The gentleman's reasoning was not very cogent, but, what he lacked in
logic, he made up in bitter denunciation of Mulock, who, according to
his showing, was a little blacker than the prime minister of the lower
regions.
As he took his seat, Larkin rose, and, addressing himself to both the
jury and the multitude, spoke, as near as I can recollect, as follows:
'Gintlemen, this yere sort o' bis'ness is out uv my line. I'm not used
ter speechifyin', an' I may murder whot's called good English; but I'd a
durned sight ruther murder _thet_, then ter joodiciously, or ary other
how, murder a human bein'; an' it's my private 'pinion _ye'll_ murder
Mulock, ef ye bring him in guilty uv death.
'A man hain't no right ter take human life, 'cept in self-defence. Even
ef Mulock was so bad as this loryer feller tries ter make him out--but
he hain't, 'cause 'tain't in natur for a man ter be wuss than th' devil
himself--ye'd hev no right to stop his breath. Ye didn't guv it ter him;
it doan't b'long ter ye, an' th' lor doan't 'low ye ter take what hain't
your'n. Ef ye does, it's stealin', an' I knows thet none on the
gintlemen uv the jury ar so allfired mean as ter steal--'ticularly ter
steal whot woan't be uv no sort o' use ter 'em, nohow.
'The loryer yere, hes spread hisself on Mulock's motive fur doin' this
thing; 'sistin' thet fur seventeen yar he's ben a nussin'
suthin--nussin' it as keerfully as a mother nusses her chil'ren. Now,
young 'uns gin'rally walks when they's 'bout a yar old; but this one
thet Mulock's ben a nussin' didn't git 'round till it wus seventeen; an'
I reckon a bantlin' thet karn't gwo alone afore it's thet age, woan't
never do much hurt ter nobody.
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