He opened the case with a statement of facts. He would prove, he said,
that this mountain-ruffian was the terror of the neighborhood, in which
life was none too safe; that although this was the first time he had
been arrested, there were many other crimes which could be laid at his
door, had his neighbors not been afraid to inform upon him.
Warming up to the subject, flapping his arms aloft like a pair of wings,
he recounted, with some dramatic fervor, what he called the "lonely ride
of the tried servant of the Government over the rude passes of the
mountains," recounting the risks which these faithful men ran; then he
referred to the sanctity of the United States mails, reminding the jury
and the audience--particularly the audience--of the chaos which would
ensue if these sacred mail-bags were tampered with; "the stricken,
tear-stained face of the mother," for instance, who had been waiting for
days and weeks for news of her dying son, or "the anxious merchant
brought to ruin for want of a remittance which was to tide him over some
financial distress," neither of them knowing that at that very moment
some highwayman like the prisoner "was fattening off the result of his
theft.
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