fo»»¥¥¥V¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥»¥ A DOUBLE ! CONFESSION] j The Singular Case of a Pair | J of lovers $ h — * J By JOHN R. OOELVIE £ One of tbe questions as to wbat Is and wbat is not allowable In tbe legal profession that laymen are not apt to understand is whether it is honorable for a lawyer to defend a client who has confessed himself guilty of the Ji-rime with which he Is charged. One of the reasons why this Is not only al lowable for an attorney, but is his j duty, is tbat the confession may be ; false. Many persons have labored un iler a hallucination that they have committed a crime of which they are entirely innocent. 1 bad u very singular case of this kind when I was practicing, before 1 went on the bench. A young man : was accused of forging bis ancle's will. He was heir-at-law to the property In volved by reason of relationship to the testator. But several years before the will was drawn one was executed leav ing the property to a woman who was his housekeeper. It was this house keeper, Anna Blake, who accused the benelldary under the second will with having forged his uncle's name to it Arnold Jefferson, my client, when 1 came to confer with him about his case, asked me whether 1 would de fend u person who confessed himself guilty. I said that I would, where upon lie told me that In order to pre vent liis uncle's property from going out of ilie family and secure It for himself lie had forged his uncle’s name to the second will. I was somewhat staggered at this, for if I proved him Innocent I would divert the property from the channel In which the testator intended It to go and de prive the real owner of it that It might go to a criminal. I piled the young man with questions as to how he had come to perpetrate such a crime, and he told me that he was In love with a girl \ whom lie would like to marry and did not consider himself able to do so with out this property. Besides, he believed that his uncle was intending to leave it to him at the time of his death. If I declined to take the case and he could get no other lawyer to do so the judge would assign him counsel. There fore I proceeded with It. though reluc tantly. for it is not pleasant for a con scientious lawyer to defend a man who has admitted his guilt 1 would content myself with trying to get my client off with as light a sentence as possible. There was a chance for the young man in this—experts In chirography would be called who would compare the signature to tbe will with Jeffer son's handwriting. These experts are apt to dilTer In such matters. The plaintiff called the most prominent one of the lot. who declared that my client must have written the signature to the will. 1 employed another expert, who testified that he could not have written It. Bui unfortunately of the five ex perts called four testified that there were certain strokes In the signature that were to he found In Jefferson’s writing. There were two signatures or wit nesses to the will Jefferson was charg ed with forging. One of these persons., Edward Bronson, was dead; the other. Silas Ormshy. was not to be found They were supposed to be myths, and the plaintiff’s attorneys, though they had no proof that the defendant had written their names, threw out a broad bint that he had done so. The case looked so desperate that I advised my client to produce his con fession and throw himself on the mercy of the court. By tills means he might secure u light sentence, whereas if he persisted in denying his guilt in the face of such conclusive evidence he would very likely get a heavy one. He said that he would think the mat ter over This was after court ad journed on Saturday, and I feared 1 could not keep the trial in progress more than a day or two longer. And ns the case stood Jefferson was sure to be convicted Sunday evening I re ceived a call from a young lady. Miss Dorn Wentworth, wbo turned all my expectations awry. She told me that it was she. and not Arnold Jefferson, who had committed thp forgery. 1 felt it Incumbent upon me to sub ject her to a searching examination to got at the truth. She said that she was the person whom Jefferson was engaged to marry. He had been all a lover should be until about the time his uncle had died and no will was found leaving the property to him. Then she told him that a will would lie found If she had to write one her self. This, she added, she had done. I asked Miss Wentworth If she would sign a written confession to this effect, and she said she would. So I asked her to write it Before she could again see Jefferson I went to the Jail and. showing him her confession, asked him why lie t)ad made a false one himself. He seemed a good deal agitated at seeing the matter laid down in black and white. Then he burst out passionately: “I didn’t believe when she threaten ed to do this thing that she would be Be desperate. Nevertheless when the second will was found I feared she had written and signed it Preferring to suffer myself rather than that she should suffer for her crime. I have stood in the breach. And I propose before the court and the world to \ continue to stand b> the breach. 