ct attorney deemed it his duty to present. The main facts
in relation to the arrest and subsequent discharge of Parker may
be summed up in few words:

It appears that, about the last of October, one Gregory
Summerfield, an old man nearly seventy years of age, in company
with Parker, took passage for Chicago, _via_ the Pacific
Railroad, and about the middle of the afternoon reached the
neighborhood of Cape Horn, in this county. Nothing of any special
importance seems to have attracted the attention of any of the
passengers toward these persons until a few moments before
passing the dangerous curve in the track, overlooking the North
Fork of the American River, at the place called Cape Horn. As our
readers are aware, the road at this point skirts a precipice,
with rocky perpendicular sides, extending to the bed of the
stream, nearly seventeen hundred feet below. Before passing the
curve, Parker was heard to comment upon the sublimity of the
scenery they were approaching, and finally requested the old man
to leave the car and stand upon the open platform, in order to
obtain a better view of the tremendous chasm and the mountains
just beyond. The two men left the car, and a moment afterwards a
cry of horror was heard by all the passengers, and the old man
was observed to fall at least one thousand feet upon the crags
below. The train was stopped for a few moments, but, fearful of a
collision if any considerable length of time should be lost in an
unavailing search for the mangled remains, it soon moved on
again, and proceeded as swiftly as possible to the next station.
There the miscreant Parker was arrested, and conveyed to the
office of the nearest justice of the peace for examination. We
understand that he refused to give any detailed account of the
transaction, only that "the deceased either fell or was thrown
off from the moving train."

The examination was postponed until the arrival of Parker's
counsel, O'Connell & Kilpatrick, of Grass Valley, and after they
reached Cape Horn not a single word could be extracted from the
prisoner. It is said that the inquisition was a mere farce; there
being no witnesses present except one lady passenger, who, with
commendable spirit, volunteered to lay over one day, to give in
her testimony. We also learn that, after the trial, the justice,
together with the prisoner