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LEANDER W. RICHARDSON, The American Dramatist.

TALES! TALES!

About the Inside Workings of the Sheedy Trial.

BOTH SIDES ARE TELLING TALES.

Sterns & Strode's Fee $12,500 - An Alleged Scheme to Best Them Seventeen Minutes Too Late - Did Mrs. Sheedy Pay McFarland's Lawyers - That Lock of Hair - A World of Gossip About the Trial and Its Cheif Actors.

The Sheedy trial is ended, but its echoes are still heard. People are still discussing the jury's verdict of not guilty and expressing surprise. It is a common remark; "Well, if they let Mrs. Sheedy go it was only fair to let the nigger go, too." Perhaps the jury had something of the same sort of feeling - a kind of a sense of fair play.

The acquittal of Mary Sheedy and Monday McFarland was due undoubtedly to the instructions of the court. These instructions were based upon laws and rulings made to protect the innocent, and it is the sense of mankind that many guilty should escape rather than one innocent should suffer. Society is better for it.

It was a peculiar case. The court let the negro's confession be read to the jury and then told them that the confessions could not be considered as evidence against Mrs. Sheedy. Outside of that story there was only circumstantial evidence against the woman, and not much of that. What could the jury do but acquit her?

The judge told the jury that McFarland's confessions could be used as evidence against himself if they were voluntary. His attorney's established the facts that his first confessions were obtained by working on his hopes and fears. The coroner and his stenographer testified that McFarland was put under oath before making his confession at the inquest. There was evidence strongly corroborative of the confession, but not sufficient of itself to send a man to the gallows or the pen. After throwing out the confessions what could the jury do but acquit the negro!

Such is the case in a nutshell.

Since the trial the air has been full of gossip about the chief actors in the drama and their movements. Many of these are wild and fantastic, while some may have a basis in fact. It is known that Mrs. Sheedy gave Stearns & Strode, her chief attorneys, a mortgage on some of the property of the estate for $12,500. It is fair to presume that that was for fees and expenses. Of course it has caused "talk," and the stories that have started from it for a career of earthly wandering are beautiful for their ingeniousness and variety.

For example one yarn has it that Mrs. Sheedy undertook to beat her attorneys out of their fees. The story goes that with the help of D. G. Courtnay she transferred her interest in the estate to J. W. Biggerstaff; the uncle from Boise City, Idaho, but that when he came to record the document on May 25th, he was too late. Stearns & Strode had put their mortgage on record just seventeen minutes before. One version of the story was that Captain Paine overheard Biggetstaff and Courtnay, while indulging to freely in stimulants, gloating over their scheme, and be put Attorney Strode onto the danger. Another version says the deal leaked out through the notary who acknowledged the signatures to the document. Early in this case, away back in January, D. G. Courtnay was Mrs. Sheedy's attorney; He dropped out in a short time without any explanation to the public, and it has been argued that he would very naturally seek a chance to get even with Stearns & Strode, who were supposed to have crowded him out of the case. But the story of the alleged transfer is branded as a fairy tale.

The fee of $12,500 from Mrs Sheedy looks like a pretty big sum, but there have been many expenses, no doubt, and there is a general opinion that Attorneys Billingsly, Woodward and Philpott got a share of it for their labors for the defense. The coleric Philpott is supposed to have received $1,000. One report says Billingsly & Woodward also got $1000, and another says they demanded a third of the fee. Some people are unkind enough to insinuate that these sums were rewards to the negro's attorneys for keeping him from going on the stand and turning state's evidence, but they deny the story in toto. Attorneys for the state are quoted as saying that they had seen a letter from Stearns & Strode promising the other attorneys $2000. It hardly seems credible that shrewd attorneys would commit themselves that way, and it scarcely probable that the parties receiving such a letter would go around exhibiting it.

On the other hand it has been said that the attorneys for the prosecution offered Capt Billinsly $2000 to let McFarland testify on his refusal tried Col Philpott with an offer of $1000. The story goes that Dennis Sheedy of Denver was ready to spend $20,000 for the conviction of his sister-in-law, but how could such a yarn be proved.

