Liberal Republican. [volume] (Dallas, Or.) 1872-1???, 1873-02-15
A RUINED FAMILY.
The Career OF Edward
Stiles Stokes His Tel
ativeS and Victims.
A Sad Tale of Domestic Shame and
Sorrow.

The other day, there sat by our elbow
in the Tribune iitorial room yoang
man stained with a deliberate crime,
whose consequences. if pursued, would
land him in the Pcnitentiary. He had
10 defense for his guilt Bat the case
was one surrounded with circumstances
which made it the interest OF other
parties to save rather than prosecute
hun, and he was anxious to close all the
news channels against exposure. He
made touching appeal in behalf of his
farther and mother, his wife and children
" Think how you will plunge all my
relatives in grief? This same appeal
is often made by those overtaken in
wrong. doing. What is more irresistible
than the direct counter appeal; " IoaHg
man, arhy dill you not think of them
yomseR Why ask strangers to be more
marcifu to these lo"el ones than ne the
ouly one who could have saved them
The saddcst of ali features in all the
cases of the calender Of wrong dong is
the undcscryed sufarin, of the inno-
cent ones who set ericf-strcken in the
pcnumhra of a great crime. The ofTcn-
der caculated his chances, took the
risk, anl saw the clou1 above his head
They, on the contrary, in many cases,
receive the bolt ont Of the clear sky.
no small part of the accumua:ei guilt
of most criminals in this antecedent
utter disregard Of the tender household
tics that should hold them in the way Of
right, instead Of which they are kept
coilcd on beard as n last resort in case Of
shipwreek
Without further moralizing we have
thought that, though the task il no great
ful one the career of +. S Stokes, now
under sentence OF death Tor the murder
Of James Fisk, may be fully given as
illustrating how deeply great crime
strikes among the inloccnt victims, and
that wealth, culture, and stand
ing are 10 safcgalI against the sadlcst
vicissitules of human experience II
is rare that reference Of this kind in
cludcs sufferers Of like. high prominence,
for there are no better names IN New
York or Philadelphia than those born
by persons in this catastrophe.
In the year 1893, i, II Stokes a
successful cloth merchant Of New York
and nearly connected with some Of the
most prominent representatives Of the
wealth and benedrencc of that city, re-
tired from business with a handsome
competency Eight years previously
he bad married Miss Stiles, a daughter
Of leading Philadelphia and seeking a
home Of ease and elegance, Mr. Stok es
chose Philadelphia as his future icsi-
dence. There his eldest son was born
in 1880, and named Edward Stiles after
maternal relative. The lad was a
boy of unusual beauty and promise, a
quick active mind "A generous and loving
disposition-thcse traits being remem
bered we'll after the lapse Of years by
those who knew him at that time
Two daughters aud two other sons were
born in the the period between 1910
and 1850, The family is recalled as
! being rarely endowed with all that
seemed needed to insure the happiness
of household. The home was one of
wealth and luxury, the culture of the
| best.
Edward was educated at the Univer-
sity, and took high rank as a scholar.
He went to New York at the age of
seventeen, to enter into the store of
Samuel Perry, on South Water Street
an extensive cheese dealer. Perry
failed three years later, and young
Stokes made new partnership with a
junior of the collapsed house and they
As Stokes and Budlong opened cheese
store on Vescy street. They had ex
acllent success, their foreign shipping