The Cheyenne Daily Leader

Ingersoll's Last Words.

Washington, May 26.—In the star route trial yesterday Ingersoll made a rapid summary of the evidence as it appeared to him, and concluded as follows: "Now, gentlemen, the responsibility is with you. The fate of these men is in your hands. In your keeping is everything they love; everything they hold dear is in your power. With this fearful responsibility you have no right to listen to the whispers of suspicion; you have no right to hearken to the promptings of fear. Beware of prejudice; look to the testimony alone. Be not convinced by the last argument. Listen not to suspicions instead of facts. Recall every argument made in this case. Put the evidence in the scale and then have the honor and manhood to say which scale goes down. We ask from you mercy in an honest verdict. That is all we ask in the verdict—your honesty. It is for you to say whether these defendants shall live with honor among their fellow citizens; whether they shall live in the free air or be taken from their wives, from their children, from their firesides, from all they hold most dear. It is for you to say whether they shall be clothed with honor or with shame; whether their days shall set without a single star in all the sky of eternal night; whether they shall be branded as criminals—after all they have suffered, after they have been pursued by the government as no defendant before have been pursued. It is for you to say whether their homes shall be blasted by lightning—by a false verdict. You must say whether their future shall be one of agony, grief and tears. Nothing beneath the stars of heaven is so profoundly sad as the wreck of a human being. Nothing is so profoundly mournful as a home covered with shame. Nothing is as infinitely sad as a thing that shall cast a stain upon children yet unborn. It is for you to say whether this shall be such a verdict or one in accordance with law and facts. The prosecution is heated with the chase; they are excited by the hunt, but I will say that in the end they will be a thousand times better pleased with a verdict of not guilty than with what they ask. They would enjoy their victory; they would like success, and they would have you give to those aspirations greater weight than to homes and wives and children. I want a verdict that will relieve my clients from the agony of two long years; that will lift from them the cloud; a verdict that will fill their coming days and nights with joy, a verdict that will fill their minds with a sense of joy and gratitude forever to you, one and all."

Many ladies were weeping quietly when Ingersoll sat down and all the spectators were visibly affected. The defense here rested and court adjourned until Monday.