At a certain point in the trial Capt Billingsly disappeared from the court room, and smart people jumped at the conclusion that there had been a falling out among the lawyers for the defense. The fact is that Billingsly play his part in the selection of the jury, as was agreed beforehand, and then his place in the trial was taken by his partner, Mr. Woodward. The captain's long residence in Lincoln has given him an enormous acquaintance throughout the county, and it is conceded among the profession that no one is so well qualified to select a jury as he.

There is a wild-eyed rumor that Judge Weir called on Mrs Sheedy in jail one evening and found S. M. Melick in consultation with her. As city marshal Mr Melick entered the charge of murder under which she was arrested and one would naturally expect him to do all in his power to convict her. A few days ago Mrs Sheedy resigned as one of the administrators of the estate and had Mr Melick appointed in her place. She also entrusted him with a power of attorney. Of course this looks queer on the face of it, without any explanation. Uncle Biggerstaff claims to have suggested Mr Melick's name, and in talking with a reporter he said that it had been agreed to "some time ago, during the trial." The reader can draw the same inferences that other people express openly, but it is well to remember that Marshal Melick befriended Mrs Sheedy early in the affair by letting her stay at his home instead of consigning her to the loathesome city jail, and she may seem gratitude notwithstanding stories to the contrary. Besides, Sheriff McClay is said to have denied the finding of Mr Melock in Mrs Sheedy's jail quarters.

One of the most ingenious stories concerns the removal of an alleged dangerous witness. Among the prisoners in the county jail was one named Davis, who had been convicted of forgery. While waiting to be transported to the penitentiary, McFarland, so the story goes, made a confession to him. When this came to the ears of the negro's attorneys, Capt Billingsly made the convenient discovery that there was a plot among the prisoners to break jail, with Davis at the head. He communicated his discovery to Jailer Langdon who asked Deputy Sheriff Hoagland, in the absence of Sheriff McClay, for an order to transfer Davis to the penitentiary. The deputy refused to exercise such authority, but when the sheriff returned the "dangerous" prisoner was removed. This story sounds gauzy, and it is further stated that even if Davis had the evidence alleged it was learned too late for use in this trial. Billingsly was shrewd enough to know that, too. It makes a pretty story, though.

Jailor Langdon's sympathies were with Mrs Sheedy and he let certain witnesses call on her. The prosecution took umbrage at this and asked to have him removed. The attorneys went so far as to demand his removal, and that aroused Sheriff McClay's ire. He refused to make a change but cautioned Langdon; "You may think what you d-n please, but keep your mouth shut."

Then there is the story about Judge WEir's fee. He came at the request of Mr Biggerstaff, who it is asserted promised him $5000. Of course the uncle expected Mrs Sheedy to pay it, as she was acquired, but there came a hitch in the program. Administrator Melick demurred to the size of the bill, and it was asserted that the western uncle had no authority to incur the obligation, anyway. The thing hung fire several days, but on Monday the judge consented to a compromise, agreeing to accept $1500. Administrator Melick raised $500 cash for him and gave him a note for the balance of $1000. Judge Weir and Mr Biggerstaff left last Wednesday.

One of the absurd stories afloat is that Mrs Sheedy and her attorneys had a sort of thanksgiving feast Saturday night, that Mr Biggerstaff was frozen out, got wrathy, indulged in liquor and raised a row.

There has been considerable gossip about a lock of hair said to have been taken from Mrs Sheedy by McFarland. It did not cut much of a figure in the trial, but it has been a fruitful source of talk among those acquainted with its alleged history. It will be remembered that during the trial Attorney Strode offered to call up Mrs Sheedy and let the jury compare it with her tresses. That brought an objection from Attorney Lambertson, who in the heat of his anger over Strode's charges, said: "You are a liar, Mr Strode, and you know it." The court's rebuke brought a burst of sympathetic applause for the defense, and some people want us to believe that it was all a cunning trick of clever Strode to show the jury where the crowd's sympathy lay. Then there are some very knowing chaps who assert that the lock of hair exhibited in the court room was not the lock carried away from the Sheedy home by the negro as a trophy of his conquest.

