Speaker 1: This is section fifty eight. This LibriVox recording is in
Speaker 1: the public domain. The Gilded Age, A Tale of to
Speaker 1: Day by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner, Chapter fifty eight.
Speaker 1: The court room was packed on the morning on which
Speaker 1: the verdict of the jury was expected, as it had
Speaker 1: been every day of the trial, and by the same
Speaker 1: spectators who had followed its progress with such intense interest.
Speaker 1: There is a delicious moment of excitement which the frequenter
Speaker 1: of trials well knows, and which he would not miss
Speaker 1: for the world. It is that instant when the foreman
Speaker 1: of the jury stands up to give the verdict, and
Speaker 1: before he has opened his fateful lips, the court assembled
Speaker 1: and waited. It was an obstinate jury. It even had
Speaker 1: another question, this intelligent jury, to ask the judge this morning.
Speaker 1: The question was this, were the doctors clear that the
Speaker 1: deceased had no disease which might soon have carried him
Speaker 1: off if he had not been shot. There was evidently
Speaker 1: one juryman who didn't want to waste life and was
Speaker 1: willing to stake a general average, as the jury always
Speaker 1: does in a civil case, deciding not according to the evidence,
Speaker 1: but reaching the verdict by some occult mental process. During
Speaker 1: the delay, these spectators exhibited unexampled patients, finding amusement and
Speaker 1: relief in the slightest movements of the court. The prisoner
Speaker 1: and the lawyers, Mister Braham divided with Laura the attention
Speaker 1: of the house. Bets were made by the Sheriff's deputies
Speaker 1: on the verdict, with large odds in favor of a disagreement.
Speaker 1: It was afternoon when it was announced that the jury
Speaker 1: was coming in. The reporters took their places and were
Speaker 1: all attention. The judge and lawyers were in their seats.
Speaker 1: The crowd swayed and pushed in eager expectancy as the
Speaker 1: jury walked in and stood up in silence. Judge, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: have you agreed upon your verdict? Foreman? We have judge?
Speaker 1: What is it? Foreman? Not guilty? A shout went up
Speaker 1: from the entire room, and a tumult of cheering, which
Speaker 1: the court in vain attempted to quell. For a few moments,
Speaker 1: all order was lost. The spectators crowded within the bar
Speaker 1: and surrounded Laura, who, calmer than any one else, was
Speaker 1: supporting her aged mother, who had almost fainted from excess
Speaker 1: of joy and now occurred one of those beautiful incidents
Speaker 1: which no fiction writer would dare to imagine, a scene
Speaker 1: of touching pathos, creditable to our fallen humanity. In the
Speaker 1: eyes of the women of the audience, mister Braham was
Speaker 1: the hero of the occasion. He had saved the life
Speaker 1: of the prisoner, and besides he was such a handsome man.
Speaker 1: The women could not restrain their long pent up emotions.
Speaker 1: They threw themselves upon mister Brahm in a transport of gratitude.
Speaker 1: They kissed him again and again, the young as well
Speaker 1: as the advanced in years, the married as well as
Speaker 1: the ardent single women. They improved the opportunity with a
Speaker 1: touching self sacrifice. In the words of a newspaper, the
Speaker 1: day they lavished him with kisses, it was something sweet
Speaker 1: to do, and it would be sweet for a woman
Speaker 1: to remember in after years that she had kissed Braham.
Speaker 1: Mister Braham himself received these fond assaults with the gallantry
Speaker 1: of his nation, enduring the ugly and heartily paying back
Speaker 1: beauty in its own coin. This beautiful scene is still
Speaker 1: known in New York as the Kissing of Braham. When
Speaker 1: the tumult of congratulation had little spent itself. An order
Speaker 1: was restored. Judge O'Shaughnessy said that it now became his
Speaker 1: duty to provide for the proper custody and treatment of
Speaker 1: the acquitted. The verdict of the jury having left no
Speaker 1: doubt that the woman was of an unsound mind, with
Speaker 1: a kind of insanity dangerous to the safety of the community,
Speaker 1: she could not be permitted to go at large. In
Speaker 1: accordance with the directions of the law in such cases,
Speaker 1: said the Judge, and in obedience to the dictates of
Speaker 1: a wise humanity, I hereby commit Laura Hawkins to the
Speaker 1: care of the Superintendent of the State Hospital for Insane Criminals,
Speaker 1: to be held in confinement until the State Commissioners on
Speaker 1: Insanity shall order her discharge. Mister Sheriff, you will attend
Speaker 1: at once to the execution of this decree. Laura was
Speaker 1: overwhelmed and terror stricken. She had expected to walk forth
Speaker 1: in freedom in a few moments. The revulsion was terrible.
