“Some of the prisoners seemed to like to go to church; some acted as if they understood all about it, and wanted to do better, and some of ‘em seemed to go so as to get out of their cells. Anyhow I s’pose the people that run the jail thought ‘twas a good thing and believed it was all so. But I know one feller that killed a man—he was kind of half-witted—and was tried the same as the rest of us when they had that crusade against crime. Of course they sentenced him to death. He got religion and used to pray all the time, and used to talk religion to all the rest of the fellers, and ever’one said that he was really sorry and was fully converted and was as pure as a little child. But they took him out and hung him anyway. It don’t quite seem as if they believed what the preacher said themselves, or they wouldn’t hang a feller when he’s turned right, and when God was goin’ to treat him like all the rest after he gets to heaven.
“When I went back to my cell, I begun thinkin’ about what I’d do. Of course I knew you can’t get any show without a lawyer, and I knew that I might just as well not have any as to have one that wa’n’t smart. I didn’t know any lawyer except the one that charged me ten dollars for nothin’, and of course I wouldn’t have him. But one of the guards was kind of nice and friendly to me and I thought I’d ask him. He told me that gettin’ a lawyer was a pretty hard matter. Of course, my case was a celebrated one, and would advertise a lawyer, but the best ones didn’t need no advertisin’ and the others wa’n’t no good. He told me that Groves was the best fighter, but it wa’n’t no use to try to get him for he’d got more’n he could do, and most of his time was took up prosecutin’ people for stealin’ coal from the railroads, except once in a while when some rich banker or politician got into trouble. Then he took a good slice of what he’d got saved up. I asked him ‘bout some others and he told me the same story of all the rest that amounted to anything. I told him I hadn’t got no money, and I thought the horse and wagon and furniture was took on the chattel-mortgage before this, and he said he s’posed the court would have to appoint someone and I might just about as well defend myself.
“Monday mornin’ they come to the jail and told me I had to go before the judge. I didn’t s’pose ‘twould come so soon, for I knew somethin’ about how slow the courts was. You remember when Jimmy Carroll was killed by the railroad? Well, that’s more’n three years ago, and the case ha’n’t been tried yet. I was su’prised and didn’t know what to do, but there wa’n’t much to do. They come after me and I had to go; so I put on my coat and vest and they han’-cuffed me to a couple of guards, and took me through some alleys and passages and over some bridges inside the buildin’, and first thing I knew they opened a door and I came into a room packed full of people, and the judge settin’ up on a big high seat with a desk in front of him, and lookin’ awful solemn and kind of scareful. As soon as I stepped in there was a buzz all over the room, and ever’body reached out their necks, and kind of got up on their chairs and looked at me. The guards took off my han’-cuffs and set me down in a chair ‘side of a big table. And then one of ‘em set back of me and another one right to my side.
“They waited a few minutes till ever’one got still, and then some feller got up and spoke to the judge and said ‘People against Jackson.’ The judge looked at me and said, just as solemn and hard as he could, ‘Jackson, stand up.’ Of course I done what he said, and then he looked the same way and said, ‘Are you guilty or not guilty?’ Of course I was kind of scared before all of them people; I’d never been called up in a crowd before, except a few times when I said a few words in the union where I knew all the boys. But these people were all against me, and anyhow it was an awful hard place to put a feller, so I stood still a minit tryin’ to think what I ought to say, and whether someone was there that I could talk to. Finally the judge spoke up and says, ‘The prisoner pleads not guilty.’ ‘Jackson, have you a lawyer?’ and then I said: ‘I hain’t got no lawyer.’ Then he asked if I wanted him to appoint one, and I told him I wished he would. He asked me who I’d have. Of course I thought I could choose anyone I wanted, so I said Groves. Then he laughed and ever’one else laughed, and he said he guessed Groves had too much to do to bother with me. So I chose one or two more names I’d heard of, and he said none of ‘em would do it neither. Then he said he’d give me till tomorrow to make up my mind who I wanted, and he told the bailiff to take me back to jail. So they put the han’-cuffs on and we went back through the alleys and over the bridges to the jail. When I got to my cell I asked the guard what he thought I ought to do about a lawyer, and he said that lots of lawyers had give him their cards and asked him to hand them to the prisoners and told him they would divide the fee, if they got any. They mostly wa’n’t much good for the business. He said there was one young feller who seemed pretty smart, but he hadn’t never had a case, but he’d probably work hard to get his name up. I told him that it didn’t seem as if a lawyer ought to commence on a case like mine, and he said that wouldn’t make any difference, most of the murder cases was defended by lawyers that was just startin’. There wa’n’t hardly anyone who was tried but was too poor to have a good lawyer. Then I told him to send me the young lawyer, and he did.
