 49 This was the announcement at the tent door that woke Philip out of a sound sleep at dead of night and shook all the sleepiness out of him in a trice. What? Where is it? When? Coal? Let me see it. What quality is it? Were some of the rapid questions that Philip poured out as he hurriedly dressed? Harry, wake up, my boy. The coal train is coming. Struck it, eh? Let's see. The foreman put down his lantern and handed Philip a black lump. There was no mistake about it. It was the hard shining anthracite and its freshly fractured surface glistened in the light like polished steel. Diamond never shone with such luster in the eyes of Philip. Harry was exuberant, but Philip's natural caution found expression in his next remark. Now, Roberts, you are sure about this? What? Sure that it's coal? Oh no, sure that it's the main vein. Well, yes. We took it to be that. Did you from the first? I can't say we did at first. No, we didn't. Most of the indications were there, but not all of them. Not all of them. So we thought we'd prospect a bit. Well, it was tolerable thick and looked as if it might be the vein. Looked as if it ought to be the vein. Then we went down on it a little. Looked better all the time. When did you strike it? About ten o'clock. Then you've been prospecting about four hours. Yes, been sinking on it something over four hours. I'm afraid you couldn't go down very far in four hours, could you? Oh yes, it's a good deal broke up. Nothing but picking and gadding stuff. Well, it does look encouraging, sure enough, but then the lacking indications. I'd rather we had them, Mr. Sterling, but I've seen more than one good permanent mind struck without them in my time. Well, that is encouraging too. Yes, there was the Union, the Alabama, and the Black Mohawk. All good sound minds, you know. All just exactly like this one when we first struck them. Well, I begin to feel a good deal more easy. I guess we've really got it. I remember hearing them tell about the Black Mohawk. I'm free to say that I believe it, and the men all think so too. They're all old hands at this business. Come, Harry, let's go up and look at it, just for the comfort of it, said Philip. They came back in the course of an hour, satisfied and happy. There was no more sleep for them that night. They lit their pipes, put a specimen of the coal on the table, and made it a kind of lodestone of thought and conversation. Of course, said Harry, there will have to be a branch track built, and a switch back up the hill. Yes, there will be no trouble about getting the money for that now. We could sell out tomorrow for a handsome sum. That sort of coal doesn't go begging within a mile of a railroad. I wonder if Mr. Bolton would rather sell out or work it. Oh, work it, says Harry. Probably the whole mountain is coal now you've got to it. Possibly it might not be much of a vein after all, suggested Philip. Possibly it is. I'll bet it's forty feet thick. I told you, I knew the sort of thing as soon as I put my eyes on it. Philip's next thought was to write to his friends and announce their good fortune. To Mr. Bolton, he wrote a short business letter, as calm as he could make it. They had found coal of excellent quality, but they could not yet tell, with absolute certainty, what the vein was. The prospecting was still going on. Philip also wrote to Ruth, but though this letter may have glowed, it was not with the heat of burning anthracite. He needed no artificial heat to warm his pen and kindle his ardor when he sat down to write to Ruth. But it must be confessed that the words never flowed so easily before, and he ran on for an hour, disporting in all the extravagance of his imagination. When Ruth read it, she doubted if the fellow had not gone out of his senses, and it was not until she reached the post-script that she discovered the cause of the exhilaration. P.S. We have found coal. The news couldn't have come to Mr. Bolton in better time. He had never been so sorely pressed. A dozen schemes which he had in hand, any one of which might turn up a fortune, all languished, and each needed just a little more money to save that which had been invested. He hadn't a piece of real estate that was not covered with mortgages, even to the wild track which Philip was experimenting on, and which had no marketable value above the encumbrance on it. He had come home that day early, unusually dejected. I am afraid, he said to his wife, that we shall have to give up our house. I don't care for myself, but for thee and the children. That will be the least of misfortunes, said Mrs. Bolton cheerfully. If thee can clear thyself from debt and anxiety which is wearing thee out, we can live anywhere. Thee knows we were never happier than when we were in a much humbler home. The truth is, Margaret, that affair of bigler and smalls has come on me just when I couldn't stand another ounce. They have made another failure of it. I might have known they would. And the sharpers, or fools, I don't know which, have contrived to involve me for three times as much as the first obligation. The security is in my hands, but it is good for nothing to me. I have not the money to do anything with the contract. Ruth heard this dismal news without great surprise. She had long felt that they were living on a volcano that might go into active operation at any hour. Inheriting from her father an active brain and the courage to undertake new things, she had little of his sanguine temperament, which blinds one to difficulties and possible failures. She had little confidence in the many schemes which had been about to lift her father out of all his embarrassments and into great wealth, ever since she was a child. As she grew older, she rather wondered that they were as prosperous as they seem to be and that they did not all go to smash amid so many brilliant projects. She was nothing but a woman and did not know how much of the business prosperity of the world is only a bubble of credit and speculation. One scheme helping to float another, which is no better than it, and the whole liable to come to not and confusion as soon as the busy brain that conceived them ceases its power to devise, or when some accident produces a sudden panic. Perhaps I shall be the stay of the family yet, said Ruth, with an approach to gaiety. When we move into a little house in town, will they let me put a little sign on the door? Dr. Ruth Bolton, Mrs. Dr. Longstreet, the knows has a great income. Who will pay for the sign, Ruth? asked Mr. Bolton. A servant entered with the afternoon mail from the office. Mr. Bolton took his letters listlessly, dreading to open them. He knew well what they contained, new difficulties, more urgent demands for money. Oh, here is one from Philip. Poor fellow, I shall feel his disappointment as much as my own bad luck. It is hard to bear when one is young. He opened the letter and read, as he read his face lightened. And he fetched such a sigh of relief that Mrs. Bolton and Ruth both exclaimed. Read that, he cried. Philip has found coal. The world was changed in a moment. One little sentence had done it. There was no more trouble. Philip had found coal. That meant relief. That meant fortune. A great weight was taken off, and the spirits of the whole household rose magically. Good money. Beautiful demon of money. What an enchanter thou art. Ruth felt that she was less of consequence in the household, now that Philip had found coal. And perhaps she was not sorry to feel so. Mr. Bolton was 10 years younger the next morning. He went into the city and showed his letter on change. It was the sort of news his friends were quite willing to listen to. They took a new interest in him. If it was confirmed, Bolton would come right up again. There would be no difficulty about his getting all the money he wanted. The money market did not seem to be half so tight as it was the day before. Mr. Bolton spent a very pleasant day in his office and went home revolving some new plans and the execution of some projects he had long been prevented from entering upon by the lack of money. The day had been spent by Philip in no less excitement. By daylight with Philip's letters to the mail, word had gone down to Ilium that coal had been found and very early a crowd of eager spectators had come up to see for themselves. The prospecting continued day and night for upwards of a week and during this first four or five days the indications grew more and more promising and the telegrams and letters kept Mr. Bolton duly posted but at last a change came and the promises began to fail with alarming rapidity. In the end it was demonstrated without the possibility of a doubt that the great find was nothing but a worthless scene. Philip was cast down, all the more so because he had been so foolish as to send the news to Philadelphia before he knew what he was writing about and now he must contradict it. It turns out to be only a mere scene he wrote but we look upon it as an indication of better further in. Alas, Mr. Bolton's affairs could not wait for indications. The future might have a great deal in store but the present was black and hopeless. It was doubtful if any sacrifice could save him from ruin yet sacrifice he must make and that instantly in the hope of saving something from the wreck of his fortune. His lovely country home must go. That would bring the most ready money. The house that he had built with loving thought for each one of his family as he planned its luxurious apartments and adorned it the grounds that he had laid out with so much delight in following the tastes of his wife with whom the country, the cultivation of rare trees and flowers, the care of garden and lawn and conservatories were a passion almost. This home which he had hoped his children would enjoy long after he had done with it must go. The family bore the sacrifice better than he did. They declared in fact women are such hypocrites that they quite enjoyed the city. It was in August after living so long in the country that it was a thousand times more convenient in every respect. Mrs. Bolton said it was a relief from the worry of a large establishment and Ruth reminded her father that she should have come to town anyway before long. Mr. Bolton was relieved exactly as a waterlogged ship is lightened by throwing overboard the most valuable portion of the cargo, but the leak was not stopped. Indeed his credit was injured instead of helped by the prudent step he had taken. It was regarded as a sure evidence of his embarrassment and it was much more difficult for him to obtain help than if he had instead of retrenching launched into some new speculation. Philip was greatly troubled and exaggerated his own share in the bringing about of the calamity. You must not look at it so Mr. Bolton wrote him. You have neither helped nor hindered, but you know you may help by and by. It would have all happened just so if we had never begun to dig that hole. That is only a drop. Work away. I still have hope that something will occur to relieve me. At any rate we must not give up the mine so long as we have any show. Alas the relief did not come. New misfortunes came instead. When the extent of the Biggler Swindle was disclosed there was no more hope that Mr. Bolton could extricate himself and he had as an honest man no resource except to surrender all his property for the benefit of his creditors. The autumn came and found Philip working with diminished force but still with hope. He had again and again been encouraged by good indications but he had again and again been disappointed. He could not go on much longer and almost everybody except himself had thought it was useless to go on as long as he had been doing. When the news came of Mr. Bolton's failure of course the work stopped. The men were discharged, the tools were housed, the hopeful noise of pickmen and drivers ceased and the mining camp had that desolate and mournful aspect which always hovers over a frustrated enterprise. Philip sat down amid the ruins and almost wished he were buried in them. How distant Ruth was now from him. Now when she might need him most how changed was all the Philadelphia world which had hitherto stood for the exemplification of happiness and prosperity. He still had faith that there was coal in that mountain. He made a picture of himself living there a hermit in a shanty by the tunnel digging away with solitary pick and wheelbarrow day after day and year after year until he grew gray and aged and was known in all that region as the old man of the mountain. Perhaps someday he felt it must be so someday he should strike coal. But what if he did? Who would be alive to care for it then? What would he care for it then? No a man wants riches in his youth when the world is fresh to him. He wondered why providence could not have reversed the usual process and let the