d
wrong, in spite of which they strongly favored the prisoner's
acquittal. Precisely on that account, it was argued, an acquittal would
outrage Canaan and lay it open to untold danger: such people needed a
lesson.

The Tocsin interviewed the town's great ones, printing their opinions
of the heinousness of the crime and the character of the defendant's
lawyer.... "The Hon. P. J. Parrott, who so ably represented this county
in the Legislature some fourteen years ago, could scarcely restrain
himself when approached by a reporter as to his sentiments anent the
repulsive deed. 'I should like to know how long Canaan is going to put
up with this sort of business,' were his words. 'I am a law-abiding
citizen, and I have served faithfully, and with my full endeavor and
ability, to enact the laws and statutes of my State, but there is a
point in my patience, I would state, which lawbreakers and their
lawyers may not safely pass. Of what use are our most solemn
enactments, I may even ask of what use is the Legislature itself,
chosen by the will of the people, if they are to ruthlessly be set
aside by criminals and their shifty protectors? The blame should be put
upon the lawyers who by tricks enable such rascals to escape the rigors
of the carefully enacted laws, the fruits of the Solon's labor, more
than upon the criminals themselves. In this case, if there is any
miscarriage of justice, I will say here and now that in my opinion the
people of this county will be sorely tempted; and while I do not
believe in lynch-law, yet if that should be the result it is my
unalterable conviction that the vigilantes may well turn their
attention to the lawyers--OR LAWYER--who bring about such miscarriage.
I am sick of it.'"

The Tocsin did not print the interview it obtained from Louie
Farbach--the same Louie Farbach who long ago had owned a beer-saloon
with a little room behind the bar, where a shabby boy sometimes played
dominoes and "seven-up" with loafers: not quite the same Louie Farbach,
however, in outward circumstance: for he was now the brewer of Farbach
Beer and making Canaan famous. His rise had been Teutonic and sure;
and he contributed one-twentieth of his income to the German Orphan
Asylum and one-tenth to his party's campaign fund. The twentieth saved
the orphans from the county, while the tithe gave the county to his
party.

He occupied a kitchen chair, enjoying the society of some chickens in a
wired enclosure behind