Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1892 — A Cate Judge. [ARTICLE]

A Cate Judge.

Fifteen years ago Judge McSweeney was a famous criminal lawyer of Southern Michigan. He was called upon to defend a young woman from the charge of having poisoned her old husband. It was a question of whether or not she had placed poison in a cake of which the old man had eaten. A portion of the cake had been analyzed by a chemist and found to contain a great deal of deadly poison. The chemist testified to this in court and other witnesses succeeded in making a chain of damaging evldenoe against the pretty young widow. The time came for the sum-ming-up speeches of the attorneys. The prosecution began and finished and all looked hopeless for the pioneer of the bar. Judge McSweeney, the only speaker for the defense, arose amid breathless silenoe. He began in a low tone to sum up the defense of the prisoner. He had been allowed an hour in which to plead his side of the case. He dealt with everything but the cake. It rested upon the table just at his right hand,- where it had stood during the weary trial. Thirty minutes passed and the people were still motionless, charmed by the sweet eloquence of the gruff old lawyer. Three-quarters of an hour passed by, then another ten minutes. When the clook over the big desk told him there were but five minutes left he reached his hand out to the cake, half of whioh stood upon the table and broke off a ragged chunk. He held this in his hand and between sentences took great mouthfuls of it. During those five minutes he calmly argued the case and ate cake. He demolished more than half of it. The chemist had declared that there was enough poison in it to kill fifty men. The good people looked at him in amazement, and the jurors turned to each other and whispered. McSweeney wound up his speech, took another chunk of cake and walked ouielly from the court-room eating it. He closed the door behind him, ran into a small room close by and looked the door. Two physicians stood ready with a stomach pump, and in ten minutes the cake was all in the slop jar. The jury returned a verdict of “not guilty” without leaving the court-room.