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001 77981
003 UtSlPG
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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aPerry, Clay,
_d1887-1961
245 1 0 _aWhat's life worth?
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2026
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from the April 7, 1930 issue of The Popular magazine.
500 _aRelease date is 2026-02-20
508 _aPrepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net)
520 _aWhat's life worth? by Clay Perry is a short story written in the early 20th century. Set in a Northwoods logging town, it blends courtroom drama with a modest mystery, centering on a young woman lawyer defending a man accused of murdering a powerful lumberman. The likely topic is the search for truth and redemption amid corruption, despair, and small-town pressure. The story opens with the grim arraignment of “Watts Lifeworth,” a defiant camp hand who startlingly pleads guilty to killing Big Steve Laramie. Judge Thurman forces a not-guilty plea and, at the man’s request, assigns the town’s novice woman attorney, Mary Lee. Trusting her instincts, Mary pries past his fatalism and learns he is Billy Knowles, burdened by a life of calamities and by loyalty to his brother Jim. As Mary investigates, a visit from Ellie Knowles (Jim’s widow) and clues about a fired rifle abandoned in the rail yard reveal that Jim had confronted Laramie and later killed himself, while Billy had gone to the house carrying an unfireable gun, prepared to take the blame. Mary rekindles his will to live, and the tale closes with the clear implication that her defense prevails and Billy’s life, once deemed worthless, becomes long and meaningful. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNew York: Street & Smith Corporation, 1930
653 _aShort stories
653 _aTrials (Murder) -- Fiction
653 _aLegal stories
653 _aWomen lawyers -- Fiction
830 0 _aProduced from the April 7, 1930 issue of The Popular magazine.
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/popular-magazine-v-099-n-02-1930-03-07
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77981
999 _c118701
_d118701