A BARRISTER’S REWARD.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 601, 23 May 1876, Page 3

A BARRISTER’S REWARD.

Miss Annie Connett, a pretty girl of 14 yeais, evas tried for burglary, in the Court of Special Sessions, at Elizabeth, United States. It evas alleged that the prisoner had broken into a house in the night-time to steal some 11101103'. The court-room evas packed. The youth and beauty of the defendant, the gravity of the alleged offence, and the novelty of the case, combined to produce a poeverful impression upon the spectators. |Mr W. B. Max- -n, an old Californian lawyer, defended the prisoner. Ho spoke of the promising life of his client in the past, her spotless reputation, her position, her associations, and of the impossibility of so sudden a descent through all the gradations of crime to the level of the midnight burglar and robber. ‘Jurymen,’ said he, ‘ you have arraigned before you a child just bursting from the bud of infancy and opening into the blossom of youth, who for live years has been a constant attendant at church and at Sunday-school, and a fol lower of Him who has said “Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” Gentlemen of the jury, I leave the child in 3'our hands ! It is for you to say whether her presence shall again gladden the hearts of her father and

mother, the music of her voice he again heard in the song of the Sabbath-school, her joyous laugh again be blended with that of her associates and companions, or whether all the bright possibilities of her young life shall be blasted in a moment by a verdict that shall consign her to a felon’s doom.’ As the lawyer concluded, with bowed head and in earnest tones, the effect was electrical. Half the jurymen were in tears. The jury retired, but almost instantly returned. ‘ Not guilty,’ exclaimed the foreman, in a loud voice, aud the spectators burst into tumultuous applause. A throng, including attorneys and the clerk, gathered round the girl with congratulations. Among them was Mr Maxon ; and as the child was holding tne hand of her defender the mother said, ‘ Why don’t you kiss him, Anna, he’s done so well for you?’ The child looked around at the audience, and, though half abashed by the multitude of faces, suddenly turned and exclaimed, ‘ I don’t care, I will,’ and she thiow her arms about the lawyer’s neck aud kissed him again and again.