PATRICK'S FIGHT FOR LIFE.
Mark Twain Signs His Petition for Clemency--New Counsel Engaged.
Each day sees additional names of well-known citizens added to the petition to be forwarded to Gov. Higgins, asking clemency for Albert T. Patrick, the lawyer now under death sentence at Sing Sing for the murder of William Marsh Rice. His death is fixed for the week of Jan. 22.
As the time approaches for the carrying out of the sentence, Patrick, according to those who have seen him in the last few days, seems to have lost some of the equanimity which has characterized his attitude in the three years or more he has occupied a cell in the death house at Sing Sing. He seems to be undergoing a terrific mental strain, fully realizing that desperate efforts on his own part and the part of his friends may save him from the chair.
The condemned man, as a result of the illness of David B. Hill, his counsel, in this emergency has retained A. C. Shenstone and ex-Senator Lindsay to make the final legal fight. When his wife called at the prison, yesterday, he gave her some urgent instructions, an she hurried away to consult his new counsel.
It is said that Patrick will now apply for a writ of error to the Supreme Court. If it is granted the writ will act as a stay. In the event of its being refused, it is said that he will ask the Governor for a stay of thirty days in which to prepare an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
Among the latest names added to the petition are those of Samuel L. Clemens, (Mark Twain,) Dr. W. Gilman Thompson of the Cornell Medical College; Dr. John A. Wyeth, Dr. L. Bolton Bangs, consulting surgeon to St. Luke's Bellevue, St. Vincent's and St. Mark's Hospitals; Dr. Austin Flint, Professor of Physiology in the Cornell Medical College, and David Belasco.
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