Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1901 — On the Mercy of the Court. [ARTICLE]

On the Mercy of the Court.

A youthful graudate of the Harvard law school came west and opened an office in a small frontier town. His first client was a man accused of stealing a horse. The case came to trial before an old judge and a Jury composed of bewhiskered ranchers, and though there was no doubt of the guilt of the defendant, he had a regiment of friends who swore he was forty miles off when the horse was stolen. TMb evidence the prosecution was unable to break down, and the young lawyer plumed himself on a certain acquittal. The jury retired, and five minutes later was back in court. “Have you agreed on a verdict?” asked the judge. “We her," answered the foreman, as he lifted a gun he carried on his hip. “We find the defendant not guilty, an’ recommend the defendant’s lawyer, owin’ to his youth an’ innocence, to the mercy of the court” A Vole* from the Gallery. At an interminably long perform* ance of “Monte Cristo,” at San Francisco, with Charles Fechter in the character of the hero, the curtain rose for the last act at a quarter of 1 in the morning, Fechter was discovered sitting in a contemplative attitude. He neither moved nor spoke. Just then a clear, sad voice in the gallery ex* claimed, “I hope we are not keeping jam up. sir!”