The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1922-06-08
Sentiment and
the Law
BY DOROTHY WHITCoMB

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 a 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 seventies? p
he continued, looking round at US.
mo? Well, there have been many
murders since then, and doubtless 1t
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
ly hated by their neighbOrs. He had
big estate at Lanark, Nd, to which
he retired after having disposed Of
the business which he hoped Howard
would inherit, at a price Of two or
three hundred thousands. Among
those 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 a cry
and the sound Of a shot. They ran
out Of the house and saw their mas
ter lying dead with q bullet wound
through his head. Some fifty yards
away stood Howard, a rifle in his
hands. He made no resistance and
was arrested and duly committed for
trial.
"As l said, gentlemen, 1t was Lorna
Bright who insisted that 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 guiltless.
"Howard's story was that he had
come home on Thanksgiving eve, to
seek a reconciliation; that he had
brought an old rifle he had taken
away, with view Of joining his father
duck shooting on the Potomac, a sport
to 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.
Il 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 a cabin about fifteen
hundred yards from the site of old
Bright's house. There seemed no wav
In which Jones could be trapped.
All at once / had an idea. The
body had not yet been buried, though
the Inquest was over. 1t occurred to
me that a bullet fired at such a short
range would have had velocity enough
TO have drilled a clean instead of a
jagged hole In the head. 1 examined
the wound and found, not only that
the wound was hopelessly torn. so far
as measuring its size went, but that.
instead Of being parallel with the
earth, or horizontal, 1t had a 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
ired from a considerable distance. As
'ou doubtless know. gentlemen, at all
tut point blank ranges the sight on
he rifle Is elevated, so that the ball.
n its trajectory, takes first an upward
md then a downward course. In
'ther words, l had here a triangle, one
lngle Of which measured 35 degrees.
md the base line, as I surmised, about
800 yards-that is to say, the dis
ance between the murdered man and
ones cabin. The two other sides. of
curse. represented the ascending and
he descending lines of the bullets
light.