Speaker 1: This is section forty seven of The Gilded Age. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gilded Age,
Speaker 1: A Tale of to Day by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter forty seven. Philip's first effort was to get Harry
Speaker 1: out of the tombs. He gained permission to see him
Speaker 1: in the presence of an officer during the day, and
Speaker 1: he found that hero very much cast down. I never
Speaker 1: intended to come to such a place as this, old fellow,
Speaker 1: he said to Philip. It's no place for a gentleman.
Speaker 1: They've no idea how to treat a gentleman. Look at
Speaker 1: that provender, pointing to his uneaten prison ration. They tell
Speaker 1: me I am detained as a witness, and I passed
Speaker 1: the night among a lot of cutthroats and dirty rascals,
Speaker 1: A pretty witness. I'd be in a month spent in
Speaker 1: such company. But what under heavens, asked Philip induced you
Speaker 1: to come to New York with Laura? What was it for?
Speaker 1: What for why she wanted me to come. I didn't
Speaker 1: know anything about that cursed Selby. She said it was
Speaker 1: lobby business for the university. I'd no idea what she
Speaker 1: was dragging me into that confounded hotel, for I suppose
Speaker 1: she knew that the Southerners all go there and thought
Speaker 1: she'd find her man. Oh lord, I wish I'd taken
Speaker 1: your advice. He might as well murder somebody and have
Speaker 1: the credit of it as get into the papers the
Speaker 1: way I have. She's pure devil, that girl. You ought
Speaker 1: to have seen how sweet she was on me. What
Speaker 1: an ass I am. Well, I'm not going to dispute
Speaker 1: a poor prisoner, but the first thing is to get
Speaker 1: you out of this. I've brought the note Laura wrote
Speaker 1: you for one thing, and I've seen your uncle and
Speaker 1: explained the truth of the case to him. He will
Speaker 1: be here soon. Harry's uncle came with other friends, and
Speaker 1: in the course of the day made such a showing
Speaker 1: to the authorities that Harry was released on giving bonds
Speaker 1: to appear as a witness when wanted. His spirits rose
Speaker 1: with her usual elasticity as soon as he was out
Speaker 1: of Center Street, and he insisted on giving Philip and
Speaker 1: his friends a royal supper at Delmonico's, an excess which
Speaker 1: was perhaps excusable in the rebound of his feelings, and
Speaker 1: which was committed with his usual reckless generosity. Harry ordered
Speaker 1: the supper, and it is perhaps needless to say that
Speaker 1: Philip paid the bill. Neither of the young men felt
Speaker 1: like attempting to see Laura that day, and she saw
Speaker 1: no company except the newspaper reporters until the arrival of
Speaker 1: Colonel Cellars and Washington Hawkins, who had hastened to New
Speaker 1: York with all speed. They found Laura in a cell
Speaker 1: in the upper tier of the women's department. The cell
Speaker 1: was somewhat larger than those in the men's department, and
Speaker 1: might be eight feet by ten square, perhaps a little longer.
Speaker 1: It was of stone floor and all, and tile roof
Speaker 1: was oven shaped. A narrow slit in the roof admitted
Speaker 1: sufficient light and was the only means of ventilation. When
Speaker 1: the window was opened. There was nothing to prevent the
Speaker 1: rain coming in, the only means of heating being from
Speaker 1: the corridor when the door was ajar. The cell was
Speaker 1: chilly and at this time damp. It was whitewashed and clean,
Speaker 1: but it had a slight jail odor. Its only furniture
Speaker 1: was a narrow iron bedstead with a tick of straw
Speaker 1: and some blankets not too clean. When Colonel Cellars was
Speaker 1: conducted to this cell by the matron and looked in
Speaker 1: his emotions quite overcame him. The tears rolled down his
Speaker 1: cheeks and his voice trembled so that he could hardly speak.
Speaker 1: Washington was unable to say anything. He looked from Laura
Speaker 1: to the miserable creatures who were walking in the corridor
Speaker 1: with unutterable disgust. Laura was alone, calm and self contained,
Speaker 1: though she was not unmoved by the sight of the
Speaker 1: grief of her friends. Are you comfortable, Laura, was the
Speaker 1: first word the colonel could get out. You see, she replied,
Speaker 1: I can't say it's exactly comfortable. Are you cold? It
Speaker 1: is pretty chilly. The stone floor is like ice. It
Speaker 1: chills me through to step on it. I have to
Speaker 1: sit on the bed, poor thing, poor thing. And can
Speaker 1: you eat anything? No, I'm not hungry. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I could eat anything. I can't eat that, oh, dear,
Speaker 1: continued the colonel. It's dreadful. But cheer up, dear, cheer up.
Speaker 1: And the colonel broke down entirely, but he went on,
Speaker 1: We'll stand by you. We'll do everything for you. I
Speaker 1: know you couldn't have meant to do it. It must
Speaker 1: have been insanity, you know, or something of that sort.
Speaker 1: You never did anything of the sort before. Laura smiled
Speaker 1: very faintly and said, yes, it was something of that sort.
