The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of HimFord, Paul Leicester
General
The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him
Ford, Paul Leicester
Labor movement -- Fiction; Love stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Political fiction; Tenement houses -- Fiction
Peter had kept his clients informed as to his struggles, and they were
tremendously proud of the big battle and ultimate success, as indeed
were the residents of the whole district, who felt that it was really
their own case. Then the politicians were furious and excited over it,
while the almost unexampled act of the Governor had created a good deal
of public interest in the case. So the court was packed and the press
had reporters in attendance. Since the trial was fully reported, it is
needless to go over the testimony here. What Peter could bring out, is
already known. The defence, by “experts,” endeavored to prove that the
cowsheds were not in a really unhygienic condition; that feeding cows
on “mash” did not affect their milk, nor did mere “skin sores;” that
the milk had been sold by mistake, in ignorance that it was thirty-six
hours old, and skimmed; and that the proof of this particular milk
being the cause of the deaths was extremely inadequate and doubtful.
The only dramatic incident in the testimony was the putting the two
little Dooleys (who had returned in fat and rosy condition, the day
before) on the stand.
“Did you find country milk different from what you have here?” Peter
asked the youngest.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “Here it comes from a cart, but in the country it
squirts from a cow.”
“Order,” said the judge to the gallery.
“Does it taste differently?”
“Yes. It’s sweet, as if they put sugar in it. It’s lovely I like cow
milk better than cart milk.”
“Damn those children!” said Dummer, to the man next him.
The event of the trial came, however, when Peter summed up. He spoke
quietly, in the simplest language, using few adjectives and no
invective. But as the girl at the Pierces’ dinner had said, “he
describes things so that one sees them.” He told of the fever-stricken
cows, and he told of the little fever-stricken children in such a way
that the audience sobbed; his clients almost had to be ordered out of
court; the man next Dummer mopped his eyes with his handkerchief; the
judge and jury thoughtfully covered their eyes (so as to think the
better); the reporters found difficulty (owing to the glary light), in
writing the words despite their determination not to miss one; and even
the prisoner wiped his eyes on his sleeve. Peter was unconscious that
he was making a great speech; great in its simplicity, and great in its
pathos. He afterwards said he had not given it a moment’s thought and
had merely said what he felt. Perhaps his conclusion indicated why he
was able to speak with the feeling he did. For he said:
“This is not merely the case of the State _versus_ James Goldman. It is
the case of the tenement-house children, against the inhumanity of
man’s greed.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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