The Cotton Factory Times. — 1900-01-26 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

CHAPTER %XXIII. YOBEY'S FATE.  The excitement aroused in the improvised coroner's court by the calmly made statement of the New York detective was of the most intense description, and it was still further increased when the American officer went on to say that the deceased man had also been guilty of an extensive series of forgeries covering nearly a hundred thousand dollars.  "Whatever crimes he may have been guilty of in New York do not affect this inquiry," said the coroner.  "I would respectfully call attention to the fact that when the deceased entered the bedroom of his host and hostess, and then made use of his knowledge of the secret passage and the chamber to which it led, he had in his possession a phial of chloroform. We can now draw our own conclosions regarding the use to which he intended to pot the drug. Hiram Bott would have committed two more murders."  "I assume that it is your intention, sir, to give the jury an opportunity of viewing the secret room in which Hiram Bolt met his death. The proof will then be produced." " Very well. Officer, send out for three cabs to convey the jury and witnesses to Norleigh Court."  The coroner had intended to adjourn the inquest for a week, but he now saw that such a procedure would probably get him into hot water, and he bad hastily decided to carry the affair to a couclu-14011.  Selma kept out of sight during the visit of the numerous body of men who accompanied the coroner. The secret chamber was not large enough to admit all the jury, and there were bat three besides the foreman when Lawyer Bond pointed out the last message of Hiram Putt, written, as he emphatically said, with the gold pencil to which he bad called attention when the police were givlng evidence.  "Ah ! that relicvee all our doubts, Mr. Bond. Conclusive proof is before us that Hiram Bolt perished while actually meditating murder." "You will consider your verdict, gentlemen," said the coroner, when they ,got back. "We have already decided. We say that the deceased died by the visitation of God."  Joe had written to his father and had mentioned Be'ma's wish that he would now deem it expedient to give up his post at Marsden's mill.  " If wo could only buy Squire Allonby's estate how nice it would be for your family, Joe. I would give him what is called a fancy price if he would Dell. See Bond to-morrow."  Joe did so, and Squire Allonby eventually agreed to sell.  Before the scheme could be finally carried into effect, however, the trial of James Brown, alias Yorky, came on. The jury were not slow in arriving at their verdict, and Yorky fell back on the seat of the dock in a state of collapse when he heard the awful word ''Guilty," but with a recommendation to mercy on account of hi s youth and till way he bad been brought up, his parents having been tramps.  Promising that the jury's recommendation .should be duly forwarded to the proper quarter, the judge formally sentenced the prisoner to death, and apparently half dead with fright.Yorky was carried down the steps to the cell, placed in charge of two i Warders, and soon afterwards found himself n the dreaded condemned cell. The days passed, and the convict was full of hope that his life would be spared. A week after the trial, however, he WEIS visited by the governor, scam:man:Nl by the under-sheriff of the county, Who inforrned the horror-strickeu man that the date bad been fixed for his execution. From that time Yotky gave uimself up to despair. . Ile grew thinner and more haggard every day, ind though the prison doctor ordered a better diet, he ate no .aiore than before. His last day on earth dawned to listen to the exhortations of the reverend gentleman, and only obeyed the orders of the attendant warders wheu they had been several times repeated. In the evening previous to the day fixed for the executiou, as Yorky was reclining on his back on the pallet bed, gazing at the ceiling, the door was suddenly opened. The wretched convict made no movement, and though both the warders called "Attention ! Stand up ! " he had to be dragged from the bed and made to rise to his feet. Then the governor, reading from a paper in his hand, said: "James Brown, I have received a commnnication from the Secretary of State for the Homo Depart.  merit intimating that he has advised Her Majesty to grant a respite in your case, with a view to the commutation of your sentence to penal ser‘itude for life." The Home Secretary's intervention had come too late. Yorky's mind had been completely unhinged by the terrors of the condemned oell, and when his cell door was unlocked the first morning after his removal to the ordinary part of the prison, he was found hanging from the ventilator, quite dead. "Suicide while of unsound mind" was the verdict of the jury at the inquest, and if anyone pitied the fate of the wretched tramp their feelings found no expression in the papers.