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Show :"UNlfflTEN: TESTED SATURDAY . IN THEBOTHA CASE Board of Pardons Will Pass on Petition " for Pardon of Charles Botha, Who Slew His Wife's Betrayer and Killed Her Through an Accident, (BY ZULA NEVITT.) The strength of the ."unwritten law" in Utah is to be put to the tost next Saturday when the State board meets to consider the application of Charles Botha for a pardon. The unwritten law had never been heard of down in San Juan county, where Botha shot and killed his wife and her paramour, the former by accident, five years ago, and sentence sen-tence of death was meted out to him. That sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment, and now Botha is asking for his liberty. 'rate question of ethics arose to disturb dis-turb their minds. Botha had killed a woman and a "prominent citizen" of Sun Juan county and he got what the iurr deemed fitting, the sentence of death. The voung Oerman found friends in the State prison, where he was taken, and after many wearv, anxious weeks in daily fear of the noose, his sentence sen-tence was commuted o life through the efforts of Warden Pratt, j That is all of harles Botha's story. .It is a hard, coarse, commonplace I storv, utterly de-void of the glitter and glamor which surrounds that other youthful slaver of hit wife's seducer Harry K. Th,ir. who has aroused a nation's avmpathy tho ;h he shot n uoarmed man thorugh the back. Yet of the two. th poor voung German, out at the State prison has far more right to invoke the poency of that "unwritten "un-written law" than the gav, weak son of a Tittsburg millionaire iu the Tombs 1 prion. Nt York. Accepted His Fate. And though most men consigned to a felon '3 cell look upon it with loathing. loath-ing. 'hrlo B'Hha accepted it patint-I patint-I lv as he did all the other things in I his hard, unhappy life, and in recom-' recom-' p-Tie. has found himself. The great world of bo.-iks has been opened to him and he has learned a trad"3 that of ; baker so th.it if hherrv were givn ' him he would not h.ive to go back to the hfe he has known. "I shall aW1 to car for mvslf well if I should b pardoned." h said j vesterdiv in 'ha' .u'iint. excellent Eng : )ih of foreigner tJiat puts " English n he is spoke'" bv Americans to s a m e . Now a Different Man. "1 have learned to rad and write and have learr.ed to support mvelf hmorsblv. Oh. I am a different man than when T came here. .Tnst an ignorant ig-norant bov I was then. Now I am a man. and if 1 am pardoned Saturday " His voice dwV.t upon that Saturday as though the word were a benediction. Po not count on it. Botha. There is many a siip. you know." reminded the warden with gruff kindness. "I know. I know. But think what it means to me." and the prisoner's hands, white with prison pallor, tremble.! trem-ble.! eagerlv. "I have learned what life is here, its opportunities, what I am. what I can di if they only give me th chance. Will the Board of Pardons give him that chance? That will be seen Sat-urdav. Sat-urdav. h i: influential friends have been raised up for r'.-.e unfortunate German boy during his imprisonment, among them Samuel Newhous. Warden Pratt and o'her. and they will do what they , oan do to secure his pardon. THERE IS NO GLAMOR OF ; MONEY, OR A PAST IN WHICH , WINE AND WOMEN FIOURED LARGELY BACK OF THIS POOR YOUNG GERMAN FOR THE PUBLIC TO GET UP SYMPATHY OVER. HE HAS KNOWN ONLY THE j COARSE, HARD THINGS OF LIFE : IN ALL OF HIS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, AND THE ONLY BRIGHT SPOT IN HIS BARREN. MEAGER EXISTENCE WAS THE LITTLE CABIN DOWN IN THE DESOLATE SAN JUAN HILLS, WHERE HIS CHILD WIFE AND HE HAD MADE A HOME. BEFORE THAT BOTHA HAD WORKED HARD IN MINES, BEEN A COWBOY, TRIED HIS HAND AT EVERYTHING THE WESTERN FRONTIER OFFERS IN THE WAY OF A JOB FOR AN IONORANT, UNLETTERED UN-LETTERED MAN. Btha was hrn in Germany, corning to America whn h was 13. In a Crip pie (" reek bearding house he met a pret-tv pret-tv little waitress of 17 vars. and after a brief wooing she promised to be his wife They were married and Botha took hi wife to San Jr.an ciuntv and 'he cab:n among the .V'la'e hills whKh was to be their home. That Wealthy Cattle Man. Botha worked as a cowboy for Wi' ham T'bbefts. a wealthy cattle man of the county, and prettv lightheaded lit 1 tie Mr. Botha, who had found sudden ' favor in the eves of the cattle man, was t installfd as housekeeper. ! Botha never suspected that things j were rrot as tb.ey should be. He trust-1 trust-1 ed his voung wife unouestioninglv. He never dreamed that Tibhetts was other 'han the fruud he represented himself j to be. or '.;at he hal the welfare of Mr. and Mr. Botha at heart as he la 1 Hied. But one dav a smile an 1 a leering w'tik from a fellow cowboy opened his eves to the fact that all was not as it should be. and the meaning of Tib-betts' Tib-betts' friendliness broke upon him. Warned the Cattle Man. That dav Botha took his wife home, back to their lonelv cabin, and bade i y,f,r ne . r to see Tinbetts again. Tib j b.'tt. too. he warned never to ap ' proach his wife, and then heartbroken J went back to herding his ca'tle in the I hills. I Tibbe'ts rode often to the Botha I cabin whi'e the husband was absent, I and when Botha learned of it he again laid strict injunction upon his wife to refuse Tibhetts the house should he come, and again more sternlv repeatoi his warning to the wealthy cattle man. But Tihbetts laughed at him, hoastei of his amours to the country at large, and one dav persuaded Botha's wife riv with h i in to his home. Brought Them to Bay. When Botha retu-nei to his desert ed cabin that evening he knew '! truth at once, and riding to Tibhetts' ranch, found his wife and her i.icer together. In his hand he carried his rifle cocked, and with this he pushed his wife, saving: "Go stand there beside him. at have you to sav for yourselves The push set the nrle o ff jjiJ--1-wife fell pierced vnv-shaken. vnv-shaken. Botha turne) had wrecked his hoi he stood, through th Employees about t i spread the news, and I ample opportunity to side his dead all th: waiting for the Sherit he gave himself up. Would Not Escape. More than that he was being taken to j sheriff who accompanie an apoplectic fit. Libel had for the taking, but bv the stricken man an back to consciousness. Nor when they reache where he was being take of the affair for fear it trouble upon the man. The jury that convicted . i'ury of stern, hard-headed c new no more of the "uaw than they knew of Saaakrit |