1 still claim what 1 hate claimed—that I concocted the will, signed my uncle's name to it and put In the uames of ivitnesses who had no existence.” Here was a mixed up affair, and no mistake. A pair of lovers were each claiming to be guilty, and solely guilty, of a crime. Which was the in nocent. which the guilty one? 1 had nothing by which to decide. 1 thought of the experts. Should I submit this new feature of rhe case to them? What would it avail? A preponder ance of their evidence had proved Jef ferson guilty, ’l'bey could not be ex pected to go back on their former evi dence by declaring that Miss Went worth committed the forgery. I could get oth«’ experts who had not yet been brought into the case, but If they declared that Miss Wentworth had done the writing It would only prove expert testimony to be worth less. Here i paused in my cogitations, for I was struck with an idea. I might produce Miss Wentworth’s confession in court. It would probably be regard ed a ruse to save her lover. But sup pose I could get experts to testify that her handwriting had In It the charac teristics of the forged signature. 1 could at least save my client The same evening I acted on this thought and, though I had difficulty In finding even one expert who had not been called in the case, he had as good re pute for skill In his profession as any of the others. To my surprise, he told me there was no doubt that Miss Wentworth was the guilty party. That settled my course for the fu ture. The next day when the court opened 1 produced the second confes sion and the affldav.it of the expert in chirography that in his opinion the confessors had forged the signature to the will in question. There was a great deal of confusion in what followed in court. The legal aspect of the case had entirely chang ed. Two different persons had con fessed to have written a signature that could only have been written by one. After consultation with their client the plaintiff’s lawyers took the ground that the second will was invalid because there was a confession on the part of the beneficiary under it that he bad forged it Therefore, the property go Ing to Anna Blake under the former will, she had no Interest in further criminal prosecution. They asked for an adjournment of the court and pro posed to me that if my client would sign away all claim to his uncle’s prop erty they would drop the prosecution against him and so far as they were concerned would not prosecute Miss Wentworth. I declined the proposition on the ground that it was Impossible to prove either of the lovers guilty. But they, feeling confident that the chancery court would give their client the prop erty under the earlier will, dropped the matter, and Jefferson went forth a free man. iyiy unu smuuuu ui tut; piuuicui iu volved In the two confessions was that Jefferson, being disappointed In Inheriting the property, signified that the marriage could not take place. This threw In the way of Miss Went worth a temptation that she could not resist. She concocted a later will, but her lover In order to save her from the consequences of her crime when crlmi ual proceedings were commenced con fessed himself guilty. Nevertheless 1 was not certain as to this or anything concerning the parties or the affair In which they were concerned. That ei ther one or the other or both were guilty 1 did not doubt, but this opinion was rather based on the evidence than on the bearing or appearance of either of them. 1 could not throw off an Im pression that Jefferson was a fine fel low and Miss Wentworth was a lovely girl. And had not each attempted to relieve the other of the burden by a confession? The matter of the inheritance was still In the chancery court when one day 1 received a letter from a man In Australia. I had that day received an Invitation to the wedding of Arnold Jefferson and Dora Wentworth. 1 put the letter In m.v pocket and said noth ing about It till I attended the wed ding, which took place In a little church with no attendants except my self. Indeed, It had not been expected that even I would accept When the clergyman who performed the cere mony came to the words "With all my worldly goods I thee endow” and the groom had repeated them 1 called a halt and produced the letter I had re ceived from Australia. It read as fol lows: Have seen In an American newspaper reference to the case against Arnold Jef ferson. I was an Intimate friend of the late William Jefferson and was one of the witnesses to a will he made a few weeks before his death, i return to America soon On business and will call upon you uot long after you receive this. SILAS ORMSBY. Never shall I forget the look that passed between the bride and groom. Each had believed the other guilty of the forgery, but each had forgiven the other on account of the sacrifice In volved In the act A few rapidly spo ken words