The Checkered Game of Life (1866)

MR. CARTER:
This little boy Emil was carrying water out there for you men, and whenever
you wanted a drink he would bring it.
A. Yes Sir.
Questions:
1. Who are the principal historical actors in this document?
2. Where was Edward Rehberg on the day in question? How do you know?
3. The Rehberg family was not numbered among the “best people” in Helena
society, as a nineteenth-century commentator might say. One newspaper
account reported that the girls wore overalls and did men’s work on the ranch.
What evidence do you find in the document that social class played a role how
the lawyers, physicians, and non-family members viewed the Rehberg family,
especially its female members?
4. The majority of the witnesses and the victim were women or girls. What part
do nineteenth-century ideas about gender play in the trial?
6. Where in the document do you find evidence for nineteenth-century ideas
about childhood? What does this evidence suggest about the nineteenthcentury
view of childhood? How does Clara Rehberg measure up to these
definitions?
7. Expert testimony from a number of doctors plays a role in the trial. What
does the expert testimony contribute to both the prosecution’s and defense’s
cases?
8. In a court of law, the jury must find a defendant not guilty (remember that
“not guilty” is not the same as “innocent”) or guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
If you had been a member of the Rehberg jury in 1886, how would you have
voted in the jury deliberations—not guilty or guilty? What are the reasons for
your choice? What do you think the jury’s verdict was in 1886? What are the
reasons for your thinking?
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