During the delay the spectators exhibited unexampled patience, finding amusement and relief in the slightest movements of the court, the prisoner and the lawyers.  Mr. Braham divided with Laura the attention of the house.  Bets were made by the Sheriff’s deputies on the verdict, with large odds in favor of a disagreement.

It was afternoon when it was announced that the jury was coming in.  The reporters took their places and were all attention; the judge and lawyers were in their seats; the crowd swayed and pushed in eager expectancy, as the jury walked in and stood up in silence.

Judge.  “Gentlemen, have you agreed upon your verdict?”

Foreman.  “We have.”

Judge.  “What is it?”

Foreman.  “Not guilty.”

A shout went up from the entire room and a tumult of cheering which the court in vain attempted to quell.  For a few moments all order was lost.  The spectators crowded within the bar and surrounded Laura who, calmer than anyone else, was supporting her aged mother, who had almost fainted from excess of joy.

And now occurred one of those beautiful incidents which no fiction-writer would dare to imagine, a scene of touching pathos, creditable to our fallen humanity.  In the eyes of the women of the audience Mr. Braham was the hero of the occasion; he had saved the life of the prisoner; and besides he was such a handsome man.  The women could not restrain their long pent-up emotions.  They threw themselves upon Mr. Braham in a transport of gratitude; they kissed him again and again, the young as well as the advanced in years, the married as well as the ardent single women; they improved the opportunity with a touching self-sacrifice; in the words of a newspaper of the day they “lavished him with kisses.”

It was something sweet to do; and it would be sweet for a woman to remember in after years, that she had kissed Braham!  Mr. Braham himself received these fond assaults with the gallantry of his nation, enduring the ugly, and heartily paying back beauty in its own coin.

This beautiful scene is still known in New York as “the kissing of Braham.”

When the tumult of congratulation had a little spent itself, and order was restored, Judge O’Shaunnessy said that it now became his duty to provide for the proper custody and treatment of the acquitted.  The verdict of the jury having left no doubt that the woman was of an unsound mind, with a kind of insanity dangerous to the safety of the community, she could not be permitted to go at large.  “In accordance with the directions of the law in such cases,” said the Judge, “and in obedience to the dictates of a wise humanity, I hereby commit Laura Hawkins to the care of the Superintendent of the State Hospital for Insane Criminals, to be held in confinement until the State Commissioners on Insanity shall order her discharge.  Mr. Sheriff, you will attend at once to the execution of this decree.”