majority of men begin with wealth and gradually spend it and die poor when they no longer needed it. Harry went back to the city. It was evident that his services were no longer needed. Indeed he had letters from his uncle which he did not read to Philip desiring him to go to San Francisco to look after some government contracts in the harbor there. Philip had to look about him for something to do. He was like Adam the world was all before him where to choose. He made before he went elsewhere a somewhat painful visit to Philadelphia. Painful but not yet not without its sweetness. The family had never shown him so much affection before. They all seemed to think his disappointment of more importance than their own misfortune. And there was that in Ruth's manner in which she gave him and what she withheld that would have made a hero of a very much less promising character than Philip Sterling. Among the assets of the Bolton property the Ilium tract was sold and Philip bought it in at the Vindu for a song for no one cared to even undertake the mortgage on it except himself. He went away the owner of it and had ample time before he reached home in November to calculate how much poorer he was by possessing it. End of Chapter 49 Chapter 50 of the Gilded Age This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings were in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. Chapter 50. It is impossible for the historian with even the best intentions to control events or compel the persons of his narrative to act wisely or to be successful. It is easy to see how things might have been better managed. A very little change here and there would have made a very different history of this one now in hand. If Philip had adopted some regular profession even some trade he might now be a prosperous editor or a conscientious plumber or an honest lawyer and have borrowed money at the savings bank and built a cottage and be now furnishing it for the occupancy of Ruth and himself. Instead of this with only a smattering of civil engineering he is at his mother's house fretting and fuming over his ill luck and the hardness and dishonesty of men and thinking of nothing but how to get the coal out of the Ilium Hills. If Senator Dilworthy had not made that visit to Hawkeye the Hawkins family and Colonel Sellers would not now be dancing attendance upon Congress and endeavouring to tempt that immaculate body into one of those appropriations for the benefit of its members which the members find it so difficult to explain to their constituents. And Laura would not be lying in the tombs awaiting her trial for murder and doing her best by the help of Abel Council to corrupt the pure fountain of criminal procedure in New York. If Henry Briarley had been blown up on the first Mississippi steamboat he set foot on as the chances were that he would be he and Colonel Sellers never would have gone into the Columbus Navigation Scheme and probably never into the East Tennessee Land Scheme and he would not now be detained in New York from very important business operations on the Pacific Coast for the sole purpose of giving evidence to convict of murder the only woman he ever loved half as much as he loves himself. If Mr Bolton had said the little word no to Mr Bigler Alice Montague might now be spending the winter in Philadelphia and Philip also waiting to resume mining operations in the spring and Ruth would not be an assistant in a Philadelphia hospital taxing her strength with arduous routine duties day by day in order to lighten a little the burdens that weigh upon her unfortunate family. It is altogether a bad business an honest historian who had progressed thus far and traced everything to such a condition of disaster and suspension might well be justified in ending his narrative and writing after this the deluge. His only consolation would be in the reflection that he was not responsible for either characters or events and the most annoying thought is that a little money judiciously applied would relieve the burdens and anxieties of most of these people but affairs seem to be so arranged that money is most difficult to get when people need it most. A little of what Mr Bolton has weekly given to unworthy people would now establish his family in a sort of comfort and relieve Ruth of the excessive toil for which she inherited no adequate physical vigor. A little money would make a prince of Colonel Sellers and a little more would calm the anxiety of Washington Hawkins about Laura for however the trial ended he could feel sure of extricating her in the end and if Philip had a little money he could unlock the stone door in the mountain whence would issue a stream of shining riches. It needs a golden wand to strike that rock. If the knobs university bill could only go through what a change would be wrought in the condition of most of the persons in this history even Philip himself would feel the good effects of it for Harry would have something and Colonel Sellers would have something and have not both these cautious people express the determination to take an interest in the Ilium mine when they catch their larks. Philip could not resist the inclination to pay a visit to Fallkill. He had not been at the Montague since the time he saw Ruth there and he wanted to consult the squire about an occupation. He was determined now to waste no more time in waiting on Providence but to go to work at something if it were nothing better than teaching in the Fallkill Seminary or digging clams on Hingham Beach. Perhaps he could read law in Squire Montague's office while earning his bread as a teacher in the Seminary. It was not altogether Philip's fault, let us own, that he was in this position. There were many young men like him in American society, of his age, opportunities, education, and abilities, who have really been educated for nothing and have let themselves drift in the hope that they will find somehow and by some sudden turn of good luck the golden road to fortune. He was not idle or lazy, he had energy and a disposition to carve his own way. But he was born into a time when all young men of his age caught the fever of speculation and expected to get on in the world by the omission of some of the regular processes which have been appointed from of old, and examples were not wanting to encourage him. He saw people all around him poor yesterday rich today, who had come into sudden opulence by some means which they could not have classified among any of the regular occupations of life. A war would give such a fellow a career and very likely fame. He might have been a railroad man, or a politician, or a land speculator, or one of those mysterious people who travel free on all railroads and steamboats and are continually crossing and recrossing the Atlantic, driven day and night about nobody knows what, and make a great deal of money by doing so. Probably, at last, he sometimes thought with a whimsical smile, he should end by being an insurance agent and asking people to ensure their lives for his benefit. Possibly, Philip did not think how much the attractions of Fallkill were increased by the presence of Alice there. He had known her so long she had somehow grown into his life by habit, that he would expect the pleasure of her society without thinking much about it. Laterally, he never thought of her without thinking of Ruth, and if he gave the subject any attention it was probably in an undefined consciousness that he had her sympathy and his love, and that she was always willing to hear him talk about it. If he ever wondered that Alice herself was not in love and never spoke of the possibility of her own marriage, it was a transient thought, for love did not seem necessary exactly, to one so calm and evenly balanced and with so many resources in her herself. Whatever her thoughts may have been, they were unknown to Philip, as they are to these historians. If she was seeming to be what she was not and carrying a burden heavier than anyone else carried, because she had to bear it alone, she was only doing what thousands of women do, with a self renunciation and heroism of which men, impatient and complaining, have no conception. Have not these big babies with beards filled all literature with their outcrives, their griefs and their lamentations? It is always the gentle sex which is hard and cruel and fickle and implacable. Do you think you would be contented to live in Fallkill and attend the county court, asked Alice, when Philip had opened the budget of his new program? Perhaps not always, said Philip. I might go and practice in Boston maybe, or go to Chicago. Or you might get elected to Congress. Philip looked at Alice to see if she was an earnest and not chaffing him. Her face was quite sober. Alice was one of those patriotic women in the rural districts, who think men are still selected for Congress on account of qualifications for the office. No, said Philip. The chances are that a man cannot get into Congress now without resorting to arts and means that should render him unfit to go there. Of course there are exceptions, but do you know that I could not go into politics if I were a lawyer, without losing standing somewhat in my profession, and without raising at least a suspicion of my intentions and unselfishness? Why? It is telegraphed all over the country and commented on as something wonderful, if a congressman votes honestly and unselfishly, and refuses to take advantage of his position to steal from the government. But, insisted Alice, I should think it a noble ambition to go to Congress, if it is so bad, and help reform it. I don't believe it as corrupt as the English Parliament used to be, if there is any truth in the novels, and I suppose that is reformed. I'm sure I don't know where the reform is to begin. I've seen a perfectly capable, honest man, time and again, run against an illiterate trickster and get beaten. I suppose if the people wanted decent members of Congress they would elect them. Perhaps, continued Philip with a smile, the women will have to vote. Well, I should be willing to, if it were a necessity, just as I would go to a war and do what I could if the country couldn't be saved otherwise, said Alice, with a spirit that surprised Philip. Well, as he thought he knew her. If I were a young gentleman in these times, Philip laughed outright. It's just what Ruth used to say, if she were a man. I wonder if all the young ladies are contemplating a change of sex. No, only a changed sex, retorted Alice. We contemplate for the most part young men who don't care for anything they ought to care for. Well, said Philip, looking humble, I care for some things, you and Ruth, for instance. Perhaps I ought not to. Perhaps I ought to care for Congress and that sort of thing. Don't be a goose, Philip. I heard from Ruth yesterday. Can I see her letter? No, indeed. But I am afraid her hard work is telling on her, together with her anxiety about her father. Do you think, Alice, asked Philip, with one of those selfish thoughts that are not seldom mixed with real love, that Ruth prefers her profession to… to marriage? Philip exclaimed Alice, rising to quit the room, and speaking hurriedly, as if the words were forced from her. You are as blind as a bat. Ruth would cut off her right hand for you this minute. Philip never noticed that Alice's face was flushed and that her voice was unsteady. He only thought of the delicious words he had heard. And the poor girl, loyal to Ruth, loyal to Philip, went straight to her room, locked the door, threw herself on the bed, and sobbed as if her heart would break. And then she prayed that her father in heaven would give her strength. And after a time she was calm again. And went to her bureau drawer and took from a hiding place a little piece of paper, yellow with age. Upon it was pinned a four-leaf clover, dry and yellow also. She looked long at this foolish memento. Under the clover leaf was written in a school girl's hand, Philip, June 186. Squire Montague thought very well of Philip's proposal. It would have been better if he had begun the study of the law as soon as he left college. But it was not too late now, and besides, he had gathered some knowledge of the world. But, asked the Squire, do you mean to abandon your land in Pennsylvania? This track of land seemed an immense possible fortune to this New England lawyer or farmer. Hasn't it good timber, and doesn't the railroad almost touch it? I can't do anything with it now. Perhaps I can some time. What is your reason for supposing that there is coal there? The opinion of the best geologist I could consult, my own observation of the country, and the little veins of it we found. I feel certain it is there. I shall find it some day, I know it. If I can only keep the land till I make enough money to try again. Philip took from his