passed between them, there was a quick embrace, and the cere mony proceeded. Rut they were both too much affected to make the re sponses Intelligently. The seme day I stopped all pro ceedings In the chancery court as to the Jefferson will pending the arrival of the Australian. In due time the confessed forger Inherited the prop erty, enjoying It with bis confessed forger wife. If before handling this case 1 trad qualms of conscience In defending a criminal who I had every reason to be lieve to be guilty I certainly never hud afterward. Our system .of Jurispru dence Is based on hundreds of years’ experience and should be followed un flinchingly. THE EYE OF GENIUS. ~~ And the Strain of the Nervous System Due to Defective Vision. Much was made in the newspaper* some years ago of the part bad eye* have played in the lives of great musi cians and writers. What was called “the eye of genius” was illustrated in many portraits, notably the Lenbach paintings of Richard Wagner. .In which one eye droops and is surrounded by concentric wrinkles of pain. The great composer’s sick headache and insom nia, his shattered nerves and fits of violent temper, were attributed to eye strain. The diagnosis has since been accepted by his biographer, Kills, him self a physician. Similar if less con clusive cases have been made out to explain the lifelong suffering of George Kliot, Browning, the Carlyles, Darwin. Huxley, Herbert Spencer, Balzac. Taine. Nietzsche. Tschaikowsky and others. The straining of the nervous system due to defective vision Is to be found among all bo use their eyes In work near at band. “The eye of genius” is as common among typesetters and proofreaders, reporters and typewrit ers, bookkeepers, lathe workers and seamstresses as among the master spirits of music and letters. It Is, In fact, more common, for whereas the fortunate few are able to choose their time and place of labor, to find rest and recuperation when they need it. the many are held fast to long hours and endless days, with the result that they become hopeless, nervous wrecks and go blind or mad. — Metropolitan Magazine. THE ART OF FELTING. It Wat Developed Long Before the Weaver Wat Firat Known. Felt Is a fabric formed ’Vithout weaving by taking advantage of the tendency of hair and wool to interlace and cling to each other. Antiquarians state that the art of felting was devel oped long before the weaver was first known. Felting antedates the Chris tian era by many centuries. Authorities state that the felting quality of hair or wool results from the natural structure of the material. The hair of most animals is noticed to be more or less notched or jagged on Its surface. This is the more ap parent when an examination of the material is made by the aid of a microscope. In some animals there appears to be a set of barbs on the hair, and these barbs are so placed that the tip of each points to the end of the hair. It follows that when a number of hairs are pressed together those which lie in the opposite direction to. each other will Interlock with the barbs of the hair surface and resist an effort to tear them asunder. When the hair has a natural tendency to curl the interlac ing process which is called felting is more easily accomplished. Although the felting property Is pos sessed by wool in a special degree, other animals have It In their covering. This is true of the goat, ox, hare, rab bit and beaver.—New York Sun. Early Manuscripts. The type of letters in early manuscript was the same as that of those used on the earlier metal plates and wax tab lets. All letters were capitals. Minus cule, or small lettering, as opposed to the majuscule, was invented in the seventh century. Before its invention there was no spacing between the words. There was no punctuation un less possibly some mark between sen tences. When cursive writing came into general use, about the beginning of the tenth century, the art was prac ticed by only a few highly trained scribes. This continued all through the middle ages. The scribes were art ists. and they carried their art to a high degree of perfection. Many of the manuscripts of that period are very beautiful specimens of handiwork and as perfect as print The First Leeton of an Arab Boy. The very first lesson which an Arab baby learns when he begins to talk Is to keep facts to himself. It does not sound very friendly put In that way. but It saves a deal of trouble. For eigners do not understand Arabs. They ask them pointed questions and receive peculiar answers. T' -\v con strue the answers to please themselves and come away to tell the world that the Arabs are a nation of liars. They are not a nation of liars. Perhaps if they should tell the foreigners to mind their own affairs and let them and theirs alone the foreigners would understand them better.—Exchange. Strength. • “Some scientist has declared that there Is as much strength In three eggs as there is In a pound of beef steak.” said the observer. "Well.” replied the actor, “I met»■'*»«* ■ - -