FUGITIVE OF LOVE

    “She might well be considered controlled by her husband,  in yielding the aid she did, to the murder; and although her conduct was deeply criminal, probably the ends of public justice would be better served, by punishing her for the minor offense than in exposing her to a public and infamous death”- Samuel R. Betts, for the People

    

      I’m struggling through scholarly papers like The Theory of Solutions, and the high school textbook Experiments With Plants, written by botanist/physiologist Dr. Winthrop Jon Van Leuvan Osterhout; trying to get a grasp on the significance of electrical conductivity in plant and frog cells. Like the blind doctor, “Ma” Van Vliet Jennings, and my father, I also have glaucoma, and may go blind. It’s in our D.N.A. I don’t understand it, but I can accept it. Having no scientific background whatsoever I’m completely out of my depth with the family scientist, who shares my disease. But, I can appreciate his intellect purely on an esthetic level of life, death, and genetics. Due to my specific Osterhout, Jennings and Van Vliet genes my eyesight is failing. I don’t have to be too smart to see that.

Sarah Lobdell sworn

By Mr. Price:

Q. Did you see Jack Hodges on the Sat. before the body of Mr. Jennings was found?

A. About the middle of the day there was a black man, apparently drunk, came to my door, and fell down there and lay near an hour. My children told me it was Jack Hodges.

   Just to make sure Jack was really leaving town, Teed borrowed Conklin’s plow horse and headed out in search of their hired assassin, hoping to move Hodges along towards the city. Just before sunset Teed overtook Jack walking slowly just outside of town. He chastised him for being too drunk, too slow, and too lazy. Ordering him to follow his horse, he picked up the pace, spinning in the saddle to make sure Jack was moving. Jack reluctantly obeyed, going at a half-hearted trot, hoping Teed had no inkling of what had been going on with Hannah. When the horse went out of sight, turning a corner, Jack relaxed the pace. 

    The sailor’s head still pounded, and he wanted nothing more than to be rid of all these land creatures; man and beast alike. He could easily follow the big horse’s shoes, eventually finding Conklin’s mount hitched outside the Yellow Tavern in the north end of Newburgh. The ferry was visible from the hill above the snake infested swamp, and sinking Colden docks. Jack went into the bar, trying not to make eye contact with anyone at the tables. James Teed turned as Jack entered. He asked for a glass of bitters and was told by the large bartender that they didn’t serve any alcohol on the Sabbath. (It was Tuesday.) Jack looked around the dimly lit room, spotted James Teed and noticed every other white man in the bar with a mug in his hand and jug on the table. The bartender scowled, and pointed to the door. There wasn’t much else to say. Jack Hodges left thirsty, finding a friendly bed with a black man over on Water Street.

Jack Hodges sworn

By Atty. Gen. m. Van Buren:

Q. Did not Teed speak to you in the tavern?

A. He looked over his shoulder at me two or three times, but did not speak.

     The next morning, once on the eastern shore of the river at Beacon, Jack took the stage road over the mountain to another Lobdell’s Tavern (a relative of Sarah Lobdell in Goshen). There he asked for the best way to get to New York City. The bartender said he thought there was a wood sloop leaving that very day from Cold Spring Landing and if Jack hurried he might get lucky, and work his passage into town. Jack caught the sloop before it was half loaded, pitched in on the dock work, and hitched a ride into the city for his labors. He stood the late watch and arrived just before dawn, because of the heavy ice. On Thursday morning he helped unload the cargo and showed his letter to the captain who said he knew the street but not the man. Then the captain passed Jack a jug and a tea kettle and asked him to go to shore for water, rum and sugar. I know we’ve been here before, but I wanted to let Charlie put it in his own words.

Charles B. Durland sworn

By the D.A.:

Q. When you had taken Jack before the police what was done with him?

A. He was sent to Bridewell. The keeper of Bridewell searched him and took his pocket book. He found $6.76 and a letter. When I got on board the sloop I read the letter, and when I arrived in Goshen I gave it to Judge Seward.

Q. When did you leave NY?

A. On Thurs. on a Peekskill sloop to Haverstraw, and arrived the next day Jan. 1^st.

Q. Did you use any inducements by promises or threats to make him confess to you?

A. No, except that I told him that if he was guilty, he had better confess the whole truth.

Q. Did you tell Jack that Dunning had brought him out?

A. I told Jack that there was no use in denying it, for Dunning had said “that Jack told him he had killed Jennings and a better man before him.”

    Smart. Stupid. Blind. Sighted. The alien organism, like the algae Dr. Osterhout was so fond of studying, lives, expands, dies….loves? The dead snake drifts sideways through a powerful recollection. With Dick gone, Jack’s life changed in ways nobody could have predicted. Death has a way of doing that. Now it was the olfactory memory of the musket smoke eating at him; like salt on the slug’s back- physiology!