He had the assistance of learned counsel. He might well be sure that all that his most devoted friend could say in wisdom for his defense will be brought forward on his trial. He was not condemned unheard. He was placed with hands unbound in the presence of a sedate tribunal—of one of the tribunals which all the organs of his creed had been maligning in their every issue; and there he was asked:
“Are you guilty, or not guilty?”
District Attorney Penney almost shouted the words at Leon Czolgosz, sitting in the county courtroom at 3 o’clock this afternoon. The assassin did not even turn his eyes toward his questioner. Two hundred auditors watched him, listening for his answer, but he did not look at any of them, and his unshaven lips were silent. He stared at the floor, and shunned the eyes of his fellow creatures.
The assassin, arrayed in clean linen for the first time since he shot the President, sat sullen before the court while the charges were being read. He looked no man in the eye. Sometimes his lips moved nervously, as if he would speak. But he only moistened them with his tongue, and with groveling eyes sat stolid and voiceless.
“Are you guilty? Answer yes or no!” thundered the district attorney, but the fair-haired monster in the chair paid no heed.
“Do you understand what has been read?” asked Mr. Penney.
For an instant the skulking glance of the assassin fixed itself upon the lawyer’s face. An immediate hush fell upon the audience. The assassin leaned forward in his chair, then dropped his eyes, then leaned back in silence.
“You have been indicted for murder in the first degree,” said Mr. Penney.
Czolgosz’s eyes wandered toward the ceiling for a second, then to the floor. Then he shifted half way round in his chair and sat mute in the face of his accuser.
Judge Loren L. Lewis, former justice of the Supreme Court, who had been assigned to the defense of the assassin by Judge Edward K. Emery, then arose and addressed the court. It was at once apparent that the duty was distasteful, but Mr. Lewis entered a plea of “Not Guilty.”