Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/419

 392

The Green Bag

moment. All was confusion. It was the sheriff's duty to carry out the sen tence, but the gentleman flatly refused, saying he would forfeit all he possessed first. What was to be done? Even the criminals raised their heads, a kind of dull hope dawning on them, and got more or less animated. Suddenly from their cart broke a woman's voice, shrill and harsh :— "Spare me loife, yer honor, spare me loife, an' I'll hang 'em all!" The sheriff grasped at the unexpected

offer, Betty was unbound by a warder, descended from the tumbril, amidst a murmur of horror, and with awful cal lousness proceeded to her task. Never was an execution better performed. In a few moments she stood the only living being on the scaffold, whilst around her hung the ghastly bodies of her late com panions. The hangman died, she was nominated his successor, at a yearly salary, lived alone, generally despised, till her death, and all during the rebel lion exercised her avocation.

A Picturesque Missouri Lawyer By F. G. MOORHEAD AMONG the pioneer lawyers of the Mississippi Valley there was none better known or more famous in his generation than Henry Clay Dean, "the great unwashed," of Missouri. Dean died a few years ago, after a decidedly pic turesque career. Dean was related to Henry Clay and named after him, although he declined to consider this any honor. He was so uncleanly in his personal habits that he was picturesque, and was noted for this aversion to water, both internally and externally. During his lifetime he he was lawyer, preacher and lecturer, and there were few important law cases, forty years ago, in the Mississippi Valley, in which Dean was not involved. He was a master of invective, and did not hesitate to indulge liberally in pro fanity when speaking, either to a jury or a public gathering. In making an address to a jury, when he was denounc-

ing the opposition the very windows would rattle under his storm. In one of his arguments he denounced an enemy thus: "If I had my way with him I would load him naked into a red-hot cannon and fire him head first through a thorny hedge fence into hell, as far as a pigeon could fly in a year." Dean had the reputation of never having paid railroad fare, despite the fact that he frequently prosecuted cases against the pioneer railways. His method was to inveigle the conductor to sit beside him after he had returned from collecting tickets, and by seductive talk make him forget all about Dean's obliga tion to the company. Dean would in quire about the conductor's salary, tell him it was entirely too little for such an enormous job, and promise to have a personal interview with the president of the road, who always hap pened to be Dean's particular friend,