrystallized,
| but often better law than written
codes.
do any Of you remember the Bright
murder trial of the late seventiesY
he continued looking round at US.
NO? Well, there have been many
murders since then, and doubtless II
was not of epoch-making Importance
Yet was led to undertake the defense
of Howard Bright through sentiment.
1T was pretty Lorna Bright, the
cousin Of the young man, and secretly
engaged to him, who persuaded me,
by her protestations OF Howard's in
| nOcence, to undertake so desperate
case. Old Charles Bright had driven
his son from his home, because he
| preferred the life of a musician.
| Charles Bright was one of those
cantankerous old men who are cordial
~ hated by their neighbors. He had
n big estate at Lanark, Md, to which
lie retired after having disposed Of
the business which he hoped Howard
would inherit, at a price Of two or
three hundred thousands. Among
hose who hated him most strongly
was Pete Jones, a small farmer whose
lands he had taken when a mortgage
fell due.
"Now we come to the murder. On
Thanksgiving eve, 1875, the servants
of the old man were aroused by cry
and the sound of shot. They ran
out of the house and saw their mas
ter lying dead with bullet wound
through his head. Some fifty yards
away stood Howard, rifle In his
hands. He made no resistance and
was arrested and duly committed for
| trial.
LAS l said, gentlemen, 1t was Lorna
Bright who insisted that l undertake
her cousins defense. She had been
in the house at the time of the muir
der and had known no more than the
servants; yet she was confident that
her cousin was guitless.
'HOward's story was that he had
come home on Thanksgiving eve, to
seek reconciliation that he had
brought an old rifle he had taken
away, with view of joining his father
duck shooting on the Potomac, sport
10 which the old man was very partial,
and in which he always used a rifle.
When he was within fifty yards of the
house, however, he heard a rifle dis
charged in the distance and saw his
father, who had been standing near
the door, fall forward dead.
~ was convinced of the young
mans innocence by my first interview
with him, ! assumed that Jones was
the guilty man. Jones was at this
time living in cabin about fifteen
hundred yards from the site Of old
Bright's house. There seemed no way
in which Jones could be trapped.
"All at once l had an idea. The
/
the inquest was over. 1t occurred to
me that bullet fred at such short
range would have had velocity enough
to have drilled clean instead of
jagged hole in the head. l examined
the wound and found, not only that
he wound was hOpeleSsly torn, so far
us measuring it's size went, but that,
| nf laI tha
earth, or horizontal, it had down.
ward angle Of some 35 degrees.
That discovery sent me wild with
eagerness. 1t was easy to deduce
rom this that the bullet had been
fired from a considerable distance. AS
YOU doubtless know. gentlemen, at all
3lt point blank ranges the sight on
the rifle is elevated so that the ball,
in its trajectory. takes first an upward
and then a downward course. In
other words, l had here a triangle, one
angle of which measured 35 degrees,
and the base line, as surmised, about
l,3OO yardS-that is to say. the dis
tance between the murdered man and
Jones cabin. The two other sides, of
the descending lines of the bullets
| flight.
THE rifle, | deduced from this,
must have been sighted to LEO yards.
"'rhe district attorney consented to
rake walk of inspection with me.
explained to him that wanted to look
| over the ground; on the way l told
him of my theory. He ridiculed the
idea, but together we made our way
into the swampy bottom Of the dried
up rivulet. Suddenly we came upon
foot tracks converging toward single
spot from either bank. stopped and
acraped up few handfulS of earth
After a moment l came upon the
| rifle barrel.
when we had disinterred 1t we
found that it was sighted to 1,150
yards.