“The lawyer wa’n’t a bad feller, and he seemed interested in the case, and was the first person I’d seen since I done it who wanted to help me. Of course I could see he was new at the business, like one of them green-horns that comes in the yards the first time and brings a stick to couple cars with; but I liked his face and seen he was honest. It didn’t seem quite fair, though, that I should have a lawyer that hadn’t never had a case. I didn’t believe they’d take a young feller who was just out of a medicine-college and set him to cut off a leg all by himself, the first thing, or even take a country-jake and let him kill steers at the stock-yards, but I didn’t see no way to help it, and I thought mebbe if I didn’t take him I’d do worse instead of better. He asked me all about the case and seemed disappointed when I told him how it was; he said he was afraid there wa’n’t much show, unless he claimed insanity. I told him I didn’t see how he could make out that I was crazy; that I thought self-defense or somethin’ like that would be better. He said he’d think it over till tomorrow, and talk with some of the professors at the college, and be in court in the mornin’. The next day they come for me right after breakfast, and put on the han’-cuffs and took me to court again. The same kind of a crowd was there as the day before, and I was pretty badly scart; but my lawyer was at the table with me, and he spoke to me real friendly, and that made me feel a little better. Then the judge called the case, and asked if I had a lawyer, and my lawyer spoke up and said he was goin’ to defend me; so the judge said all right, and asked if the other side was ready. They said they was, and that they wanted the case tried right off. Then the judge asked my lawyer if he was ready and he said ‘no,’ that he’d just come into the case and hadn’t had no chance to get it ready. Then the lawyer on the other side said that I was notified yesterday that I must be ready today and I didn’t have anything to do but get ready; that they wanted to try it now; that next week he wanted to go to a picnic, and the week after to a convention, and it must be done now; then, there had been so many murders that no one was safe in Chicago, and the whole public was anxious to see the case tried at once. Besides there wa’n’t any defense. I had killed her and run away, and wa’n’t entitled to any consideration.
“My lawyer said it wouldn’t be right to put me on trial without a chance to defend myself, that I couldn’t get away yesterday to look up witnesses, and I had a right to a reasonable time; that he wanted at least four weeks to prepare the case. This seemed to make the judge mad. He said there wa’n’t no excuse for any delay, but as this was such a clear case he wanted to give me every chance he could, so he would continue till next Monday. Then I was took back to the jail, and my lawyer met me over there and I told him ever’ place I went the day I done it, and ever’one I saw, and all about her, and what she’d done to make me mad, and he said he’d go out himself and look it up, and do what he could, but he was ‘fraid there wa’n’t no chance. The papers had said so much and the citizens had got up a Crime Committee, and ever’one who was tried either went to the penitentiary or got hung.
“Ever’day the lawyer would come and ask me something ‘bout the case, and tell me what he’d found out. He said he couldn’t get any witnesses to say anything; that the man where I got the beefsteak was ‘fraid to come and testify; that someone had been there from the State’s Attorney’s office and most scart him to death, and he was ‘fraid of gettin’ into trouble and gettin’ mixed up with it himself, and anyway he didn’t see as he’d do the case any good if he came. He said he couldn’t find anything that helped him a bit. He’d been to the house, but the poker and everything that would do any good had been taken by the state, and he didn’t know which way to turn. He kep’ comin’ back to my insanity, and asked me if any of my parents or grand-parents, or uncles or aunts or cousins, or anyone else was crazy. I told him I didn’t know anything ‘bout them but I didn’t think it was any use to try that. I knew what I was doin’, all right. Then he told me if I had a hundred dollars he could get a good doctor to swear I was crazy; but I hadn’t any hundred dollars of course, and besides I never thought ‘twould do much good. So I told him that he wa’n’t to blame for it, and to just do the best he could, and I’d be satisfied whichever way it went. I didn’t expect much myself anyhow. He said he’d have me plead guilty and the judge would most likely give me a life-sentence, only since this crusade against crime the judges dassent do that; there was so much said about it in the newspapers, and they was all ‘fraid of what the papers said. He told me that he didn’t believe it was anything more than second-degree murder anyhow, but there wa’n’t any chance now, the way public opinion was.
“I begun to get pretty well acquainted with the prisoners in the jail and some of ‘em was real nice and kind and wanted to do all they could to help ever’one that was in trouble. Of course some of ‘em was pretty desp’rate, and didn’t seem to care much for anything. Then there was some that had been in jail ten and fifteen times, and been in the penitentiary, and ever’where, and just as soon as they got out they got right back in again; they didn’t seem to learn anything by goin’ to prison, and it didn’t seem to do them any hurt. They said they’d just as soon be there as anywhere else.
“But one thing I noticed a good deal that I never thought anything about until that feller come and spoke, that was how that the outsiders was really the ones that got punished the worst. It was sickenin’ to see how some of them poor women would cry and take on because their man was in jail, and how they’d work and scrub night and day and nearly kill themselves to earn money to get him out; and then the little children that come to see their fathers, how they’d stay out of school and work in the packin’-houses and laundries and do anything for a little money to help them out. Hones’ly I believe if anyone stays ‘round here for a week he’ll see that the people that ain’t done nothin’ is punished a good deal more’n the others. Why, there was one awful pretty-lookin’ girl used to come here to see her father, and the fellers told me that she was studyin’ music or somethin’ like that, and her father was put in jail on a fine, and she came here to see him every day, and done all she could to earn the money to get him out, but she couldn’t do it, and finally she went into one of them sportin’ houses down on Clark Street, and lived there long enough to get the money. I don’t know, of course, whether it’s so, but I don’t see why not. Lots of the girls go to the department stores and laundries and stock-yards and they ain’t much harder places on a girl’s health. Anybody’ll do everything they can to earn money to save anyone they care for.
“Well, the week went away pretty fast. I didn’t s’pose ‘twas so hard to get a case continued. You know that Carroll case? You remember we quit our work four or five times and lost our pay, and the judge continued it just because the lawyer had somethin’ else to do. But I knew ‘twouldn’t be no use for me to try to get mine continued any more. And I didn’t care much. I was gettin’ so I’d just about as soon be done with it as not, and still I was pretty sure I’d be hung.