The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1878-07-04
KATE sOTH ERN.
A Mater. .Of.FaeI Account or the Crime
lOr Which She is suffering.

We give in this paper the evidence
elected in the much-tAlKed OF trial OF
Kate SOthern, 1t differs as much as
light and darkness from the sensation
al accounts we have been reading In
certain correspondence. There is
nothing in the scenes, the surround
ings, nor the Incidents to CLEAN tithe
OF romance. The whole was q fight
between two women, while the gal
liant Bob SOthern and the rest looked
on. They were all very ignorant
people. Kate and ber sister both
centered on "Slsn COwart. There IL
no evidence that the men present
tried to part the combatsnts, nor does
there appear to have been such q
scene as the sentimental writers pic
tuTe OF Bob with pistol in hand
forcing Ksts's way through q
crowd. All that was the imagination
OF q fancy sketcher. Kate Sothern Is
not pretty even. She is OF medium
height, about twenty years Of age, and
has dark brown hair, and the twang
of North Georgia cracker. She Is
very ignorant, can hardly read and
write, and Bob is worse educated than
she. Kate Is passably goOd-loOking,
and wears imitation Jet. She says
the witnesses sWOre lies against her /;
that she acted In self-defense that
she cannot dance, and that night at
her fathers was the "fust time she
ever seed q real rum" She Is now on
the plantation of Colonel Smith, In
Washington county, and will be en-
plOyed in the household, cooking and
washing for the cOnVicts who work
on the plantation. The siX-mOnths'
"bAby" is sIck-teething-and that
now requires most Of her time. She
says no money has been sent to her
from the North. Her health Is bad.
Her sixteen-year-Old sister, sen.
fenced to two years as an accessory to
KSte's crime, has been In Colonel
Smiths house as q servant. She Is
handsome, end has been taught 70
read and write by her kind mistress.
On her fathers farm she worked in
the field, and drove an OK to the
plOw. Her sentence has proved 3
blessing.
Bob Sothern Is nothing but strong,
gOOd-lOoking animal-a common, ig-
nOrant bOOr. He Is now q guard to
cOnvicts on the same plantation. The
woman Kate killed WAS on par with
the rest.
On reading this evidence one feels
utterly disgusted with the amount Of
sentimental twaddl6 that has been
expended on the case. Not . scintil-
Ia can be obtained to excite a single
expression OF admiration. Why, the
parties surrendered themselves 10 get
the reward, and the understanding
was that Kate's mother was to get
$50 of the money. Where even 3
fertile fancy could extract anything
of a romance from an aIrOoiOus crime
we cannot imagine.
We do not believe there is q single
woman, no matter how warm and
sympathetic her heart may be, who,
after reading this sworn testimony,
will sign 8 petition for Kate SOthern's
pardon. Governor ColquItt did right.
He weighed the evidence carefully,
and displayed both justi ee and hu-
msnity In his decision. A crime has
been committed, q woman killed an
other in her fathers house, after she
had been received kindly by her pa
rents-and then 10 demand of the au-
thOrities that she shall 90 free Is pre-
nNsterOuS. IL such an act were par
dOned, the doing so would be mock
cry Of law. Crime already has too
much license because the statutes are
not enforced,