ay on the night
of the killing, and shot him in cold blood. True, a chisel and pistol
had been found, but how easy for the prisoner to have placed them
there to carry out his plans! The dead man was proved to be a harmless
character, though of intemperate habits and rough ways. His antipathy to
Grant was only natural, since the latter had, by ingratiating manners,
flashy advertising dodges, and a few modern tricks of trade, ruined the
business of the old-fashioned, plain-sailing German.

In the hands of such skillful manipulators the case grew blacker and
blacker, and the face of my client reflected the anguish he saw his
wife enduring, and he powerless to comfort. He saw his beautiful,
idolized boy the son of a convict, and all that had made life worth the
living shattered to the dust. Closer and closer the meshes were weaving
about him. The jurors sat with fixed gaze as one by one the speeches
were ended. At length the honorable counsel for the prosecution
concluded a powerful argument, and I saw in the faces of the twelve
men that it had told.

There was but one point left for me to make, and I wondered that my
distinguished brethren had passed it by. They had dwelt upon the youth
and good standing of the prisoner, and the uncalled-for persecution he
had suffered. They pictured in graphic words the midnight attempt upon
his life at his own house. A man's house is his castle, and he has the
supreme right to defend both it and himself. They appealed to the
sympathies of the jurors in behalf of the young, helpless wife and
innocent child. Still there was wanting the one link in the chain of
positive evidence. Sympathy was well enough. The twelve sworn men
required proof. How was it to be shown them?

I was young, and I felt all the nervousness attendant upon a maiden
effort, but my heart was in the work and I launched forth. Nature had
given me a good voice, and I felt a certain power as I spoke. But
I had not the egotism to suppose that I could compete with the learned
gentlemen who had preceded me unless I could make a decided hit in
summing up the testimony. This I did. When I came to the hitherto
unnoticed dog, I dwelt there with a tenacity that was determined to
convince. I portrayed the well-known fidelity of the dog. No matter what
the master, whether fortune's pampered darling, or a beastly denizen of
the gutter, his dog was always his friend. Be he kind and gentle, or
cruel and pitiless, still his dog crouch