Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1903 — A Fly in the Ointment. [ARTICLE]

A Fly in the Ointment.

In one of his “Roundabout Papers v - Thackeray tells the story of the Abbe Kakatoes, who told the companynaF supper one night how the first confession he ever received was from a murderer. Presently enters to supper the Marquis de Croquemltaine. “Parbleu, abbe!’ h .says the brilliant marquis, taking a pinch of snuff. “Are you here? Gentlemen and ladies. I was the abbe's first penitent, and I made him a confession which I promise you astonished him.” A coincidence somewhat less startling, but still not lacking in dramatic possibilities, was recently noted in the Boston Herald. A Boston lawyer was returning to his home one evening after an arduous day’s work at the old Middlesex Sessions. He had been defending a pickpocket charged with stealing a valuable -gold watch. By keen cross-examination and an eloquent appeal to the jury he had raised a doubt, the benefit of which was given to the prisoner, and the lawyer was going home tired but well pleased with himself. Presently bls client came up with him. . The man was profuse in his thanks, and as he said good-by, he quietly slipped the “valuable gold watch” into bis counsel's band.— The feelings of the lawyer may be imagined, for he had conscientiously believed the. man 1o be innocent.