Show k BLASTING copyright 1906 by dally satorv pub co be ye agoan to swear away the life of your own son our on marya the old mans voice quavered and sunk into a whine I 1 m goin to tell the truth re plied the old woman with a weary smile he threw it away himself and killed his brother my baby I 1 baw him do it and im coln to tell the truth and let him be punished but toms our boy too mary your oldest persisted the old man he ever done to show it cried the woman fiercely he struck me yes struck me with his own hand not once but twenty times aye and he struck you too nat I 1 seen him do it moren once what comfort has he ever been to usa what pride have we in him what hope for his future no no nat we might as well give up and call our lives a failure he s been a bad boy and he s a bad man and he s killed his own brother and I 1 wont do any thin to save him but he was in lacker when he did it pleaded the old man you know tom was not very bad except when he was in licker and he gasn wasn t him when he did it and he feels as lorry as anybody for it now not gallows ah mary not the gal and he slipped from his chair auto his knees and sobbed before her where s petera demanded the froman drawing back her skirts which the man attempted to cling pathetically to where s my pete who never did a wrong to anybody and who always was bullied and licked by toma I 1 wont save him I 1 11 you I 1 wont the day of the trial came and the prosecuting attorney arose calm and confident here was an easy case and it promised to be brief he would get a quick conviction and the accompanying glory and would hurry along other cases and show a dispatch of business which would reflect great credit upon his office the condic alon was sure because the boy s moth er was to go on the stand to testify against him it was a lucky thing because she had been the only wit ness of the murder and without her testimony only the weakest sort of circumstantial evidence would have to be relied on but he had it from her own lips that she proposed to tell the truth and bring the murderer to justice it had been a brutal murder too the killing of peter harter by his brother tom As nearly as could be found out he had been stabbed stab bej with out warning simply because he expos with his brother tor brutal language used to the old mother it would be a good thing tor the community moreover to get rid of tom harter he always had been a bad egg and a menace fo peaceable law abiding citizens yes it was a good thing all around and the prose attorney was very complacent as he arose to outline the case to the jury this case gentlemen Is fortunate ly so plain that it will be necessary to detain you but a few moment in tact I 1 think one witness will writer mine the entire matter let mary harter be sworn As the woman took her seat in the witness box an almost imperceptible but heartbreaking moan came from the white lips of the old man whose side she left it caught her ear and she turned her upon him As she looked hispran his dran face and terror stricken eyes tadd from her sight in a sort of mist through which she saw the lace of er young lover of forty years ago and in her old ears there rang again the passionate words he bad whispered there in the days long forgotten she saw him beside her be you coln to swear away the life of our own son mary at the altar on that day of days when all the future was bright and all the eky rose colored and out of the mist came the out lines of the cradle in which she had rocked her firstborn the cradle nat had built with his own hands then she heard as in a dream the emig voice of the prosecuting actor oey now mrs harter tell the jury our mine and relationship to the pr and the victim of this brutal murder and in your own words tell if you saw the deed committed and just how it happened turning bewildered eyes on the lawyer the court and the jury the oman gave her name and address then gazing straight at her husband through tear filled e es she said with perfect deh berat on and emphasis tom and pete had some words about some money and pete got mad and said III kill you you low good tor bothin bl aggard that s what do and he struck him with a will be necessary to detain you bai a few minutes chair and drove him back into the cor ner tom was bryin to defend him self and he saw he was coln to get his head broke and there was mur der in pete s eyes and tom reached out tor the knife that was on the table and struck at pete and it killed him and that was all there was to it during this testimony the prisoner and his father had leaped to their feet the former with amazement de picked on his face the latter with tears starting to his eyes while the prosecuting attorney sat back with mouth wide open so thoroughly par that he never protested as the old woman at the end of her mony arose and stepped down from the witness chair she never looked at the prisoner but walked straight to her husband and hand in hand they walked from the court room I 1 will ask that the case be dis missed said the prosecuting actor ney and I 1 will recommend a study of woman s nature to every law stu dent |