pocket a map of the anthracite coal region and pointed out the position of the Ilium Mountain which he had begun to tunnel. Doesn't it look like it? It certainly does, said the Squire, very much interested. It is not unusual for a quiet country gentleman to be more taken with such a venture than a speculator, who has had more experience in its uncertainty. It was astonishing how many New England clergymen in the time of the petroleum excitement took chances in oil. The Wall Street brokers are said to do a good deal of small business for country clergymen who are moved no doubt with the laudable desire of purifying the New York Stock Board. I don't see that there's much risk, said the Squire, at length. The timber is worth more than the mortgage, and if that coal seam does run there, it's a magnificent fortune. Would you like to try it again in the spring, Phil? Like to try it, if he could have a little help, he would work himself with pick and burrow and live on a crust. Only give him one more chance. And this is how it came about, that the cautious old Squire Montague was drawn into this young fellow's speculation and began to have his serene old age disturbed by anxieties and by the hope of a great stroke of luck. To be sure, I only care about it for the boy, he said. The Squire was like everybody else. Sooner or later he must take a chance. It is probably on account of the lack of enterprise in women that they are not so fond of stock speculations and mine ventures as men. It is only when a woman becomes demoralized that she takes to any sort of gambling. Neither Alice nor Ruth were much elated with the prospect of Philip's renewal of his mining enterprise. But Philip was exultant. He rode to Ruth as if his fortune were already made and as if the clouds that lowered over the house of Bolton were already in the deep bosom of a coal mine buried. Toward spring he went to Philadelphia with his plans all matured for a new campaign. His enthusiasm was irresistible. Philip has come, Philip has come, cried the children, as if some great good had again come into the household, and the refrain even sang itself over in Ruth's heart as she went the weary hospital rounds. Mr Bolton felt more courage than he had had in months at the sight of his manly face and the sound of his cheery voice. Ruth's course was vindicated now and it certainly did not become Philip, who had nothing to offer but a future chance against the visible result of her determination and industry to open an argument with her. Ruth was never more certain that she was right and that she was sufficient onto herself. She, maybe, did not much heed the still small voice that sang in her maiden heart as she went about her work, and which lightened it and made it easy. Philip has come. I am glad for Father's sake, she said to Philip, that he has come. I can see that he depends greatly upon what he can do. He thinks women won't hold out long, added Ruth, with the smile that Philip never exactly understood. And aren't you tired sometimes of the struggle? Tired? Yes, everybody is tired, I suppose, but it is a glorious profession. And would you want me to be dependent, Philip? Well, yes, a little, said Philip, feeling his way towards what he wanted to say. On what, for instance, just now? asked Ruth a little maliciously, Philip thought. Why on—he couldn't quite say it, for it occurred to him that he was a poor stick for anybody to lean on in the present state of his fortune, and that the woman before him was at least as independent as he was. I don't mean depend, he began again, but I love you, that's all. Am I nothing to you? And Philip looked a little defiant, as if he had said something that ought to brush away all the sophistries of obligation on either side between man and woman. Perhaps Ruth saw this. Perhaps she saw that her own theories of a certain equality of power which ought to proceed a union of two hearts might be pushed too far. Perhaps she had felt sometimes her own weakness and the need, after all, of so dear a sympathy and so tender an interest confessed as that which Philip could give. Whatever moved her, the riddle is as old as creation. She simply looked up to Philip and said in a low voice, everything. And Philip, clasping both her hands in his, and looking down into her eyes which drank in all his tenderness with the thirst of a true woman's nature. Oh Philip, come out here, shouted young Eli, throwing the door wide open. And Ruth escaped away to her room, her heart singing again, and now, as if it would burst for joy, Philip has come. That night Philip received a dispatch from Harry. The trial begins to-morrow. End of Chapter 50 CHAPTER 51 CHAPTER 51 December found Washington Hawkins and Colonel Sellars once more at the capital of the nation, standing guard over the university bill. The former gentleman was despondent, the latter hopeful. Washington's distress of mind was chiefly on Laura's account. The court would soon sit to try her case, he said, and consequently a great deal of ready money would be needed in the engineering of it. The university bill was sure to pass this time, and that would make money plenty. But might not the help come too late? Congress had only just assembled, and delays were to be feared. Well, said the Colonel, I don't know, but you are more or less right there. Now let's figure up a little on the preliminaries. I think Congress always tries to do as near right as it can, according to its lights. A man can't ask any fairer than that. The first preliminary it always starts out on is to clean itself, so to speak. It will arraign two or three dozen of its members, or maybe four or five dozen, for taking bribes to vote for this and that and the other bill last winter. It goes up into the dozens, does it? Well, yes, in a free country like ours, where any man can run for Congress and anybody can vote for him, you can't expect immortal purity all the time. It ain't in nature. Sixty or eighty or a hundred and fifty people are bound to get in who are not angels in disguise, as young Hicks the correspondent says. But still, it is a very good average, very good indeed. As long as it averages as well as that, I think we can feel very well satisfied. Even in these days, when people growl so much and the newspapers are so out of patience, there is still a very respectable minority of honest men in Congress. Why, a respectable minority of honest men can't do any good, Colonel? Oh, yes, it can, too. Why, how? Oh, in many ways, many ways. But what are the ways? Well, I don't know. It is a question that requires time. A body can't answer every question right off hand. But it does do good. I am satisfied with that. All right, then. Grant that it does good. Go on with the preliminaries. That is what I'm coming to. First, as I said, they will try a lot of members for taking money for votes. That will take four weeks. Yes, that's like last year, and it is a sheer waste of the time for which the nation pays those men to work. That is what that is. And it pinches me when a body's got a bill waiting. A waste of time to purify the fountain of public law? Well, I never heard anybody express an idea like that before. But if it were, it would still be the fault of the minority, for the majority don't institute these proceedings. There is where that minority becomes an obstruction. But still, one can't say it is on the wrong side. Well, after they finish the bribery cases, they will take up cases of members who have bought their seats with money. That will take another four weeks. Very good. Go on. You have accounted for two-thirds of the session. Next, they will try each other for various smaller irregularities, like the sale of appointments to West Point cadetships, and that sort of thing. Mere, trifling pocket money enterprises that might better be passed over in silence, perhaps. But then, one of our congresses can never rest easy till it is thoroughly purified itself of all blemishes. And that is a thing to be applauded. How long does it take to disinfect itself of these minor impurities? Well, about two weeks, generally. So congress always lies helpless in quarantine ten weeks of a session. That's encouraging. Colonel, poor Laura will never get any benefit from our bill. Her trial will be over before congress has half purified itself. And doesn't it occur to you that by the time it is expelled all its impure members, there may not be enough members left to do business legally? Why, I did not say congress would expel anybody. Well, won't it expel anybody? Not necessarily. Did it last year? It never does. That would not be regular. Then why waste all the session in that tomfoolery of trying members? It is usual. It is customary. The country requires it. Then the country is a fool, I think. Oh, no. The country thinks somebody is going to be expelled. Well, when nobody is expelled, what does the country think then? By that time, the thing is strung out so long that the country is sick and tired of it, and glad to have a change on any terms. But all that inquiry is not lost. It has a good moral effect. Who does it have a good moral effect on? Well, I don't know. On foreign countries, I think. We've always been under the gaze of foreign countries. There is no country in the world, sir, that pursues corruption as inveterately as we do. There is no country in the world whose representatives try each other as much as ours do, or stick to it as long on a stretch. I think there is something great in being a model for the whole civilized world, Washington. You don't mean a model. You mean an example. Well, it's all the same. It's just the same thing. It shows that a man can't be corrupt in this country without sweating for it. I can tell you that. Hang it, Colonel. You just said we never punish anybody for villainous practices. But good God, we try them, don't we? Is it nothing to show a disposition to sift things and bring people to a strict account? I tell you, it has its effect. Oh, bother the effect. What is it they do, do? How do they proceed? You know perfectly well, and it is all bosh, too. Come now. How do they proceed? Why, they proceed right and regular, and it ain't bosh, Washington. It ain't bosh. They appoint a committee to investigate, and that committee hears evidence three weeks, and all the witnesses on one side swear that the accused took money or stock or something for his vote. Then the accused stands up and testifies that he may have done it, but he was receiving and handling a good deal of money at the time, and he doesn't remember this particular circumstance, at least with sufficient distinctness to enable him to grasp it tangibly. So, of course, the thing is not proven, and that is what they say in the verdict. They don't quit. They don't condemn. They just say, charge not proven. It leaves the accused in a kind of shaky condition before the country. It purifies Congress, it satisfies everybody, and doesn't seriously hurt anybody. It has taken a long time to perfect our system, but it is the most admirable in the world now. So one of those long, stupid investigations always turns out in that lame, silly way. Yes, you're correct. I thought maybe you viewed the matter differently from other people. Do you think a Congress of ours could convict the devil of anything if you were a member? My dear boy, don't let those damaging delays prejudice you against Congress. Don't use such strong language. You talk like a newspaper. Congress has inflicted frightful punishments on its members. Now, you know that. When they tried Mr. Fair Oaks and a cloud of witnesses proved him to be... Well, you know what they proved him to be. And his own testimony and his own confessions gave him the same character? What did Congress do then? Come. Well, what did Congress do? You know what Congress did, Washington. Congress intimated plainly enough that they considered him almost a stain upon their body, and without waiting ten days hardly to think the thing over, they rose up and hurled at him a resolution declaring that they disapproved of his conduct. Now, you know that, Washington. It was a terrific thing. There's no denying that. If he had been proved guilty of theft, arson, licentiousness, and fantaside and defiling graves, I believe they would have suspended him for two days. You can depend on it, Washington. Congress is vindictive. Congress is savage, sir, when it gets waked up once. It will go to any lengths to vindicate its honor at such a time. Oh, well. We have talked the morning through, just as usual, in these tiresome days of waiting, and we've reached the same old result. That is to say, we are no better off the moment we began. The land-bale is just as far away as ever, and the trial is closer at hand. Let's give up everything and die. Die, and leave the Duchess to fight it out alone. Oh, no, that won't do. Come