Speaker 1: It's all a whirl. He was a villain, you don't know.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have killed him myself in a duel, you know,
Speaker 1: all fair. I wish I had. But don't you be down.
Speaker 1: We'll get you the best counsel. The lawyers in New
Speaker 1: York can do anything. I've read of cases. But you
Speaker 1: you must be comfortable. Now. We've brought some of your
Speaker 1: clothes at the hotel. What else can we get for you?
Speaker 1: Laura suggested that she would like some sheets for her bed,
Speaker 1: a piece of carpet to step on, and her meals
Speaker 1: sent in, and some books and writing materials if it
Speaker 1: was allowed. The colonel and Washington promised to procure all
Speaker 1: these things, and then took their sorrowful leave. A great
Speaker 1: deal more affected than the criminal was, apparently by her situation.
Speaker 1: The colonel told the matron as he went away that
Speaker 1: if she would look to Laura's comfort a little, it
Speaker 1: shouldn't be the worse for her. And to the turnkey
Speaker 1: who let them out, he patronizingly said, you've got a
Speaker 1: big establishment here, a credit to the city. I've got
Speaker 1: a friend in there. I shall see you again, sir.
Speaker 1: By the next day, something more of Laura's own story
Speaker 1: began to appear in the newspapers, colored and heightened by
Speaker 1: reporters rhetoric. Some of them cast a lurid light upon
Speaker 1: the colonel's career and represented his victim as a beautiful
Speaker 1: avenger of her murdered innocence, and others pictured her as
Speaker 1: his willing paramour and pitiless slayer. Her communications to the
Speaker 1: reporters were stopped by her lawyers as soon as they
Speaker 1: were retained and visited her, but this fact did not
Speaker 1: prevent it may have facilitated the appearance of casual paragraphs
Speaker 1: here and there, which were likely to beget popular sympathy
Speaker 1: for the poor girl. The occasion did not pass without
Speaker 1: improvement by the leading journals, and Philip preserved the editorial
Speaker 1: comments of three or four of them which pleased him most.
Speaker 1: These he used to read aloud to his friends afterwards
Speaker 1: and ask them to guess from which journal each of
Speaker 1: them had been cut. One began in this simple manner.
Speaker 1: History never repeats itself. But the kaleidoscopic combinations of the
Speaker 1: pictured present often seemed to be constructed out of the
Speaker 1: broken fragments of antique legends. Washington is not Corinth, and Lays,
Speaker 1: the beautiful daughter of Timandra, might not have been the
Speaker 1: prototype of the ravishing Laura, daughter of the Plebeian house
Speaker 1: of Hawkins. But the orators add statesmen who were the
Speaker 1: purchasers of the favors of the one, may have been
Speaker 1: as incorruptible as the Republican statesmen, who learned how to
Speaker 1: love and how to vote from the sweet lips of
Speaker 1: the Washington lobbyist. And perhaps the modern Lays would never
Speaker 1: have departed from the national capital if there had been
Speaker 1: there even one republican's Inocrates who resisted her blandishments. But
Speaker 1: here the parallel fails. Lays, wandering away with the youth Repostratus,
Speaker 1: is slain by the women who are jealous of her charms. Laura,
Speaker 1: straying into her Thessaly with the youth, briarly slays her
Speaker 1: other lover and becomes the champion of the wrongs of
Speaker 1: her sex. Another journal began its editorial with less lyrical beauty,
Speaker 1: but with equal force. It closed as follows, with Laura
Speaker 1: Hawkins Fair fascinating and fatal, and with the dissolute colonel
Speaker 1: of a lost cause who has reaped the harvest he sowed.
Speaker 1: We have nothing to do. But as the curtain rises
Speaker 1: on this awful tragedy, we catch a glimpse of the
Speaker 1: society at the Capitol under this administration, which we cannot
Speaker 1: contemplate without alarm for the fate of the republic. A
Speaker 1: third newspaper took up the subject in a different tone.
Speaker 1: It said, our repeated predictions are verified. The pernicious doctrines
Speaker 1: which we have announced as prevailing in American society have
Speaker 1: been again illustrated. The name of the city is becoming
Speaker 1: a reproach. We may have done something in averting its ruin.
Speaker 1: In our resolute exposure of the great frauds, we shall
Speaker 1: not be deterred from insisting that the outraged laws for
Speaker 1: the protection of human life shall be vindicated now, so
Speaker 1: that a person can walk the streets or enter the
Speaker 1: public houses, at least in the daytime, without the risk
Speaker 1: of a bullet through his brain. A fourth journal began
Speaker 1: its remarks as follows the fullness with which we present
Speaker 1: our readers this morning. The details of the Selby Hawkins
Speaker 1: homicide is a miracle of modern journalism. Subsequent investigation can
Speaker 1: do little to fill out the picture. It is the
Speaker 1: old story. A beautiful woman shoots her absconding lover in
Speaker 1: cold blood, and we shall doubtless learn in due time
Speaker 1: that if she was not as mad as a hare
Speaker 1: in this month of March, she was at least laboring
Speaker 1: under what is termed momentary insanity. It would not be
Speaker 1: too much to say that upon the first publication of
Speaker 1: the facts of the tragedy there was an almost universal
Speaker 1: feeling of rage against the murderess in the tombs, and
Speaker 1: that reports of her beauty only heightened the indignation. It
Speaker 1: was as if she presumed, upon that and upon her sex,
Speaker 1: to defy the law, and there was a and hope
Speaker 1: that the law would take its plain course. Yet Laura
Speaker 1: was not without friends, and some of them very influential too.