Speaker 1: Her mother appeared like one shaken with an egg. You
Speaker 1: fit Laura insane and about to be locked up with madmen.
Speaker 1: She had never contemplated this. Mister Graham said he should
Speaker 1: move at once for a writ of habeas corpus, but
Speaker 1: the judge could not do less than his duty. The
Speaker 1: law must have its way, as in the stupor of
Speaker 1: a sudden calamity, and not fully comprehending it. Missus Hawkins
Speaker 1: saw Laura led away by the officer with little space
Speaker 1: for thought. She was rapidly driven to the railway station
Speaker 1: and conveyed to the hospital for lunatic criminals. It was
Speaker 1: only when she was within this vast and grim abode
Speaker 1: of madness that she realized the horror of her situation.
Speaker 1: It was only when she was received by the kind
Speaker 1: physician and read pity in his eyes, and saw his
Speaker 1: look of hopeless incredulity when she attempted to tell him
Speaker 1: that she was not insane. It was only when she
Speaker 1: passed through the ward to which she was consigned, and
Speaker 1: saw the horrible creatures, the victims of a double calamity,
Speaker 1: whose dreadful faces she was hereafter to see daily, and
Speaker 1: was locked into the small, bare room that was to
Speaker 1: be her home, that all her fortitude forsook her. She
Speaker 1: sank upon the bed as soon as she was left alone.
Speaker 1: She had been searched by the matron and tried to think,
Speaker 1: but her brain was in a whirl. She recalled Braham's speech,
Speaker 1: she recalled a testimony regarding her lunacy. She wondered if
Speaker 1: she were not mad. She felt that she soon should
Speaker 1: be among these loathsome creatures. Better almost to have died
Speaker 1: than to slowly go mad. In this confinement we beg
Speaker 1: the reader's pardon. This is not history which has just
Speaker 1: been written. It is really what would have occurred if
Speaker 1: this were a novel. If this were a work of fiction,
Speaker 1: we should not dare to dispose of Laura. Otherwise, true
Speaker 1: art and any attention to dramatic proprieties required it. The
Speaker 1: novelist who would turn loose upon society an insane, murderous
Speaker 1: could not escape condemnation. Besides the safety of society, the
Speaker 1: decencies of criminal procedure, what we call our modern civilization,
Speaker 1: all would demand that Laura should be disposed of in
Speaker 1: the manner we have described. Foreigners who read this sad
Speaker 1: story will be unable to understand any other termination of it.
Speaker 1: But this is history and not fiction. There is no
Speaker 1: such law or custom as that to which his honor
Speaker 1: is supposed to have deferred. Judge O. Shaughnessy would not
Speaker 1: probably pay any attention to it if there were. There
Speaker 1: is no hospital for insane criminals. There is no state
Speaker 1: Commission of lunacy. What actually occurred when the tumult in
Speaker 1: the courtroom had subsided, the sagacious reader will now learn.
Speaker 1: Laura left the courtroom accompanied by her mother and other friends,
Speaker 1: amid the congratulations of those assembled, and was cheered as
Speaker 1: she entered a carriage and drove away. How sweet was
Speaker 1: the sunlight? How exhilarating the sense of freedom? Were not
Speaker 1: these following cheers the expression of popular approval and affection.
Speaker 1: Was she not the heroine of the hour? It was
Speaker 1: with a feeling of triumph that Laura reached her hotel,
Speaker 1: a scornful feeling of victory over society with its own weapons.