now, don't talk so. It's all going to come outright. You'll see. It never will, Colonel. Never in the world. Something tells me that. I get more tired and more despondent every day. I don't see any hope. Life is only just a trouble. I'm so miserable these days. The Colonel made Washington get up and walk the floor with him arm in arm. The good old speculator wanted to comfort him, but he hardly knew how to go about it. He made many attempts, but they were lame. They lacked spirit. The words were encouraging, but they were only words. He could not get any heart into them. He could not always warm up now with the old Hawkeye fervor. By and by his lips trembled and his voice got unsteady. He said, Don't give up the ship, my boy. Don't do it. The winds bound to fetch around and set in our favor. I know it. And the prospect was so cheerful that he wept. Then he blew a trumpet blast that started the meshes of his handkerchief and said in almost his breezy old timeway, Lord bless us, this is all nonsense. Night doesn't last always. Day has got to break sometime or other. Every silver lining has a cloud behind it, as the poet says, and that remark has always cheered me, though I could never see any meaning to it. Everybody uses it, though, and everybody gets comfort out of it. I wish they would start something fresh. Come now. Let's cheer up. There's been as good fish in the sea as there are now. It shall never be said that Bariah sellers. Come in. It was a telegraph boy. The Colonel reached for the message and devoured its contents. I said it. Never give up the ship. The trials postponed till February and will save the child yet. Bless my life what lawyers they have in New York. Give them money to fight with and the ghost of an excuse and they would manage to postpone anything in this world unless it might be the millennium or something like that. Now for work again, my boy. The trial will last till the middle of March, sure. Congress ends the 4th of March. Within three days of the end of the session they will be done putting through the preliminaries, then they will be ready for a national business. Our bill will go through in 48 hours then and will telegraph a million dollars to the jury, to the lawyers, I mean, and the verdict of the jury will be accidental murder resulting from justifiable insanity or something to that effect, something to that effect. Everything is dead shore now. Come. What is the matter? What are you wilting down like that for? You mustn't be a girl, you know. Oh, Colonel, I've become so used to troubles, so used to failures, disappointments, hard luck of all kinds, that a little good news breaks me right down. Everything has been so hopeless that now I can't stand good news at all. It is too good to be true anyway. Don't you see how our bad luck has worked on me? My hair is getting gray and many nights I don't sleep at all. I wish it was all over and we could rest. I wish we could lie down and just forget everything and let it all just be a dream that is done and can't come back to trouble us any more. I'm so tired. Oh, poor child, don't talk like that. Cheer up, there's daylight ahead. Don't give up. You'll have Laura again and Louise and your mother and oceans and oceans of money and then you can go away ever so far away somewhere if you want to and forget all about this infernal place and by George I'll go with you. I'll go with you. Now there's my word on it. Cheer up. I'll run out and tell the friends the news. And he wrung Washington's hand and was about to hurry away when his companion in a burst of grateful admiration said, I think you were the best soul and the noblest I ever knew, Colonel Sellers. And if the people only knew you as I do, you would not be tagging around here a nameless man, you would be in Congress. The gladness died out of the Colonel's face and he laid his hand upon Washington's shoulder and said gravely, I have always been a friend of your family, Washington, and I think I have always tried to do right as between man and man according to my lights. Now I don't think there has ever been anything in my conduct that should make you feel justified in saying a thing like that. He turned then and walked slowly out, leaving Washington abashed and somewhat bewildered. When Washington had presently got his thoughts into line again, he said to himself, Why, honestly, I only meant to compliment him. Indeed, I would not have him hurt for the world. End of Chapter 51 Chapter 52 of The Gilded Age This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Lisa Myers The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner Chapter 52 The weeks drifted by monotonously enough now. The preliminaries continued to drag along in Congress and life was a dull suspense to sellers in Washington, a weary waiting which might have broken their hearts, maybe, but for the relieving change which they got out of an occasional visit to New York to see Laura. Standing guard in Washington or anywhere else is not an exciting business in time of peace, but standing guard was all the two friends had to do. All that was needed of them was that they should be on hand and ready for any emergency that might come up. There was nowhere to do. That was all finished. This was but the second session of the last winners' Congress, and its action on the bill could have but one result, its passage. The Housements do its work over again, of course, but the same membership was there to see that it did it. The Senate was secure. Senator Dillworthy was able to put all doubts to rest on that head. Indeed, it was no secret in Washington that a two-thirds vote in the Senate was ready and waiting to be cast for the university bill as soon as it should come before that body. Washington did not take part in the gayities of the season as he had done the previous winter. He had lost his interest in such things. He was oppressed with cares now. Senator Dillworthy said to Washington that an humble department under punishment was best, and that there was but one way in which the troubled heart might find perfect repose and peace. The suggestion found a response in Washington's breast, and the senator saw the sign of it in his face. From that moment one could find the youth with the senator even oftener than with Colonel Sellers. When the statesman presided at great temperance meetings, he placed Washington in the front rank of impressive dignitaries that gave tone to the occasion and pumped to the platform. His bald-headed surroundings made the youth the more conspicuous. When the statesman made remarks in these meetings, he not infrequently alluded with effect to the encouraging spectacle of one of the wealthiest and most brilliant young favorites of society for saking the light vanities of that butterfly existence to nobly and self-sacrificingly devote his talents and his riches to the cause of saving his hapless fellow-creatures from shame and misery here in eternal regret hereafter. At the prayer meetings the senator always brought Washington up the aisle on his arm and seated impermanently in his prayers who referred to him in the camp terms which the senator employed, perhaps unconsciously, and mistook maybe for religion, and in other ways brought him into notice. He had him out of gatherings for the benefit of the negro, gatherings for benefit of the Indian, gatherings for the benefit of the heathen in distant lands. He had him out time and again before Sunday schools as an example for emulation. Upon all these occasions the senator made casual references to many benevolent enterprises which his ardent young friend was planning against the day when the passage of the university bill should make his means available for the maleration of the condition of the unfortunate among his fellow men of all nations and all climes. Thus as the weeks rolled on Washington grew up into an imposing lion once more, but a lion that roamed the peaceful fields of religion and temperance and revisited the glittering domain of fashion no more. A great moral influence was thus brought to bear in favor of the bill. The weightiest of friends flocked to its standard. Its most energetic enemies said it was useless to fight longer. They attestedly surrendered while as yet the day of the battle was not yet come. The legislature whose duty it would be to reelect him to the United States Senate was already in session. Mr. Dilworthy considered his reelection certain but he was a careful painstaking man and if by visiting his state he could find the opportunity to persuade a few more legislators to vote for him he held the journey to be well worth taking. The university bill was safe now he could leave it without fear. It needed his presence and his watching no longer. But there was a person in his state legislature who did need watching. A person who Senator Dilworthy said was a narrow grumbling uncomfortable malcontent. A person who is stoddily opposed to reform and progress and him. A person who he feared had been bought with money to combat him and through him the Commonwealth's welfare and its political purity. If this person noble said Mr. Dilworthy in a little speech at a dinner party given him by some of his admirers merely desired to sacrifice me I would willingly offer up my political life on the altar of my dear state's wheel. I would be glad and grateful to do it but when he makes of me a cloak to hide his deeper designs when he proposes to strike through me at the heart of my beloved state all the line in me is roused and I say here I stand solitary and alone but unflinching unquailing thriced armed in my sacred trust and who so passes to do evil to this fair domain that looks to me for protection must do so over my dead body. He further said that if this noble were a pure man and merely misguided he could bear it but that he should succeed in his wicked designs through a base use of money would leave a blot upon his state which would work untold evil to the morals of the people and that he would not suffer the public morals must not be contaminated. He would seek this man noble he would argue he would persuade he would appeal to his honor when he arrived on the ground he found his friends unterrified they were standing firmly by him and were full of courage noble was working hard too but matters were against him he was not making much progress Mr. Dilworthy took an early opportunity to send for Mr. Noble he had a midnight interview with him and urged him to forsake his evil ways he begged him to come again and again which he did he finally sent the man away at three o'clock one morning and when he was gone Mr. Dilworthy said to himself I feel a good deal relieved now a great deal relieved the senator now turned his attention to matters touching the souls of his people he appeared in church he took a leading part in prayer meetings he met and encouraged the temperance societies he graced the sewing circles of the ladies with his presence and even took a needle now and then and made a stitch or two upon a calico shirt for some poor bible-less pagan of the south seas and his act enchanted the ladies who regarded the garments thus honored as in a manner sanctified the senator wrought in bible classes and nothing could keep him away from the sunday schools neither sickness nor storm nor weariness he even traveled the tedious 30 miles in a poor little rickety stagecoach to comply with the desire of the miserable hamlet of cattleville that he would let its sunday school look upon him all the town was assembled at the stage office when he arrived two bonfires were burning and a battery of anvils was popping exultant broadsides for united states senator was a sort of god in the understanding of these people who had never seen any creature mightier than a county judge to them a united state senator was a vast bay colossus an awe-inspiring unreality next day everybody was at the village church a full half hour before the time for sunday school to open ranch friends and farmers had come with their families from five miles around all eager to get a glimpse of the great man the man who had been to washington the man who had seen the president of the united states and even talked with him the man who had seen the actual washington monument perhaps touched it with his hands when the senator arrived the church was crowded the windows were full the aisles were packed so was the vestibule and so indeed was the yard in front of the building as he worked his way through the pulpit on the arm of the minister and followed by the envied officials of the village every neck was stretched and every eye twisted around intervening obstructions to get a glimpse elderly people directed each other's attention and said there that's him with the grand noble forehead boys nudged each other and said hi johnny here he is there that's him with a peeled head