The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-03-03

runaa,.x MnaNrva -. MARCH lsa.
rna Stektes Case.


The ste kites Case.
Thu Washington correspondents OF some OF ''e
,s.dcs New York journals draw the most romar'
Tic pietures Of Mira Sickiss, the young vie % ""
man who killed Mr. Key, and Who IL painted a. ~
.....n.,,.n ~ xou,hfnl innocence and beauty
un,,, the spoiler came, and hresthea up,"
.nn,,.., rs,ura that deadly venom WHICH nv
h,i,h,sa every leaf Of purity and w''he'ea e.e',
hr6 ~ nrom,sa The poetic strains 10 WhS" ''eee
80. ,tun,,,S.Ias rayish the listening air are
,.,u.s...h,x nlaiptiye aod sesi sabauing. We
.u,,,nd.5 q, the orations Of Mr.. Charles Phia-
It,. t,nti,sr TO all schooiboys OF twenty years
AGO IN conducting civil snits for damages IN the
rr,.s coarts ia csses Of Grim. con, The high
neral tone which pervades these Washington
s,.stss ia as delightful their imaginative VEIN
The correspondent of the New York Times sur
masses all others In the wildness of his romance
aid the nobieness Of his sentiments. lie paints
youthful Eve, beguiled by serpent; he arrays the
aerpent In the most brilliant and seductive coiors'
With tongue IS full Of sof.ne.s as Of venom' ana
an eye whose Internal destinations might lure an
angel from Its sparkling sphere In shor'''he "no'e
event Is converted intoa sensation article LOT thc
million, out much regard 10 the ec'ua STATE g
facts aud none a. ell for the good OF society,
which Il 10 be humbusged eyeo in she graahcation
Of jts morbid curiosity by veneering over vulgar
crime with an imitation fpo'ish and virtue.
Seine Of the New York papers give more pro-
ssic account Of this vile intrigue and CT the de-
based criminals. Some of them assert that Mrs.
Sickles from period as early as her marriage,
vas an object Of suspicion, and that the intimacy
with Mr.. Key il not the first circumstance which
has given rise to unfavorabie opinions Of her char
acter. Concerning Mr.. Sickles himself, We find
the following 10 the n. Y. Post;
The proyocstion which Sickles alleges, was the
criminal intimacy of Key with his wife. The
friends Of Key, il is said deny the CHARGE but the
accounts from Washington affirm that Mrs Sickles
has fully acknowie iged her guilt. We should not
wonder i. this were true. Mrs. Sckies mar
red 70 her husband at n time when she was not yet
out of girlhood, and she is even now but twenty
two years of age. The character Of the husband
too often corrupts tba: of the wife particularly at
the impressbie period OF early youth. "Curses,"
it Is said In the old proverb, ''come home 10
roost: and so, IL may be said with equal 'rGth, do
adulteries Sickles was excluded from decent 80
oety In this city long ago; and i. would be almost
a miracle, it, in the school 70 which he took his
young wife, with her character yet uniformed. sho
should have preserved her Innocence.
All this, even if true, is no excavation for Key;
death either by the requirements ofaw or the hand
Of private vengeance, is the only adequate pun
fshment Of such crime The character OF Sickies,
dark az IL may be- does not lessen the enormity OF
Keys offence, but it may well diminish the sym
pathies Of the public with Sickcs, and it brings
ont all the bedsubed and tineelled actors Of this
tragedy from the glare of the fooiishts, ard de-
urives each and all Of any special claim 10 the
admiration, OF even the wonder OF the multitude.
LAS TOR Mrs. sckles," says the Washington CORES
pondsnt Of the Petersburg inteNVsRcfr "ihe less
said about her the better. As for Mr.. Sickles, it
would be impossible within the compass OF an
ordinary letter to recount the various peccadioes
OF his disgraceful career"
This adulterous aud bloody affair has been i'm
proved" las the Puritsns were wont to say of
texts of scripturs,) by grave and wholesome res
nectians In the New York papers, upon the Sire
aueut occurrences of female fraiity' in this
country meaning by country, the city of New
York, which Is generally mistaken by its jour.
palsts for the whole United States. Some attri-
butte the assn med fact to the idleness of the mos
deyn lady, and others to the temptations of mo.
dsrn fashionable life. The fact does not exist, in
the fret place, and the cause of crime when j. is
found. 10 deeper than our philosophers conjecture
In the large cities, where wealth is suddenly ac~
ouired. and the leaders of society bring TO the
apex Of the social pyramid, neither virtue, refine
ment, nor education occasional lapses from female
virtue ought not TO be more matter Of surprise
than if they had occurred before the criminals had
acquired the means TO plate vice with goli''
Neither the new-maGe upper ten Of New York
nor the aristocracy ef any other country, have
ever been models of virtue and propriety; but it
Is a gross breach of charity aud truth to judge
our country.womeu at large, or the women 10
general, of any civilized country under Heaven,
by the conduct OF q few vain, selfsh, depraved
shame upon their husbands, aud anguish and
blood into the households of the men they have
led to the slaughter without adding the greater
mischief of involving the pure, gentle and eleva
ted women of the land 10 the scandal Of their owI
infainy.