Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1874-07-25

The pro- AiEence given to every
teiegra' n and item of information
relatf Ag to it, shows a paucity of
ma AFsal for editorial comment AN
ap sesace of news items of the slight
'sst interest, or prurient regard Of
subjects that no man of taste would
make the topic of his breakfast-ta-
bic conversation. Take either view
of the prevailing news subject,and
the press must admit its vacuity on
the one hand, and its disgrace on
the other.
1t is q monstrous proposition
that the American mind should be
80 long stopped in its progress as
to take in and comprehend what
Tilton says Of Beecher; what Bee
cher says, or may say in reply to
Tiltcn. Who is Tilton? Who is
Beecher Have they SO impressed
themselves upon the age that no
paper can go to press unless brist-
ling with the imprint of their
names? Is all the world to hang
poised upon its axis and wait the
action of Plymouth Church? Out
! upon New York, out upon false
/ topics of editorial comments Give
/ the reading public interesting top
les for comments and thought. No
longer disgrace the press and the
| telegraph with the actions of the
prurient scandal of defaulting
churches and demoralized society.
| In the good old time when
trial was indeed trial, it was
solemn thing to be arraigned at
the bar to answer to the charge of
murder, and still more solemn was
it to listen to the sentence ofdeath
as it fell from the lips-in those
days it meant something more
than it means now; it was of fear
full significance to him who was
declared guilty of having hurried
fellow mortal into eternity-for
it spoke to him of an eternity near
at hand.
In these later days it has lost its
significance, and what was once
the end of trial is now but an
atnimportdnt chopter-a mere mat
ter of form.
| A trial has changed character.
The guilt or innocence of the pris-
oner is forgotten in the fight of OPP
posing counsel over mass
of legal technicalities-a contest
resulting too often in the
escape of the guilty man ON no
stronger ground than that tweedle-
dunn was written in the indictment
instead of tweedle-dee. And so it
has become that a criminal rests
his hope ofIife not on the evidence
in his favor, but on the wit and
shrewdness Of his counsel. A hope
which results, if not in acquittal,
in at least two and often three
trials, costing the State thousands
upon thousands, and shaking the
confidence in our courts to an ex-
tent fearful to contemplate. Wit
ness Davis, Undertook, Richard
son, and Mrs. Wharton; to these
add Strauder, and it may be, Tall
Zero,
The cause of this evil lies chiefly
with the counsel for the de-
fence. 1t is not their duty to
HELD a man from the consequences
of his crime. Nothing can be more
dangerous to the efficacy of the
criminal law than the doctrine as
now held by the defence. off my
client is proved innocent, acquit
him; if guilty let me build a wall
Of technicalitiee around TO shelter
him, for time at least, frem a
merited death.
----zzzlssas--
To the proposition girls knew
the past lives of mer they marry
there would be many more old
maids than there are" might we'll
he added-"if the world knew
more of mems secret lives there