163

LOCAL NEWS.

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THURSDAY.

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Wearily Drags Along.

The cheerful, sunny weather seemed to extert a favorable impression upon the spirits of Mrs. Sheedy, and upon entering court this morning her face bore a bouyant expression, in marked contrast to the look of settled gloom that mantled her features yesterday. She was not only composed, but visibly in excellent spirits, which manifested themselves in self-satisfied smiles that warmed her face into a wreath of radiance. She conversed animatodly with her sister, Mrs. Dean, who as during the previous days of the trial, occupied a seat at the right of the hand some prisoner. While herself and Mrs. Dean were convassing a mutually interesting subject, Col. Biggerstaff and Mrs. Morgan, the other sister, were holding a whispered conference upon some topic obviously of serious import, as their faces wore a grave aspect unrelieved during the entire conversation by the appearance of a smile, while the purport of the subject under discussion was kept a dead secret between the two concerned.

Judge Weir, the eminent counsel from Idaho, who was conspicuous by his absence yesterday, was on hand this morning, and sat next to Col. Biggerstaff.

Some sage has remarked that the eyes are the windows to the soul, but it must be confessed there are exceptions to this, as to all rules. This applies in a marked degree to the opalescent eyes of Mrs. Sheedy, whose features and deep orbs one searches in vain for the slightest clude as to the character of her secret thoughts. It is a shield which successfully parries all visual javelins shot against her inpenetrable armor.

When the judicial tribunal had resumed its grind, the clerk drearily sand out the names of those drawn on the special panel. A few only responded, and all these confessed to having daliled with the evidence or leisurely waded through the alleged confession of Monday McFarland. This had established a bias in their minds, which would require considerable evidence to remove, and they were accordingly challenged and cut off at first base.

Following the exhaustion of the first special panel, the clerk began calling the names of those citizens who had been summoned upon the second panel.

At this stage of the proceedings, counsel Strode, who had taken no part in the examination of witnesses up to this time during the morning, but who had confined himself to the preparation of a formidable looking document, bobbed up and sprung another of his large supply of stalwart objections upon the court. This time the astute attorney imagined he had caught a fleeting glance of a senegambian in the fuel pile, and entered a lengthy protest against the manner in which the venire had been drawn. Counsel insisted the county commissioners had not chosen the veniremen in the proportion established by law, in that a larger number were drawn from some precints and a less number from others than provided by statute.

Defense also objected to the second special panel because the members had been summoned by registered letter. Both objections were overruled and excused from further attendance until that time.

A blooded young man, a clerk in the employ of a local clothing firm, created a ripple of amusement in which Mrs. Sheedy and Col. Biggerstaff joined, by naively stating with evident earnestness, that what he had read in the papers was true, he was emphatically of the opinion that defendant should be made to suffer the penalty of a most atrocious crime. Challenged and excused.

An interesting feature of the rial as developed by the examination of veniremen, is the disclosure of the fact that fully four-fifths of those examined candidly confess having formed an opinion--presumably prejudicial to the innocence of defendants--and the further discovery that at least one-half of those summoned are opposed to capital punishment under any circumstances, while two-thirds are unalterably prejudiced against imposing the death penalty when based, as it must be in the present case, upon purely circumstantial evidence. Many do not hesitate to acknowledge mroal scruples upon this point, which they would refuse to sacrifice even if to do so, they would find it incumbent to ignore the instructions of court and deny the obligation of law.