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Show 111S. OWN DEFENSE, "Have I your honor's permission to make a ia.tem.ent?" "Your honor," cried Lawyer Lanr, i gpringintf to his feet, "your honor, before you pass on this request, I should like to m.-ike a statement myself." "What is it, Mr. Lane?" asked the judge. "It's just this," said Mr. Lang with something more than his usual acerbity; "you remember of course that when this man, Cephas Love, was first brought to trial he was without counsel, that he refused re-fused to secure any, and that you therefore peremptorily appointed me as such. The apoointment was useless, for the defendant has absolutely and unconditionally refused to say a word to me concerning his case. "I wish it to be distinctly understood, however, that this silence of the defendant's h;is been maintained ia the face of my most diligent efforts to break down his reserve, for whiie I first accepted your honor's injunction in-junction perfunctorily, I ended by becoming becom-ing deeply interested iu what is certainly a unique case so far as my practice goes. What I wish to st;iie with particular stress is that I am absolutely and entirely ignorant ignor-ant of the nature of the statement which Mr. Iove has asked permission to make. In fact, sir, all I can officially claim to know of this man is that on the 14th of this mouth of August, 1690, he was found in the very act of throttling another man to death at No. PG3 Pine street; that he was arrested in f..t;rar.te delictu by Officer Thomson, and that he has been confined in the city prison ever since, lie is no more a client of mine than he is vour honor, and it would be a gross misuse of termi .o styh him a 'defendant.' " As Mr. Lang. sat down the man referred to as Cephas Love shook hands with him cordially, and repeated his request for a hearing. "It is a rather unusual proceeding at this stase of the trial," said the judge, "for a person in your position to make a state-men, state-men, but the whole proceedings in this case have been unusual. Moreover I have not the right to deny you. Do you wish your ptatement to appear as evidence?" "Ye., sir." "Take your place on the witness stand then and be sworn." He repealed the clerk's mumble-jumble of words with slow emphasis, and laid an intonation upon the concluding words, "So help me, God," that gave them a reverential rev-erential effect not often heard in thjit courtroom. court-room. The sketch which the artist of a morning paper was at this moment linking showed a tiny, neat man hitting primly with crossed legs and smoothing out the folds of a red ilk handkerchief spread over his knees. His hands, face and scalp were of a false ruddiness Uiat was caused by a network net-work of small veins in the skin, and that was made all the more vivid by the contrast con-trast of a fringe of il.ix white hair and two patches of close trimmed whiskers that Iny on each cheek like small powder puffs. Flis eyes were light blue and moist, his lips thin and straight, and the rest of his features feat-ures ordinary a :id inexpressive. He was dressed in n suit of dark gray clothes, and looked su;a-tiu::g r.etweeu an upper ser-va-r .".rd a small lawyer. There had been even more than the i:..i'.al interest felt in the tiu.-e, the coi;rt ro.-m was crowded, nnd when riie nrisontr bce-an there r:ia a strained at'ention to hear what he had to say. "My name is cor; ectly given on the document-, in t he case, I believe," he began, "besides "be-sides v nidi it l:is been on the city directory direc-tory for the past thirty-two years. It is Cephas Clavering Love, although the middle mid-dle name is very seldom used. I am C3 years of age, and w;is born et Memphis, Tenn., on the l;h of April, 1S27. I came to San F;.;neisco thirty-three years come next Cliri-ttr.i s eve, and for twenty-one years thereafter I was a clerk for the law firm of Kii:;-id:;e & Shaw, as I believe your honor well knows. For the past twelve years I have be en en;;.--ged in the law stationery sta-tionery department of Messrs. Rocker & Co. These gentlemen, together with many others, I tit'derstaud I have the right to summon as witnesses to testify as to my general good character, but I shall put none of them to this inconvenience" "Proceed, Mr. Love," said the judge, for the witness had stopped, and was nervously nervous-ly rubbing the palms of his small, withered hands with his handkerchief. "Thank you, your honor," said the old man; "I'm not used to making long speeches. All I need further say in any preliminary vrr.y plmttt myself is that I am a widower, wi;h one married daughter living in N rfr!k, Va.: that I am a mewilier of Dr. Wall's chmch; that I live temperately, temper-ately, drinking bv.t little and smoking less; that I am a quiet, law respecting, God fearing