the senator took his seat in the pulpit with the minister on one side of him and the superintendent of the sunday school on the other the town dignitaries sat in an impressive row with the altar railings below the sunday school children occupied ten of the front benches dressed in their best and most uncomfortable clothes and with hair combed and faces too clean to feel natural so odd were they by the presence of a living united states senator that during three minutes not a spitball was thrown after that they began to come to themselves by degrees and presently the spell was wholly gone and they were reciting verses and pulling hair the usual sunday school exercises were hurried through and then the minister got up and board the house with a speech built on the customary sunday school plan then the superintendent put in his or then the town dignitaries had their say they all made complimentary reference to their friend the senator and told what a great and illustrious man he was and what he had done for his country and for religion and temperance and extorted the little boys to be good and diligent and try to become like him someday the speakers won the deathless hatred of the house by these delays but alas there was an end in hope revived inspiration was about to find utterance senator dill worthy rose and beamed upon the assemblage for a full minute in silence then he smiled with an excess of sweetness upon the children and began my little friends for i hope that all these bright-faced little people are my friends and will let me be their friend my little friends i have traveled much i have been in many cities and many states everywhere in our great and noble country and by the blessing of providence i have been permitted to see many gatherings like this but i am proud i am truly proud to say that i have never looked upon so much intelligence so much grace such sweetness of disposition as i am seeing in the charming uncountances i see before me at this moment i have been asking myself as i sat here where am i am i in some far-off monarchy looking upon little princes and princesses no am i in some popular center of my own country where the choices children of the land have been selected and brought together as at a fair for a prize no am i in some strange foreign climb where the children are marvels that we know not of no then where am i yes where am i i am in a simple remote unpretending settlement of my own dear state and these are the children of the noble and virtuous men who have made me what i am my soul is lost in wonder at the thought and i humbly thank him to whom we are but as worms of the dust that he has been pleased to call me to serve such men earth has no higher no grander position for me let kings and emperors keep their tinsel crowns i want them not my heart is here again i thought is this a theater no is it a concert or a gilded opera no is it some other vain brilliant beautiful temple of soul sustaining amusement and hilarity no then what is it what did my consciousness reply i ask you my little friends what did my consciousness reply it replied it is the temple of the lord ah think of that now i could hardly keep the tears back i was so grateful oh how beautiful it is to see these ranks of sunny little faces assembled here to learn the way of life to learn to be good to learn to be useful to learn to be pious to learn to be great and glorious men and women to learn to be props and pillars of the state and shining lights in the councils and the households of the nation to be bearers of the banner and the soldiers of the cross in the rude campaigns of life and raptured souls in the happy fields of paradise hereafter children honor your parents and be grateful to them for providing for you the precious privileges of a sunday school now my dear little friends sit up straight and pretty there that's it and give me your attention and let me tell you about a poor little sunday school scholar i once knew he lived in the far west and his parents were poor they could not give him a costly education but they were good and wise and they sent him to the sunday school he loved the sunday school i hope you love your sunday school i see by your faces that you do that is right well this poor little boy was always in his place when the bell rang and he always knew his lesson for his teachers wanted him to learn and he loved his teachers dearly always love your teachers my children for they love you more than you can know now he would not let bad boys persuade him to go to play on sunday there was one little bad boy who was always trying to persuade him but he never could so this poor little boy grew up to be a man and had to go out in the world far from home and friends to earn his living temptations lay all about him and sometimes he was about to yield but he would think of some precious lesson he learned in his sunday school a long time ago and that would save him by and by he was elected to the legislature then he did everything he could for sunday schools he got laws passed for them he got sunday schools established wherever he could and by and by the people made him governor and he said it was all owing to the sunday school after a while the people elected him a representative to the congress of the united states and he grew very famous now temptations assailed him on every hand people tried to get him to drink wine to dance to go to theaters they even tried to buy his vote but no the memory of his sunday school saved him from all harm he remembered the fate of the bad little boy who used to try to get him to play on sunday and who grew up and became a drunkard and was hanged he remembered that and he was glad he never yielded and played on sunday well at last what do you think happened why the people gave him a towering illustrious position a grand imposing position and what do you think it was what should you say it was children it was senator of the united states that poor little boy that loved his sunday school became that man that man stands before you all that he is he owes to sunday school my precious little children love your parents love your teachers love your sunday school be pious be obedient be honest be diligent and then you will succeed in life and be honored of all men above all things my children be honest above all things be pure minded as the snow let us join in prayer when senator dillworthy departed from cattleville he left three dozen boys behind him arranging a campaign of life whose objective point was the united state senate when he arrived at the state capital at midnight mr. noble came and held a three hours conference with him then as he was about leaving said i've worked hard and i've got them at last six of them haven't got quite backbone enough to slew around and come right out for you on the first ballot tomorrow but they're going to vote against you on the first for the sake of appearances and then come out for you all in body on the second i fixed all that by separate time tomorrow you'll be reelected you can go to bed and sleep easy on that after mr noble was gone the senator said well to bring about a complexion of things like this was worth coming west for end of chapter 53 recording by lisa miers chapter 54 of the gilded age this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org recording by d y cough the gilded age by mark twain and charles deadly warner chapter 54 the case of the state of new york against laura hawkins was finally set down for trial on the 15th day of february less than a year after the shooting of george selby if the public had almost forgotten the existence of laura and her crime they were reminded of all the details of the murder by the newspapers which for some days had been announcing the approaching trial but they had not forgotten the sex the age the beauty of the prisoner her high social position in washington the unparalleled calmness with which the crime was committed had all conspired to fix the event in the public mind although nearly 365 subsequent murders had occurred to vary the monotony of metropolitan life now the public read from time to time of the lovely prisoner languishing in the city prison the tortured victim of the law's delay and as the months went by it was natural that the horror of her crime should become a little indistinct in memory while the heroine of it should be invested with the sort of sentimental interest perhaps her counsel had calculated on this perhaps it was by their advice that laura had interested herself in the unfortunate criminals who shared her prison confinement and had done not a little to relieve from her own purse the necessities of some of the poor creatures that she had done this the public read in the journals of the day and the simple announcement cast a softening light upon her character the courtroom was crowded at an early hour before the arrival of judges lawyers and prisoner there is no enjoyment so keen to certain minds as that of looking upon the slow torture of a human being on trial for life except it be an execution there is no display of human ingenuity wit and power so fascinating as that made by trained lawyers in the trial of an important case nowhere else is exhibited such subtlety acumen address eloquence all the conditions of intense excitement meet in a murder trial the awful issue at stake gives significance to the lightest word or look how the quick eyes of the spectators rove from the stala jury to the keen lawyers the impassive judge the anxious prisoner nothing is lost of the sharper angle of the counsel on points of law the measured decisions of the bench the duels between the attorneys and the witnesses the crowd sways with the rise and fall of the shifting testimony in sympathetic interest and hangs upon the dict of the judge in breathless silence its speedily takes sides for or against the accused and recognizes as quickly its favorites among the lawyers nothing delights it more than the sharper tort of a witness and the discumperture of an obnoxious attorney a joke even if it be a lame one is nowhere so keenly relished or quickly applauded as in a murder trial within the bar the young lawyers and the privileged hangers on filled all the chairs except those reserved at the table for those engaged in the case without the throng occupied all the seats the window ledges and the standing room the atmosphere was already something horrible it was the peculiar odor of a criminal court as if it were tainted by the presence indifferent persons of all the crimes that men and women can commit there was a little stir when the prosecuting attorney with two assistants made his way in seated himself at the table and spread his papers before him there was more stir when the counsel of the defense appeared they were mr. Bram the senior and mr. Quiggle and mr. O'Keefe the juniors everybody in the courtroom knew mr. Bram a great criminal lawyer and he was not unaware that he was the object of all eyes as he moved to his place bowing to his friends in the bar a large but rather spare man with broad shoulders and a massive head covered with chestnut curls which fell down upon his coat collar and which he had a habit of shaking as a lion is supposed to shake his mane his face was clean shaven and he had a wide mouth and rather small dark eyes set quite too near together mr. Bram wore a frock coat buttoned across his breast with a rosebud in the upper buttonhole and light pantaloons a diamond stud was seen to flash from his wisdom and as he seated himself and drew off his gloves a heavy seal ring was displayed upon his white left hand mr. Bram having seated himself deliberately surveyed the entire house made a remarked one of his assistants and then taking an ivory handled knife from his pocket began to pair his fingernails rocking his chair backwards and forwards slowly a moment later judge o'shaughnessy entered at the rear door and took his seat in one of the chairs beside the bench a gentleman in black broadcloth with sandy hair inclined to curl around reddish and rather jovial face sharp rather than intellectual and with the self-sufficient air his career had nothing remarkable in it he was descended from a long line of irish kings and he was the first one of them who had ever come into his kingdom the kingdom of such being the city of new york he had in fact descended so far and so low that he found himself when a boy a sort of street Arab in that city but he had ambition and native shrewdness and he speedily took to boot polishing and newspaper hawking became the office and errand boy of a law firm picked up knowledge enough to get some employment in police courts was admitted to the bar became a rising young politician went to the legislature and was finally elected to the bench which he now honored in this democratic country he was obliged to conceal