Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/131

 to render a verdict contrary to the facts and the Supreme Court to render a decision contrary to the law.” An abler man than any of these I have mentioned was Furman Sheppard, robust in frame and in intellect. I have known many men in the various phases of life—presidents, professors and preachers—and I am inclined to think he was the ablest of them all. He never achieved a work or attained a reputation at all commensurate with his power. The utilization of the forces of nature is subject to much vicissitude and the momentum of the ocean beats upon the shore in vain. He had some practice and when he had tried a case it had been exhausted. He once filled the office of district attorney for the county and he had neither predecessor nor successor. He had read widely, not only in the philosophy of the law, but in literature and theology, and he comprehended their full significance. Perhaps he was a little inert. Perhaps he did not fully realize his own capacity. After accepting an invitation to make a speech at the dinner given to Benjamin H. Brewster when appointed Attorney General of the United States, he failed to appear. Perhaps conscious of strength, he disdained to seek for opportunity and reputation and waited for the world to see for itself. He was a Democrat in a Republican city, but so was Pattison. Whatever be the cause, certain it is that many lesser men have gone much further.

I saw Anton Probst, a little, light-colored, dull-looking German, as they brought him in the van to the court house at Sixth and Chestnut streets to be tried. Employed by a farmer named Deering, down near the junction of the two rivers in the region called “The Neck,” he killed the father, mother and a family of children, one a mere infant, in order to secure a small sum of money. Driven through the crowd, who jeered and threatened, he seemed like some hunted animal. He still retains the distinction of being the most atrocious murderer in our annals.

I attended the trial of George S. Twitchell. An old Rh