St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-05-10

such beating as that Here the play
full parent laughed; it was his little
joke, and his counsel laughed, and
smile rippled over that courtroom
among men of a certain class, black and
white. / could hardly refrain from
shrieking out ssShame !" / could hardly
realize that those iocose creatures were
men, and not laughing hyenas. When
questioned about blow bestowed on
one of his other daughters which felled
her, and caused her nose and mouth to
bleed profusely, Mechlin said 81 did
not exactly strike her, / knocked her
out of the way. 1t was more gesture
than a blow" An emphatic gesture
that, which would have done honor to
William Allen or Martin I. Townsend.
The speech of Mr.. Coyle, young
lawyer, for the prosecution, was very
fine, Astounding in telling points and
scathing sarcasm, but it struck me that
both he and MIR. Wells missed it in not
appealing more to the sympathies OF
the jury, unpromising as it looked In
the sympathetic line. They should have
dwelt more ON the helpless, hapless
state of those poor girls, deprived at so
tender an age of a mothers love, care,
and teaching; on the constitutional
weakness and frequent prOstratlOn OF
some of. them; on the low and half
starved condition of all four. L realize
now, as / have never realized, the ne
cessity, as an aid to equity, as an end
of Justice, of the admittance of women
to the Bar, of their presence in the jury
box, in cases like this. Could an elo-
quent, persuasive, motherly woman,
like Mary LivermOre, with her tender
heart, her legal and logical mind, and
her clear moral sense, have made the
closing speech in this case, not a man
would have left that jury-box without
tears in his eyes and conviction in his
heart. She could have melted with the
intense glow of her pity and Indignation
the CONCEALED tides of fatherly feeling
and chivalric sentiment in the breast OF
the Judge on the bench-a miracle like
unto the liquefaction of the blood of st.
Januarius.
This Judge was of the opinion that it
was better on the whole that the jury
had failed to agree, so he would not
hold them hoping for an agreement.
Whichever way they had decided, he
said, "would have involved hardship"
Our community, bad as it is, he admit
ted, was not quite ready to sanction an
acquittal, and "a verdict of guilty would
be followed by consequences both in
furious to the defendant and the girls
themselves. The father is, not a man
of fortune. To impose the sentence OF
the law would deprive him of his office
and turn him out into the world, after
the expiration of the sentence, a help
less man, not able to support himself,
much less family. 1t is possible that
such Il thought might have had its effect
with the jury. The sentence under the
Indictment would be, so to speak, the
vengeance of the law. 1t would be
misfortune in this case that such venge-
ance should follow. His treatment OF
the children seems to have been the
conduct of a mailman and not of man
with sane faculties"
Now here are few points | would
make on The above points of Mr.. Justice
Wylie. The jury had no business with
the consequences" of their verdict.
They were to render it in accordance
with the evidence, whatever "hardship"
might be involved. They were not
there to decide whether Mr.. Mechlin
should be retained in or discharged from
a Government position he had dis
graced, but whether he had or had not
beaten in brutal and inhuman man
ner, and failed to properly feed, clothe,
and care for his young daughters. The |
charges against him were abundantly |
proved, and yet Judge and jury are of
the opinion that this unnatural father
more indecent than savage, more
cruel than a beast-this discreditable
citizen, whose conduct has created IL
great public scandal and shocked the |
moral sense of the community, should
be retained in office on the pretext thar
thus he will be able to support his -four
rebelliOus daughters. 1t is only pro-
posed to claim for them $50 per month
They cannot well live on SIS piece.
they must depend in part upon charity
why not altogether, in case they can
not support themselves by honest labor7
They will be cared for-places will be |
found for them somewhere if not, it is
better that they should go to the aims
house than that Joel r. p. Mechhn
should be retained in high department
of our Government. There are gentle |
men, there are brave soldiers, in that
department who must object to his un-
clean presence-his degrading cOmpan-
Admitting that the lenient
Judge hit on the truth, and this 'skill-
full draughtsman" is "madman," since
when has the War Office been turned |
into an insane asylum Would it not
be better to transfer him to another
institution over on the
banks of the Anacosta ? But | beg
DIR. GOdding's pardon; his beneficent
asylum is no place for criminals like
Mechlin. For him some cell at Sing
Sing or Auburn yearns hungrily.