rance on the second floor. On the
opposite side of the alley, walking slowly toward Jackson street, was a
man of ordinary appearance. As Rod met her on the top platform, Jennie
said to him: "Rod, that fellow has insulted me; shoot the ----." At
the word Backus drew his pistol and fired. The man fell. He had turned
his face the moment Backus fired. It was an instantly fatal shot. Backus
had influential friends among business men and politicians. The Coroner
held an inquest. A jury to hold Backus blameless had been secured, but
they overshot their mark--the thing was too transparent, too
bare-faced. The murdered man was a German much respected by his
countrymen. They determined to press the matter to justice. Backus was
indicted, tried, convicted of murder and sentenced to death. None of
just mind questioned the righteousness. But his case was appealed, and
at last he had his crime reduced in degree, and received sentence of a
short term--three or five years in San Quentin prison. This easy
let-off did not satisfy him; he wanted a verdict of acquittal, and
expected still to get it. Accordingly he again appealed his case, and
while in the County Jail awaiting the action of the Supreme Court upon
his appeal, the Committee had seized and taken away Casey and Cora. He
was not molested; nevertheless, his fear of consequences impelled him to
withdraw his appeal, submit to his sentence, and serve his term at San
Quentin. He even begged to be taken there at once, and he was. The
explanation made by the Committee leaders for not taking Backus was that
the law had already passed judgment in his case, and the Committee was
not disposed to interfere with the judgments of the Courts. The
explanation was puerile and inconsistent with their action in the case
of Cora, who was also in the hands of the Court and was awaiting another
trial. A portion of the jury, among this portion Front street merchants
and other respectable business men, had held him to be not guilty; and
surely this was more than any juror had expressed in the case of Backus.
Moreover, Backus had himself demonstrated his dissatisfaction with the
very mild verdict in his last trial, and was, the same as Cora, awaiting
the issue of another trial. The common belief was that Backus owed his
exemption from the grasp of the Committee and from the dread penalty
which Casey and Cora suffered, not to any doubt as to his guilt, but
solely on account of his relationship and his soci