Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/285

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"Well, dearie, we must make the best of it, anyway. Cheer up, little girl, everything will come out all right."

The members of the Thaw family were low in spirits, especially when they heard that the keeper of the prisoners' room had said:

"The judge's cold-blooded charge has scared Harry half to death. He has finally been made to realize what he is 'up against.'"

The charge of Justice Fitzgerald was as follows:


"Gentlemen of the Jury, it now becomes my duty to give you such instructions as are necessary to enable you to perform your duty as jurors and to define for your information the legal principles by which you are to be governed in reaching your conclusion of the evidence.

"It is particularly gratifying to me that you were selected by the people and the defense as fair-minded men, after the examination of 337 men and the peremptory challenges on each side had been exhausted. The care with which you were severally selected to ascertain the condition of mind of each of you as an impartial juror must have impressed you with the spirit of justice. It must have impressed you with that spirit of justice with which the statutes regulating the acts of the orderly are governed.

"The admonition so frequently given at the close of the sessions of this trial were given in accordance with the law, that you might remain impartial. Let me impress on you the importance of the issue you are to decide.

"The life of the deceased was in the protection of the law and had been taken by the defendant. And the defendant is here to answer to the law for that.

"You must take the law absolutely from the court, but