Watertown Republican

Testing Her Innocence.
The following touching scene recently occurred in a court of justice in Paris: A poor pale seamstress was arraigned for theft. She appeared at the bar with her baby of eleven months on her arm. She went to get some work one day, and stole three gold coins of ten francs each. The money was missed soon after she left her employer, and a servant was sent to her room to claim it. The servant found her about to quit the room with the three gold coins in her hand. She said to the servant, 'I was going to carry them back to you.' Nevertheless, she was carried to the commissioner of police, and he ordered her to be sent before the Police Court for trial. She was too poor to engage a lawyer, and when asked by the judge what she had to say for herself, she answered: 'The day I went to my employer's I carried my child with me. It was in my arms as it is now. I was not paying attention to it. There were several coins on the mantlepiece, and unknown to me, it stretched out its little hand and seized three pieces, which I did not observe until I got home. I at once put on my bonnet, and was going back to my employer to return them, when I was arrested. This is the solemn truth, and I hope for heaven's mercy.' The court could not believe this story. They upbraided the mother for her impudence in endeavoring to palm off such a manifest lie for the truth. They besought her, for her own sake, to retract so absurd a tale, for it could have no effect but to oblige the court to sentence her to a much severer punishment than they were disposed to inflict on one so young, and evidently so deep in poverty. These appeals had no effect, except to strengthen the poor mother's pertinacious adherence to her original story. As this firmness was sustained by that look of innocence which the most adroit criminal can never counterfeit, the judge was at some loss to discover what decision justice demanded. To relieve their embarrassment, one of the judges proposed to renew the scene described by the mother. Three gold coins were placed on the clerk's table. The mother was requested to assume the position in which she stood at her employer's house. There was then a breathless pause in court. The baby soon discovered the bright coins, eyed them for a moment, smiled, and then stretched for its tiny hand and clutched them in its fingers with a miser's eagerness. The mother was at once acquitted.