old m m. Yet I sit here today in this court a murderer." "Your honor," exclaimed Mr. Lang, once more sp.iomg to his feet, "I must insist that the witness be instructed. Your honor knows that a plea of not guilty was entered in the court of examination, examina-tion, and a similar plea has been formally entered In this court of arraignment. This man is on trial; he ha.s not been convicted, and I call upon your honor to instruct the witness that he must not use such terms of self accusation, as well as to inform the jury that they pay no attention to the wild words of the witness." "The witness is thoroughly conversant with legal practices, I believe, Mr. Lang," E.aid the judge, "and fully appreciates the gravity of his position and the necessity for carefully weighing what he has to say. Nevertheless, if "Excuse me, your honor," said t he old mf.n Love, gently stretching out a some- j what shaky hand toward the judge; "you ' need uot caution me, your honor. I am, as you say. thoroughly aware of the gravity grav-ity of my words and position. What 1 i fcay is simply the truth, and the truih can j injure no one. I am a murderer, and I purpose telling the story of my crime without with-out attempting any palliation." j There was a stir in the court room, and j ', a veiled woman the mother of the viotim, ' it was fsaid leaned forward iu her chair and sobbed. j "Your honor," cried M. Lung, again on ' those ready feet of his, "there is an at- j tempt at sensationalism here," w ith a vi- i brating forefinger pointed in the direction ; of the sobbing woman, "and I ask that it i be stopped." "Well, now," said the prosecuting at-! torney with hot sarcasm, "we must say we ! like that During the whole of these pro- ; ceedings w haven't said a blessed word, j We've allowed you to put your man on the witness stand with nil the stage effect you wanted and without u bop, and now; b- i cause this poor, bereaved woman this neart stricken mother gives way to her natural grief when the damnable crime that robbed her of her darling is brought to her mind, you, you, sir, who should be the last man to mak a sound, go to blabbing blab-bing about sensationalism. Why, sir" -"That Mill do, gentlemen," said the judge quietly, but firmly, for Mr. Lang was actually bounding about in his anxiety to make a retort. "Go on, sir," he added, turning to the defendant, who during the discussion had busied himself folding t&e red handkerchii f into a neat, square package. pack-age. "Since working for Messrs. Rocker & Coe," Cephas Love continued, "I hava been in the habit of walking down to the store along Pine street each morniug from toy boarding house, at the corner of Lar-kin Lar-kin and James streets. On the 10th of June last, or it might have been the lHb, I noticed that No. 603, after having been vacant for many months, was about to be tenanted. The next morning, and it was I a Friday, I remember, my attention was I again attracted to No. 603, and this time by a very peculiar incident. The two windows win-dows on the ground iloor, where the parlor par-lor WKS evidently situated, were draped witli heavy curtains of some maroon colored col-ored stuff, after a fashion which used to be iu vogue for dining rooms when I was a boy. As I was passing the house, the curtain cur-tain nearer me w;is drawn aside and a face peered out such a face as frightens a child in what are called its 'bad dreams.' " "Describe it, Mr. Love," said Attorney Lang. "I cannot.' said the witness, puttingout i :h hands in a gesture of repulsion that w.i;-, strangely energetic in a man seemingly seeming-ly so placid and undemonstrative; "it was more of a m;usk than a face. Not one of these grotesque masks, you understand, but one of titter vacuity a blank, aa emptiness, a soulless nothing. The eyes were big, wide open, with the white showing show-ing all uround tiie pupil between the fixed lids; the cheeks pale and flabby, the nose a line, and the mouth half open, with the lower lip drooping." Here a strange thing happened, for while the prisoner described the face his own took on that of the creature he was delineating, until in the place of the little old gentleman gentle-man of semi-clerical aspect there appeared the doddling head of a mowing idiot. The red handkerchief had been suatchod up from where it lay smoothly folded over on his knee and was now grasped in both hands like a ball. "I could only see his face," said Love dropping back, ko to speak, into himself, "because ho brought the curtains close up about his neck, like a garment like a dressing gown. After I had moved on a few paces I turned round, for so strange was the impression produced on me that 1 can liken it to little less than fascination. The face had not moved, but the great -mug eyes were still fixed on me as the i . s of a