his royalty under a plebeian aspect judge o'shaughnessy never had a lucrative practice nor a large salary but he had prudently laid away money believing that a dependent judge can never be impartial and he had lands and houses to the value of three or four hundred thousand dollars had he not helped to build and furnish this very courthouse did he not know that the very spittoon which his judge shipped used cost the city the sum of one thousand dollars as soon as the judge was seated the court was opened with the oh yeah oh yeah of the officer in his native language the case called and the sheriff was directed to bring in the prisoner in the midst of a profound hush laura entered leaning on the arm of the officer and was conducted to a seat by her counsel she was followed by her mother and by washington hawkins who were given seats near her laura was very pale but this pallor heightened the lustre of her large eyes and gave a touching sadness to her expressive face she was dressed in simple black with exquisite taste and without an ornament the thin lace veil which partially covered her face did not so much conceal as heighten her beauty she would not have entered a drawing room with more self-poise nor a church with more haughty humility there was in her manner of face neither shame nor boldness and when she took her seat in full view of half the spectators her eyes were downcast a murmur of admiration ran through the room the newspaper reporters made their pencils fly mr. bram again swept his eyes over the house as if an approval when laura length raised her eyes a little she saw philip and harry within the bar but she gave no token of recognition the clerk then read the indictment which was in the usual form it charged laura hawkins in effect with the premeditated murder of george selby by shooting him with a pistol with a revolver shotgun rifle repeater breech loader cannon six shooter with a gun or some other weapon with killing him with a slung shot a bludgeon carving knife bowie knife pin knife rolling pin car hook dagger hairpin with a hammer with a screwdriver with a nail and with all other weapons and utensils whatsoever at the southern hotel and in all other hotels and places where so ever on the thirteenth day of march and all the other days of the christian era where so ever laura stood while the lung indictment was read and at the end in response to the inquiry of the judge she said in a clear low voice not guilty she sat down and the court proceeded to impanel a jury the first man called was michael lannigan saloon keeper have you formed or expressed any opinion on this case and do you know any of the parties not any said mr. lannigan have you any conscientious objections to capital punishment no sir not to my knowledge have you read anything about this case to be sure i read the papers your honor objected to by mr. bram for cause and discharged patrick coughlin what is your business well i haven't got any particular business haven't any particular business a well what's your general business what do you do for a living i own some terriers sir own some terriers a keep a rapid gentleman comes there to have a little sport i never fit him sir oh i see you're probably the amusement committee of the city council have you heard any of this case not till this morning sir can you read not find print your honor the man was about to be sworn when mr. bram asked could your father read the old gentleman was mighty handy at that sir mr. bram submitted that the man was disqualified judge thought not point argued challenged peremptorily and set aside ethandob cart driver can you read yes but haven't a habit of it have you heard of this case i think so but it might be another i have no opinion about it this attorney that that there hold on a bit did anybody tell you to say you had no opinion about it uh no sir take care now take care then what suggested it to you to volunteer that remark they've always asked that when i was on juries all right then have you any conscientious scruples about capital punishment any which would you object to finding a person guilty of murder on evidence i might sir if i thought he wasn't guilty the district attorney thought he saw a point would this feeling rather incline you against a capital conviction the juror said he hadn't any feeling and didn't know any of the parties accepted and sworn denise laughing laborer have neither form nor expressed an opinion never heard of the case believed in hanging for them that deserved it could read if it was necessary mr bram objected the man was evidently bloody minded challenged peremptorily larry otul contractor a showily dressed man of the style known as vulgar gentile had a sharp eye and a ready tongue had read the newspaper reports of the case but they made no impression on him should be governed by the evidence knew no reason why he could not be an impartial juror questioned by district attorney how is it that the reports made no impression on you never believe anything i see in the newspapers laughter from the crowd approving smiles from his honor and mr bram juror sworn in mr bram whispered to okif that's the man avry hicks peanut peddler did he ever hear of this case the man shook his head can you read no any scruples about capital punishment no he was about to be sworn when the district attorney turning to him carelessly remarked understand the nature of an oath outside said the man pointing to the door i say do you know what an oath is five cents explained the man do you mean to insult me roared the prosecuting officer are you an idiot fresh baked i'm deep didn't hear a word you say the man was discharged he wouldn't have made a bad juror though whispered bram i saw him looking at the prisoner sympathizingly that's a point you want to watch for the result of the whole day's work was the selection of only two jurors these however were satisfactory to mr bram he had kept off all those he did not know no one knew better than this great criminal lawyer that the battle was fought on the selection of the jury the subsequent examination of the witnesses the eloquence expanded on the jury are all for effect outside at least that is the theory of mr bram but human nature is a queer thing he admits sometimes jurors are unaccountably swayed be as careful as you can in choosing them it was four weary days before this jury was made up but when it was finally complete it did great credit to the council for the defense so far as mr bram knew only two could read one of whom was the foreman mr bram's friend the showy contractor low foreheads and heavy faces they all had some had a look of animal cunning while the most were only stupid the entire panel formed that boasted heritage commonly described as the bulwark of our liberties the district attorney mr mcflin opened the case for the state he spoke with only the slightest accent one that had been inherited but not cultivated he contended himself with a brief statement of the case the state would prove that laura hawkins the prisoner at the bar a fiend in the form of a beautiful woman shot dead george selby a southern gentleman at the time and place described that the murder was in cold blood deliberate and without provocation that it had long been premeditated and threatened that she had followed the deceased from washington to commit it all this would be proved by unimpeachable witnesses the attorney added that the duty of the jury however painful it might be would be plain and simple they were citizens husbands perhaps fathers they knew how insecure life had become in the metropolis tomorrow our own wives might be widows their own children orphans like the bereaved family in yonder hotel deprived of husband and father by the jealous hand of some murderous female the attorney sat down and the clerk called henry briarly end of chapter 54 chapter 55 of the gilded age this is a liber box recording all liber box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberbox.org the gilded age by mark twain and charles deadly warner chapter 55 henry briarly took the stand requested by the district attorney to tell the jury all he knew about killing he narrated the circumstances substantially as the reader already knows them he accompanied miss hawkins to new york at her request supposing she was coming in relation to a bill then pending in congress to secure the attendance of absent members her note to him was here shown she appeared to be very much excited at the washington station after she had asked the conductor several questions he heard her say he can't escape he witnessed asked her who and she replied nobody did not see her during the night they traveled in a sleeping car in the morning she appeared not to have slept said she had a headache in crossing the ferry she had asked him about the shipping in sight he pointed out where the conarders lay went in port they took a cup of coffee that morning at a restaurant she said she was anxious to reach the southern hotel where mr simons one of the absent members was staying before he went out she was entirely self possessed and beyond unusual excitement did not act unnaturally after she fired twice at colonel shelby she turned the pistol toward her own breast and witnessed snatched it from her she had been a great deal with selby in washington appeared to be infatuated with him cross-examined by mr bram mr priory mr bram had in perfection this lawyer's trick of annoying a witness by drawing out the mister as if unable to recall the name until the witness is sufficiently aggravated and then suddenly with a rising inflection flinging his name at him with a startling unexpectedness mr priory what is your occupation civil engineer sir ah civil engineer with a glance at the jury following that occupation with miss hawkins smiles by the jury no sir said harry redding how long have you known the prisoner two years sir i made her acquaintance in hawkeye missouri mr priory were you not a lover of miss hawkins objected to i submit your honor that i have a right to establish the relation of this unwilling witness to the prisoner admitted well sir said harry hesitatingly we were friends you act like a friend sarcastically the jury were beginning to hate this neatly dressed young sprig mr briarly didn't miss hawkins refuse you harry blushed and stammered and looked at the judge you must answer sir said his honor she she didn't accept me no i should think not briarly do you dare tell the jury that you had not an interest in the removal of your rival colonel selby roared mr bram in a voice of thunder nothing like this sir nothing like this protested the witness that's all sir said mr bram severely one word said the district attorney had you the least suspicion of the prisoner's intention up to the moment of the shooting not the least answered harry earnestly of course not of course not nodded mr bram to the jury the prosecution then put upon the stand the other witnesses of the shooting at the hotel and the clerk and the attending physicians the fact of the homicide was clearly established nothing new was elicited except from the clerk in reply to a question by mr bram the fact that when the prisoner inquired for colonel selby she appeared excited and there was a wild look in her eyes the dying deposition of colonel selby was then produced it set forth laura's threats but there was a significant addition to it which the newspaper report did not have it seemed that after the deposition was taken as reported the colonel was told for the first time by his physicians that his wounds were mortal he appeared to be in great mental agony and fear and said he had not finished his deposition he added with great difficulty and long causes these words i have not told all i must tell put it down i wronged her years ago i can't see oh god i deserved that was all he fainted and did not revive again the washington railway conductor testified that the prisoner had asked him if a gentleman and his family went out on the evening train describing the persons he had since learned were colonel selby and family susan cullum colored servant at senator dillworthy's was sworn new colonel selby had seen him come to the house often and be alone in the parlor with miss hawkins he came the day but one before he was shot she let him in he appeared flustered like she heard talking in the parlor it appeared like it was quarreling was a feared something was wrong just put her ear to the keyhole of the back parlor door heard a man's voice i can't i can't good god quite begging like heard young missus voice take your choice then if you abandoned me you know what to expect then he rushes out in the house i goes in and i says missus did you ring she was a standing like a tiger her eyes flashing i come right out this was the substance of susan's testimony which was not shaken in the