spectators to the
number of two thousand or more."

Governor Ford, in his history of Illinois, relates the following
incident as characteristic of Judge Reynolds. The latter was
holding court in Washington County when one Green was found guilty
upon an indictment for murder. The court was near the hour of
adjournment for the term, when the prosecuting attorney suggested to
the court that the prisoner Green be brought in in order that
sentence be passed upon him. "Certainly, certainly," said the
Judge, and the prisoner was at once brought in from the jail
near by.

"Mr. Green," said the Judge in a familiar tone, "the jury in
your case have found you guilty. I want you to understand, Mr.
Green, and all your friends down on Indian Creek to know, that
it is not I who condemns you, but the jury and the law. The law
allows you time for preparation, Mr. Green; and so the court wants
to know what time it would suit you to be hung?" The prisoner
replying that he was ready to suffer at whatever time the court
might appoint, the Judge said;

"Mr. Green, you must know that it is a very serious matter to be
hung. It can't happen to a man more than once in his life, and
you had better take all the time you can get; the court will give you
till this day four weeks. Mr. Clerk, look at the almanac and see if
this day four weeks comes on Sunday." The Clerk after examination
reported that that day four weeks came on Friday. The Judge then
said: "Mr. Green, the court gives you till this day four weeks,
and then you are to be hanged."

Whereupon the prosecuting officer, the Hon. James Turney, an able and
dignified lawyer, said:

"May it please the court, on solemn occasion like the present, when
the life of a human being is to be sentenced away for crime by
an earthly tribunal, it is usual and proper for courts to pronounce
a formal sentence, in which the leading features of the crime shall
be brought to the recollection of the prisoner, a sense of his
guilt impressed upon his conscience, and in which the prisoner
should be duly exhorted to repentance and warned against the judgment
in a world to come."

To which the Judge replied: "Oh, Mr. Turney, Mr. Green understands
the whole matter as well as if I had preached to him a month.
He knows he has got to be hung this day four weeks. You understand
it that way, Mr. Green, don't you?"

"Yes," said the prisoner, upon which the Judge again expressing
the hope that he and