Speaker 1: Missus Hawkins shared not at all in this feeling. She
Speaker 1: was broken with disgrace and the long anxiety. Thank god, Laura,
Speaker 1: she said, it is over now. We will go away
Speaker 1: from this hateful city. Let us go home at once.
Speaker 1: Mother replied Laura, speaking with some tenderness, I cannot go
Speaker 1: with you there. Don't cry, I cannot go back to
Speaker 1: the life. Missus Hawkins was sobbing. This was more cruel
Speaker 1: than anything else, for she had a dim notion of
Speaker 1: what it would be to leave Laura to herself. No, mother,
Speaker 1: you have been everything to me. You know how dearly
Speaker 1: I love you, But I cannot go back. A boy
Speaker 1: brought in a telegraphic dispatch. Laura took it and read
Speaker 1: the bill is lost, dilworthy, ruined, signed Washington. For a
Speaker 1: moment the words swam before her eyes. The next her
Speaker 1: eyes flashed fire as she handed the despatch to her
Speaker 1: mother and bitterly said, the world is against me. Well
Speaker 1: let it be, let it. I am against it. This
Speaker 1: is a cruel disappointment, said missus Hawkins, to whom one
Speaker 1: grief more or less did not much matter now to
Speaker 1: you and Washington. But we must humbly bear it. Bear it,
Speaker 1: replied Laura scornfully. I've all my life borne it, and
Speaker 1: fate has thwarted me at every step. A servant came
Speaker 1: to the door to say that there was a gentleman
Speaker 1: below who wished to speak with Miss Hawkins. J Adolph
Speaker 1: Griller was the name Laura read on the card. I
Speaker 1: do not know such a person. He probably comes from Washington.
Speaker 1: Send him up. Mister Griller entered. He was a small man,
Speaker 1: slovenly in dress, his tone confidential, his manner wholly void
Speaker 1: of animation, all his features below the forehead protruding, particularly
Speaker 1: the apple of his throat, here without a kink in it,
Speaker 1: a hand with no grip, a meek, hang dog countenance.
Speaker 1: He was a falsehood done in flesh and blood. For
Speaker 1: while every visible sign about him proclaimed him a poor, witless,
Speaker 1: useless weakling, the truth was that he had the brains
Speaker 1: to plan great enterprises and the pluck to carry them through.
Speaker 1: That was his reputation, and it was a deserved one.
Speaker 1: He softly said, I called to see you on business,
Speaker 1: Miss Hawkins. You have my card, Laura bowed. Mister Griller
Speaker 1: continued to purr as softly as before. I will proceed
Speaker 1: to business. I am a business man, I am a
Speaker 1: lecture agent, Miss Hawkins, and as soon as I saw
Speaker 1: that you were acquitted, it occurred to me that an
Speaker 1: early interview would be mutually beneficial. I don't understand you, sir,
Speaker 1: said Laura coldly. No, you see, miss Hawkins, this is
Speaker 1: your opportunity. If you will enter the lecture field under
Speaker 1: good auspices, you will carry everything before you. But sir,
Speaker 1: I never lectured I haven't any lecture. I don't know
Speaker 1: anything about it, ah madam. That makes no difference, no
Speaker 1: real difference. It is not necessary to be able to
Speaker 1: lecture in order to go into the lecture tour. If
Speaker 1: one's name is celebrated all over the land, especially, and
Speaker 1: if she is also beautiful, she is certain to draw
Speaker 1: large audiences. But what should I lecture about? Asked Laura,
Speaker 1: beginning in spite of herself to be alone, interested as
Speaker 1: well as amused. Oh why a woman? Something about woman?
Speaker 1: I should say the marriage relation, a woman's fate, anything
Speaker 1: of that sort. Call it the revelations of a woman's life.
Speaker 1: Now there is a good title. I wouldn't want any
Speaker 1: better title than that. I'm prepared to make you an offer,
Speaker 1: Miss Hawkins, a liberal offer, twelve thousand dollars for thirty nights.