least by severe cross examination in reply to mr bram's question if the prisoner did not look insane susan said lord no sir just mad as a hornet washington hawkins was sworn the pistol identified by the officer as the one used in the homicide was produced washington admitted that it was his she had asked for it one morning saying that she thought she heard burglars the night before had anything unusual happened just before that nothing that he remembered did he accompany her to a reception at mrs schoonmaker's a day or two before yes what occurred little by little it was dragged out of the witness that laura behaved strangely there appeared to be sick and he had taken her home upon being pushed he admitted that she had afterwards confessed that she saw selby there and washington volunteered the statement that selby was a blackhearted villain the district attorney said with some annoyance there there that will do the defense declined to examine mr hawkins at present the case for the prosecution was closed of the murder there could not be the least doubt or that the prisoner followed the deceased to new york with a murderous intent on the evidence the jury must convict and might do so without leaving their seats this was the condition of the case two days after the jury had been selected a week had passed since the trial opened and a sunday had intervened the public who read the reports of the evidence saw no chance for the prisoner's escape the crowd of spectators who had watched the trial were moved with the most profound sympathy for laura mr bram opened the case for the defense his manner was subdued and he spoke in so low a voice that it was only by reason of perfect silence in the courtroom that he could be heard he spoke very distinctly however and if his nationality could be discovered in his speech it was only in a certain richness and breadth of tone he began by saying he trembled at the responsibility he had undertaken and he should altogether despair if he did not see before him a jury of 12 men of rare intelligence whose acute minds would unravel all the sophistries of the prosecution men with a sense of honor which would revolt at the remorseless persecution of this hunted woman by the state men with hearts to feel for the wrongs of which she was the victim far be it from him to cast any suspicion upon the motives of the able eloquent and ingenious lawyers of the state they act officially their business is to convict it is our business gentlemen to see that justice is done it is my duty gentlemen to unfold to you one of the most affecting dramas in all the history of misfortune i shall have to show you a life the sport of fate and circumstances hurried along through shifting storm and sun bright with trusting innocence and a non black with heartless villainy a career which moves in on love and desertion and anguish always hovered over by the dark specter of insanity an insanity hereditary and induced by mental torture until it ends if end it must in your verdict by one of those fearful accidents which are inscrutable to man and of which god alone knows the secret gentlemen i shall ask you to go with me away from this courtroom and its minions of the law away from the scene of this tragedy to a distant i wish i could say a happier day the story i have to tell is of a lovely little girl with sunny hair and laughing eyes traveling with her parents evidently people of wealth and refinement upon a mississippi steamboat there is an explosion one of those terrible catastrophes which leaves the imprint of an unsettled mind upon the survivors hundreds of mangled remains are sent into eternity when the wreck is cleared away the sweet little girl is found among the panic-stricken survivors in the midst of a scene of horror enough to turn the steadiest brain her parents have disappeared search even for their bodies is in vain the bewildered stricken child who can say what changes the fearful event wrought in her tender brain clings to the first person who shows her sympathy it is mrs. Hawkins this good lady who is still her loving friend laura is adopted into the hawkins family perhaps she forgets in time that she is not their child she is an orphan no gentlemen i will not deceive you she is not an orphan worse than that there comes another day of agony she knows that her father lives who is he where is he alas i cannot tell you through the scenes of this painful history he flits here and there a lunatic if he seeks his daughter it is the purposeless search of a lunatic as one who wonders bereft of reason crying where is my child laura seeks her father in vain just as she is about to find him again and again he disappears he is gone he vanishes but this is only the prologue to the tragedy bear with me while i relate it mr. bram takes out a handkerchief unfolds it slowly crashes it in his nervous hand and throws it on the table laura grew up in her humble southern home a beautiful creature the joy of the house the pride of the neighborhood the loveliest flower in all the sunny south she might yet have been happy she was happy but the destroyer came into this paradise he plucked the sweetest bud that grew there and having enjoyed its odor trampled it in the mire beneath his feet george selby the deceased a handsome accomplished confederate colonel was this human fiend he deceived her with a mock marriage after some months he brutally abandoned her and spurned her as if she were a contemptible thing all the time he had a wife in new orleans laura was crushed for weeks as i shall show you by the testimony of her adopted mother and brother she hovered over death in delirium gentlemen did she ever emerge from this delirium i shall show you that when she recovered her health her mind was changed she was not what she had been you can judge yourselves whether the tottering reason ever recovered its throne years pass she is in washington apparently the happy favorite of a brilliant society her family have become enormously rich by one of those sudden turns in fortune that the inhabitants of america are familiar with the discovery of immense mineral wealth in some wild lands owned by them she is engaged in a vast philanthropic scheme for the benefit of the poor by the use of this wealth but alas even here and now the same relentless fate pursuer the villain selby appears again upon the scene as if on purpose to complete the ruin of her life he appeared to taunt her with her dishonor he threatened exposure if she did not become again the mistress of his passion gentlemen do you wonder if this woman thus pursued lost her reason was beside herself with fear and that her wrongs preyed upon her mind until she was no longer responsible for her acts i turn away my head as one who would not willingly look even upon the just vengeance of heaven mr. bram paused as if overcome by his emotions mrs. hawkins and washington were in tears as were many of the spectators also the jury looked scared gentlemen in this condition of affairs it needed but a spark i do not say a suggestion i do not say a hint from this butterfly briarly this rejected rival to cause the explosion i make no charges but if this woman was in her right mind when she fled from washington and reached this city in company with briarly then i do not know what insanity is when mr. bram sat down he felt that he had the jury with him a burst of applause followed which the officer promptly suppressed laura with tears in her eyes turned a grateful look upon her counsel all the women among the spectators saw the tears and wept also they thought as they also looked at mr. bram how handsome he is mrs. hawkins took the stand she was somewhat confused to be the target of so many eyes but her honest and good face at once told in laura's favor mrs. hawkins said mr. bram will you be kind enough to state the circumstances of your finding laura i object said mr. mcflin rising to his feet this has nothing whatever to do with the case your honor i'm surprised at it even after the extraordinary speech of my learned friend how do you propose to connect it mr. bram asked the judge if it please the court said mr. bram rising impressively your honor has permitted the prosecution and i have submitted without a word to go into the most extraordinary testimony to establish a motive are we to be shut out from showing that the motive attributed to us could not by reason of certain mental conditions exist i purpose may it please your honor to show the cause and the origin of an aberration of mind to follow it up with other like evidence connecting it with the very moment of the homicide showing a condition of the intellect of the prisoner that precludes responsibility the state must insist upon its objections said the district attorney the purpose evidently is to open the door to a massive irrelevant testimony the object of which is to produce an effect upon the jury your honor well understands perhaps suggested the judge the court ought to hear the testimony and excluded afterwards if it is irrelevant will your honor hear argument on that certainly and argument his honor did hear or pretend to for two whole days from all the council in turn in the course of which the lawyers read contradictory decisions enough to perfectly establish both sides from volume after volume hold libraries in fact until no mortal man could say what the rules were the question of insanity in all its legal aspects was of course drawn into the discussion and its application affirmed and denied the case was felt to turn upon the admission or rejection of this evidence it was a sort of test trial of strength between the lawyers at the end the judge decided to admit the testimony as the judge usually does in such cases after a sufficient waste of time in what are called arguments mrs. Hawkins was allowed to go on end of chapter 55 chapter 56 of the gilded age this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org the gilded age by mark twain and charles dudley warner chapter 56 mrs. Hawkins slowly and conscientiously as if every detail of her family history was important told the story of the steamboat explosion of the finding and adoption of laura silas that is mr. Hawkins and she always loved laura as if she had been their own child she then narrated the circumstances of laura's supposed marriage her abandonment and long illness in a manner that touched all hearts laura had been a different woman since then cross-examined at the time of first finding laura on the steamboat did she notice that laura's mind was at all deranged she couldn't say that she did after the recovery of laura from her long illness did mrs. Hawkins think there were any signs of insanity about her witness confessed that she did not think of it then redirect examination but was she different after that oh yes sir washington hawkins corroborated his mother's testimony as to laura's connection with colonel selby he was at hearting during the time of her living there with him after colonel selby's desertion she was almost dead never appeared to know anything rightly for weeks he added that he never saw such a scoundrel as selby checked by district attorney had he noticed any change in laura after her illness oh yes whenever any illusion was made that might recall selby to mind she looked awful as if she could kill him you mean said mr. bram that there was an unnatural insane gleam in her eyes yes certainly said washington in confusion all this was objected to by the district attorney but it was got before the jury and mr. bram did not care how much it was ruled out after that variah sellers was the next witness called the colonel made his way to the stand with majestic yet land deliberation having taken oath and kissed the bible with a smack intended to show his great respect for that book he bowed to his honor with dignity to the jury with familiarity and then turned to the lawyers and stood in an attitude of superior attention mr. sellers i believe began mr. bram variah sellers Missouri was the courteous acknowledgement that the lawyer was correct mr. sellers you know the parties here you are a friend of the family know them all from infancy sir it was me sir that induced silas hawkins judge hawkins to come to Missouri and make his fortune it was by my advice and in company with me sir that he went into the operation of yes yes mr. sellers did you know a major lackland knew him well sir knew him and honored him sir he was one of the most remarkable men of our country sir a member of congress he was often at my mansion sir for weeks he used to say to me colonel sellers if you would go into politics if i had you for a colleague we should show calhoun and webster that the brain of the country didn't lie east of the allogeneis but i said yes yes i believe major lackland is not living colonel there was an almost imperceptible sense