portrait done in oil painting ah u.iys seem to be, no matter where the observer ob-server may move. More than once during the day I found myself thinking of this vacant, fatuous face, and then toward the afternoon I managed to distnisa it with the resolution that it undoubtedly belonged to some poor, unfortunate being, whose friends preferred to take private charge of him rather than to send him to an asylum, and t hat hio presence at the window was due to the temporary absence of those whose duty it was to look after hiin. But with all this common sense view of the matter, I found myself stupidly excited and nervous as I drew near the houso nex; morning. Well, sir I mean your honor the fellow must have been watching for me, for as I came opposite the windows again a thin, white hand parted the curtains cur-tains and the vacant face was turnnd once more upon me. This time I thought that the eyes, though fixed wide open, had the light of a hasty smiK . hem and that the drooping lower lip was iot out In a grimace of contempt. I had a stout walking walk-ing cane iu my hand," said the witness, jumping up, "and I threatened the fellow with it in this way." Here he shook out the red silk handkerchief and waved it rapidly toward the jury box as though it were a danger signal. "Control yourself, Mr. Love," said he, "and tell your story as calmly as possible." "I will, your honor," he replied, with meekness and an insiant change of demeanor, de-meanor, although it was noted "that great beads of perspiration had broken out on his forehead, and that, now and then, these merged themselves one in the other and then ran trickling down his face like an overcharged raindrop on a window pane. "For two or three davs I chanced mv way to the office," he continued, "and took another street, so as to escape the sight of this oppressive face. It was a useless precaution, pre-caution, however, for what had been a day horror now became a nightmare. For the first time in my life I became the victim of insomnia. The horrible blank features covered the walls like a patterned paper; they were as visible in the darkness as in the light, they kept my eyes open and stared into them, and they covered me like waves rolling over my bed. The void, meaningless face was with me in a hundred hun-dred fantastic and distressing shapes, and I felt that I could have strangled the be.'ust of a possessor had he come within my grasp." The little man's voice rose into a screech, the dull blue eyes flashed like a moving mirror, and his chest heaved, while he twisted the red silk handkerchief into a scarlet rope. "On the morning of the third sleepless night," hs went on, sinking his voice into a hoarse whisper, while the crowd In the court room leaned forward as one man to hear what was being said "on the third morning I got up and determind to put an end to it all. I took out a razor, threw back my collar in this way, and was going to cut my throat, when the idea entered my head that I would first go and squeeze the life out of my tormenting devil, and then come back nnd make way with myself. Dressing hurriedly I ran downstairs and into the street. I was in front of No. 805 like a flash of double greased lightning Quick as I was the monstrous villain wa just as quick. Back went, the curtains, as though jerked by red Zamiel himself, and out shot the face a scarecrow that would frighten the very blue birds of heaven. Nc doubt about it, the ghost like thing wa mocking me now mocking my miser; mocking poor old me, who had bce't cursed by it for 40,000,000 years. I don't know what I said. Call them black, bad words. To hell with what I thought! All the blood rushed to m3r head, until my ears rang like the seven bells of kingdom come. With a one, two, three, I was in the house;, and with a four, five, six, I was squeezing his damned windpipe like this." "Look out, judge!" yelled Mr. Lang, while a cry of horror rose from the people. The judge lad been gently swinging himself around in a quarter circle on his chair, looking keenly now at the curious witness and now inquiringly at the prosecuting prose-cuting attorney. As he swung around the last time the prisoner leaped out from his place, as though moved by a steel spring, aiiJ flung himself upon the judge like a cat. The shock threw the judge out of the chair, and both went down together. There were snarls and screams from behind the desk, and when the bailiff leaped in the prisoner pris-oner Lr.d wound the red silk handkerchief around th,e judged neck and was tugging at it like a demon. A dozen other rescuers were on baud the next minute, but it took nearly the whole cf their misdirect d fctrength to tear away the shriekin:-;, frothing froth-ing maniac end tarry him down st:.ir tc j ifio safer accommodaiion of the "tanks "--Argonaut. |