Speaker 1: She had in her keeping a great many secrets and
Speaker 1: a great many reputations. Perhaps, who shall set himself up
Speaker 1: to judge human motives? Why indeed, might we not feel
Speaker 1: pity for a woman whose brilliant career had been so
Speaker 1: suddenly extinguished in misfortune and crime. Those who had known
Speaker 1: her so well in Washington, might find it impossible to
Speaker 1: believe that the fascinating woman could have had murder in
Speaker 1: her heart, and would readily give ear to the current
Speaker 1: sentimentality about the temporary aberration of mind under the stress
Speaker 1: of personal calamity. Senator Dilworthy was greatly shocked, of course,
Speaker 1: but he was full of charity for the airing. We
Speaker 1: shall all need mercy, he said. Laura, as an inmate
Speaker 1: of my family, was a most exemptly female, amiable, affectionate,
Speaker 1: and truthful. Perhaps too fond of deity and neglectful of
Speaker 1: the externals of religion, but a woman of principle. She
Speaker 1: may have had experiences of which I am ignorant, but
Speaker 1: she could not have gone to this extremity if she
Speaker 1: had been in her own right mind. To the Senator's credit,
Speaker 1: be it said he was willing to help Laura and
Speaker 1: her family in this dreadful trial. She herself was not
Speaker 1: without money, for the Washington lobbyist is not seldom more
Speaker 1: fortunate than the Washington claimant, and she was able to
Speaker 1: procure a good many luxuries to mitigate the severity of
Speaker 1: her prison life. It enabled her also to have her
Speaker 1: own family near her, and to see some of them daily.
Speaker 1: The tender solicitude of her mother, her childlike grief, and
Speaker 1: her firm belief in the real guiltlessness of her daughter
Speaker 1: touched even the custodians of the tombs, who are inured
Speaker 1: to scenes of pathos. Missus Hawkins had hastened to her
Speaker 1: daughter as soon as she received money for the journey.
Speaker 1: She had no reproaches. She had only tenderness and pity.
Speaker 1: She could not shut out the dreadful facts of the case.
Speaker 1: But it had been enough for her that Laura had
Speaker 1: said in their first interview, Mother, I did not know
Speaker 1: what I was doing. She obtained lodgings near the prison
Speaker 1: and devoted her life to her daughter, as if she
Speaker 1: had been really her only child. She would have remained
Speaker 1: in the prison day and night if it had been permitted.
Speaker 1: She was aged and feeble, but this great necessity seemed
Speaker 1: to give her new life. The pathetic story of the
Speaker 1: old lady's ministrations and her simplicity and faith also gone
Speaker 1: to the newspapers in time, and probably added to the
Speaker 1: pathos of this wrecked woman's fate, which was beginning to
Speaker 1: be felt by the public. It was certain that She
Speaker 1: had champions who thought that her wrongs ought to be
Speaker 1: placed against her crime, and expressions of this feeling came
Speaker 1: to her in various ways. Visitors came to see her,
Speaker 1: and gifts of fruit and flowers were sent, which brought
Speaker 1: some cheer into her hard and gloomy cell. Laura had
Speaker 1: declined to see either Philip or Harry, somewhat to the
Speaker 1: former's relief, who had a notion that she would necessarily
Speaker 1: feel humiliated by seeing him after breaking faith with him,
Speaker 1: but to the discomfiture of Harry, who still felt her
Speaker 1: fascination and thought her refusal heartless. He told Philip that
Speaker 1: of course he had got through with such a woman,
Speaker 1: but he wanted to see her. Philip, to keep him
Speaker 1: from some new foolishness, persuaded him to go with him
Speaker 1: to Philadelphia and give his valuable services in the mining
Speaker 1: operations at Ilium. The law took its course with Laura.
Speaker 1: She was indicted for murder in the first degree and
Speaker 1: held for trial at the summer term. The two most
Speaker 1: distinguished criminal lawyers in the city had been retained for
Speaker 1: her defense, and to that the resolute woman devoted her
Speaker 1: days with a courage that rose as she consulted with
Speaker 1: her counsel and understood the methods of criminal procedure in
Speaker 1: New York. She was greatly depressed, however, by the news
Speaker 1: from Washington. Congress adjourned and her bill had failed to
Speaker 1: pass the Senate. It must wait for the next session.
Speaker 1: End of Chapter forty seven