of pleasure betrayed in the colonel's face at this prompt acknowledgement of his title bless you know died years ago a miserable death sir a ruined man a poor sat he was suspected of selling his vote in congress and probably he did the disgrace killed him he was an outcast sir loathed by himself and by his constituents and i think sir the judge you will confine yourself colonel sellers to the questions of the council of course your honor this continued the colonel in confidential explanation was 20 years ago i shouldn't have thought of referring to such a trifling circumstance now if i remember rightly sir a bundle of letters was here handed to the witness do you recognize that handwriting as if it were my own sir it's major lacklands i was knowing to these letters when judge hawkins received them the colonel's memory was a little at fault here mr hawkins had never gone into details with him on this subject he used to show them to me and say colonel sellers you have a mind to untangle this sort of thing lord how everything comes back to me laura was a little thing then the judge and i were just laying our plans to buy the pilot knob and colonel one moment your honor we put these letters in evidence the letters were a portion of the correspondence of major lackland with silas hawkins parts of them were missing and important letters were referred to that were not here they related as the reader knows to laura's father lackland had come upon the track of a man who was searching for a lost child in a mississippi steamboat explosion years before the man was lame in one leg and appeared to be flitting from place to place it seemed that major lackland got so close track of him that he was able to describe his personal appearance and learn his name but the letter containing these particulars was lost once he heard of him at a hotel in washington but the man departed leaving an empty trunk the day before the major went there there was something very mysterious in all his movements colonel cellars continuing his testimony said that he saw this lost letter but could not now recall the name search for the supposed father had been continued by lackland hawkins and himself for several years but laura was not informed of it till after the death of hawkins for fear of raising false hopes in her mind here the district attorney rose and said your honor i must positively object to letting the witness wander off into all these irrelevant details mr bram i submit your honor that we cannot be interrupted in this manner we have suffered the state to have full swing now here is a witness who has known the prisoner from infancy and is competent to testify upon one point vital to her safety evidently he is a gentleman of character and his knowledge of the case cannot be shed out without increasing the aspect of persecution which the state's attitude toward the prisoner already has assumed the wrangle continued waxing hotter and hotter the colonel seeing the attention of the council and court entirely withdrawn from him thought he perceived here his opportunity turning and beaming upon the jury he began simply to talk but as the grandeur of his position grew upon him talk broadened unconsciously into an oratorical vein you see how she was situated gentlemen poor child it might have broken her heart to let her mind get to running on such a thing as that you see from what we could make out her father was lame in the left leg and had a deep scar on his left forehead and so ever since the day she found out she had another father she never could run across a lame stranger without being taken all over with a shiver and almost painting where she stood and the next minute she would go right after that man once she stumbled on a stranger with a game leg and she was the most grateful thing in this world but it was the wrong leg and it was days and days before she could leave her bed once she found a man with a scar on his forehead and she was going to throw herself into his arms but he stepped out just then and there wasn't anything the matter with his legs time and time again gentlemen of the jury as this poor suffering orphan flung herself on her knees with all her heart's gratitude in her eyes before some scarred and crippled veteran but always always to be disappointed always to be plunged into new despair if his legs are right his scar was wrong if his scar was right his legs are wrong never could find a man that would fill the bill gentlemen of the jury you have hearts you have feelings you have warm human sympathies you can feel for this poor suffering child gentlemen of the jury if i had time if i had the opportunity if i might be permitted to go on and tell you the thousands and thousands and thousands of mutilated strangers this poor girl has started out after and hunted from city to city from state to state from continent to continent till she has run them down and found they wasn't the ones i know your hearts by this time the colonel had become so warmed up that his voice had reached a pitch above that of the contending council the lawyers suddenly stopped and they and the judge turned toward the colonel and remained for several seconds too surprised at this novel exhibition to speak in this interval of silence an appreciation of the situation gradually stole over the audience and an explosion of laughter followed in which even the court and the bar could hardly keep from joining sheriff order in the court the judge the witness will convine his remarks to answers to questions the colonel turned courteously to the judge and said certainly your honor certainly well i'm not acquainted with the forms of procedure in the courts of new york but in the west sir in the west the judge there there that will do that will do you see your honor there were no questions asked me and i thought i would take advantage of the lull in the proceedings to explain to the jury a very significant train of the judge that will do sir proceed mr bram colonel sellers have you any reason to suppose this man is still living every reason sir every reason state why i have never heard of his death sir it has never come to my knowledge in fact sir as i once said to governor will you state to the jury what has been the effect of the knowledge of this wandering and evidently unsettled being supposed to be her father upon the mind of miss hawkins for so many years question objected to question ruled out cross exam major sellers what is your occupation the colonel looked about him loftily as of casting in his mind what would be a proper occupation of a person of such multifarious interests and then said with dignity a gentleman sir my father used to always say sir captain sellers did you ever see this man this supposed father no sir but upon one occasion old senator tomson said to me it's my opinion colonel sellers did you ever see anybody who had seen him no sir it was reported all around one time that that is all the defense then spent a day in the examination of medical experts in insanity who testified on the evidence heard that sufficient causes had occurred to produce an insane mind in the prisoner numerous cases were cited to sustain this opinion there was such a thing as momentary insanity in which the person otherwise rational to all appearances was for the time actually be wrapped of reason and not responsible for his acts the causes of this momentary possession could often be found in the person's life it afterwards came out that the chief expert for the defense was paid a thousand dollars for looking into the case the prosecution consumed another day in the examination of experts refuting the notion of insanity these causes might have produced insanity but there was no evidence that they had produced it in this case or that the prisoner was not at the time of the commission of the crime in full possession of her ordinary faculties the trial had now lasted two weeks it required four days now for the lawyers to sum up these arguments of the counsel were very important to their friends and greatly enhanced their reputation at the bar but they have small interest to us Mr. Bram and his closing speech surpassed himself his effort is still remembered as the greatest in the criminal annals of new york mr. Bram redrew for the jury the picture of laura's early life he dwelt long upon that painful episode of the pretend marriage and the desertion colonel selby he said belonged gentlemen to what is called the upper classes it is the privilege of the upper classes to pray upon the sons and daughters of the people the hawkins family though allied to the best blood of the south were at the time in humble circumstances he commented upon her parentage perhaps her agonized father in his intervals of sanity was still searching for his lost daughter would he one day hear that she had died a felon's death society had pursued her fate had pursued her and in a moment of delirium she had turned and defied fate and society he dwelt upon the admission of base wrong and colonel selby's dying statement he drew a vivid picture of the villain at last overtaken by the vengeance of heaven would the jury say that this retributive justice inflicted by an outraged and deluded woman rendered irrational by the most cruel wrongs was in the nature of a foul premeditated murder gentlemen it is enough for me to look upon the life of this most beautiful and accomplished of her sex blasted by the heartless villainy of man without seeing at the end of it the horrible spectacle of a jibbit gentlemen we are all human we have all sinned we all have need of mercy but i do not ask mercy of you who are the guardians of society and of the poor waves it's sometimes wrong victims i ask only that justice but you and i shall need in that last dreadful hour when death will be robbed of half its terrors if we can reflect that we have never wronged a human being gentlemen the life of this lovely and once happy girl this now stricken woman is in your hands the jury were riseably affected half the courtroom was in tears if a vote of both spectators and jury could have been taken them the verdict would have been let her go she has suffered enough but the district attorney had the closing argument calmly and without malice or excitement he reviewed the testimony as the cold facts were unrolled fear settled upon the listeners there was no escape from the murder or its premeditation laura's character as a lobbyist in washington which had been made to appear incidentally in the evidence was also against her the whole body of the testimony of the defense was shown to be irrelevant introduced only to excite sympathy and not giving a color of probability to the absurd supposition of insanity the attorney then dwelt upon the insecurity of life in the city and the growing immunity with which women commit murders mr mcflin made a very able speech convincing the reason without touching the feelings the judge in his charge reviewed the testimony with great show of impartiality he ended by saying that the verdict must be acquittal or murder in the first degree if you find that the prisoner committed a homicide in possession of her reason and with premeditation your verdict will be accordingly if you find she was not in her right mind that she was the victim of insanity hereditary or momentary as it has been explained your verdict will take that into account as the judge finished his charge the spectators anxiously watched the faces of the jury it was not a remunerative study in the courtroom the general feeling was in favor of laura but whether this feeling extended to the jury their stolid faces did not reveal the public outside hoped for a conviction as it always does it wanted an example the newspaper stressed that the jury would have the courage to do its duty when laura was convicted then the public could turn around and abuse the governor if he did not pardon her the jury went out mr. bram preserved his serene confidence but laura's friends were dispirited washington and colonel cellars had been obliged to go to washington and they had departed under the unspoken fear the verdict would be unfavorable a disagreement was the best they could hope for and money was needed the necessity of the passage of the university bill was now imperative the court waited for some time but the jury gave no signs of coming in mr. bram said it was extraordinary the court then took a recess for a couple of hours upon again coming in word was brought that the jury had not yet agreed but the jury had a question the point upon which they wanted instruction was this they wanted to know if colonel cellars was related to the hawkins family the court then adjourned till morning mr. bram who was in something of a pet remarked to mr. otul that they must have been deceived that juryman with the broken nose could read end of chapter 56