Speaker 1: Laura thought, she hesitated. Why not? It would give her
Speaker 1: employment money. She must do something. I will think of
Speaker 1: it and let you know soon. But still there is
Speaker 1: very little likelihood that I. However, we will not discuss
Speaker 1: it further. Now, remember that the sooner we get to work,
Speaker 1: the better, Miss Hawkins. Public curiosity is so fickle. Good day, madam.
Speaker 1: The close of the trial released mister Harry Brierly and
Speaker 1: left him free to depart upon his long talked of
Speaker 1: Pacific Coast mission. He was very mysteriou even to Philip.
Speaker 1: It's confidential, old boy, he said, a little scheme we
Speaker 1: have hatched up. I don't mind telling you that it's
Speaker 1: a good deal, bigger thing than that in Missouri, and
Speaker 1: a sure thing. I wouldn't take a half a million
Speaker 1: just for my share, and it will open up something
Speaker 1: for you, Phil You will hear from me. Philip did
Speaker 1: hear from Harry A few months afterwards. Everything promised splendidly,
Speaker 1: but there was a little delay. Could phil let him
Speaker 1: have a hundred, say, for ninety days? Philip himself hastened
Speaker 1: to Philadelphia, and as soon as the spring opened to
Speaker 1: the mine at Ilium and began transforming the loan he
Speaker 1: had received from Squire Montague into laborer's wages. He was
Speaker 1: haunted with many anxieties. In the first place, Ruth was
Speaker 1: overtaxing her strength in her hospital labors, and Philip felt
Speaker 1: as if he must move heaven and earth to save
Speaker 1: her from such toil. And suffering his increased pecuniary obligation
Speaker 1: oppressed him It seemed to him also that he had
Speaker 1: been one cause of the misfortune to the Bolton family,
Speaker 1: and that he was dragging into loss and ruin everybody
Speaker 1: who associated with him. He worked on day after day
Speaker 1: and week after week with a feverish anxiety. It would
Speaker 1: be wicked, thought Philip, and impious to pray for luck.
Speaker 1: He felt that perhaps he ought not to ask a
Speaker 1: blessing upon a sort of labor that was only a venture.
Speaker 1: But yet in that daily petition which this very faulty
Speaker 1: and not very consistent young Christian gentleman put up, he
Speaker 1: prayed earnestly enough for Ruth, and for the Boltons, and
Speaker 1: for those whom he loved and who trusted in him,
Speaker 1: and that his life might not be a misfortune to
Speaker 1: them and a failure to himself. Since this young fellow
Speaker 1: went out into the world from his New England home,
Speaker 1: he had done some things that he would rather his
Speaker 1: mother should not know. Things. Maybe he would shrink from
Speaker 1: telling Ruth at a certain green age. Young gentlemen are
Speaker 1: sometimes afraid of being called milk SOPs, and Philip's associates
Speaker 1: had not always been the most select such as these
Speaker 1: historians would have chosen for him, or whom at a
Speaker 1: later period he would have chosen for himself. It seemed inexplicable,
Speaker 1: for instance, that his life should have been thrown so
Speaker 1: much with his college acquaintance Henry Brierly. Yet this was
Speaker 1: true of Philip, that in whatever company he had been,
Speaker 1: he had never been ashamed to stand up for the
Speaker 1: principles he learned from his mother, and neither raillery nor
Speaker 1: looks of wonder turned him from that daily habit he
Speaker 1: learned at his mother's knees. Even flippant Harry respected this,
Speaker 1: and perhaps it was one of the reasons why Harry
Speaker 1: and all who knew Philip trusted him implicitly. And yet
Speaker 1: it must be confessed that Philip did not convey the
Speaker 1: impression to the world of a very serious young man,
Speaker 1: or of a man who might not rather easily fall
Speaker 1: into temptation. One looking for a real hero would have
Speaker 1: to go elsewhere. The parting between Laura and her mother
Speaker 1: was exceedingly painful to both. It was as if two
Speaker 1: friends parted on a wide plain, the one to journey
Speaker 1: towards the setting and the other towards the rising sun,
Speaker 1: each comprehending that every step henceforth must separate their lives
Speaker 1: wider and wider. End of Chapter fifty eight,