A story was current that the attorneys for the two defendants had formed a conspiracy to sacrifice McFarland in order to save Mrs Sheedy. It was alleged that they were carrying out such a compact when the darky's counsel refused to let him go on the stand. Circumstances lent a little color to the story, but the public has no evidence that it was true and the attorneys indignantly denied it. Then a counter story was circulated that Attorneys Lambertson and Hall had an hour's consultation on the second floor of the Lincoln hotel one evening with the correspondent of an Omaha paper, and that the story of the alleged conspiracy appeared in the next issue of that paper. Then it was told that on the following day a Lincoln daily accepted $10 from one of the prosecuting attorneys and rehashed the same yarn. Most of which may be taken with a grain of allowance.

Saturday was Decoration day and Mrs Sheedy is said to have visited the cemetery and placed some cut flowers on the grave of her husband. Later they were gone.

McFarland appeared the day after his acquittal in a new suit of clothes. It is said that Col Philpott paid for the suit, which started the story that Mrs Sheedy had furnished the money, because, reasoned these gossips, the dark had nothing and Philpott would not take it out of his own pocket. McFarland left town to visit his mother down in Kansas and when he exhibited a small roll at the spot these clever reasoners were dead sure he had received some of Mrs Sheedy's money.

One of the latest tales relates that Harry Walstrom, whose affection for Mrs Sheedy figured so prominently in the trial, was in Kansas City all through that eventful three weeks and was kept posted on the progress of events. The story also has it that Mrs Sheedy sent a letter to Walstrom the other day addressed to Birmingham Ala. When you come to think it over the yarn doesn't seem to dovetail as smoothly as it might. And besides it was given out during the trial that Walstrom had fled to Europe to keep out of harm's way.

One of the peculiar things of this affair was the apology in one of the dallies by the attorneys for the state for not having complimented Detective Malone in their arguments for effective and loyal services.

In discussing the verdict the other day a well known judge said: "I am glad it went as it did." Of course the listeners were surprised and he explained. He said that the case would have been appealed by the defense if the verdict had been against them. The judge was quite positive it would have been reversed by the supreme court and sent back for a new trial. He gave his reasons for that belief. For example, one of the prosecuting attorneys had dwelt upon the fact that Mrs Sheedy was not put on the stand and tried to influence the jury by that sort of an argument. A new trial would cost Lancaster county $10,000 ana in the end the prisoners would probably be acquitted.

Wife and Ex. Wife.

L. B. Morris, a carriage painter who lives in the Chase block, corner Sixteenth and O streets, is having a decidedly queer experience just at present in the matrimonial sphere. About ten years ago he was married to a Miss Emma Hunt; about four years ago he secured a divorce and soon after married a young lady who resided in Lincoln. Wife No 1, in the meantime married another painter in Omaha. Husband No ! found he had more work than he could properly attend to and as a painter struck him for employment, he gave him a job, and also agreed that his family might remain in his house until he had his household goods removed to Lincoln. Imagine his surprise when the wife turned up it was none other than wife No 1, but Morris, having a mild disposition, insisted that the agreement should hold good, and as wife No 2 did not offer any serious objections, they are living peacefully together to the wonder and administration of their neighbors.

Taken All Precautions.

"I hope, Jennie, that you have given the matter serious consideration," said a lady to a servant girl who had "given notice" because she was to be married that "day two weeks." "O, I have, ma'am." was the earnest reply. "I have been to two fortune tellers and a clairvoyant, and looked in a sign book, and dreamed on a lock of his hair, and been to one of these astrologers, and to a meejum and they all say to go ahead, ma'am. I ain't one to marry recklesslike, ma'am." Harper's Bazar.

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