Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-04-11
Faithful Unto Death.

A WIFE FULFILLING HER MARRIAGE
VOW EVEN TO THE TRAP OF THE GAL
LOWS.
A touching story is narrated in connec-
ton with the execution of Walter Watson
at Highland, Ind, on Friday last for the
murder of Ezra Compton. The parties had
quarrelled about the charge of a quarter
dollar for some soap made by Compton,
who was q storek eeper. The wife of Wat
son, to whom he had been but year mar
ried, endeavored to restrain him from the
quarrel, but her entreatios failed. A week
before the execution Mrs. Watson visited
the Governor, with her babe in her arms,
and made strong personal appeal for mer-
cy, but that official declined to interfere be-
cause the sentence had been confirmed by
the Supreme Court. The faithful wife was
daily visitor to her husbands cell, and
joined him in fervent prayers for forgive
ness. During the last night most OF the
time she sat on his knee, breathing words
of love and encouragement, or at his feet,
caressing his hands. He was truly peni-
tent, and expressed himself as having made
peace with God. AS The time approached
for the execution she was for a moment
overcome, and fell on her husbands neck
In uncomfortable anguish, but suddenly
she raised her flaxen head and assisted in
arraying him for his doom. She had con-
lributed necktie and a pair Of slippers and
put them on him with fierce determlna-
ton that overmastered her agony. She
combed his hair, and seeing all was ready,
| said she would go with him. All present
demonstrated with her, in which the min
lister joined. Her reply was a rebuke that
! few woman would have ventured. II
| should not have expected this from min
| lister. When | was married promised to
cleave to my husband for better or for
worse. promised this to a minister, and
| am going to keep my word as far as God
will let me-" On reaching the gallows the
pair soon to be sundered mounted the steps
hand in hand. They were seated side by
| side over the fatal trap. She again took
[ his hand and sobbed with her little head
resting upon his shoulder, while the minis
ter made the closing prayers.
Meanwhile the culprit sat i'll his chair
unmoved. A heart-broken wife was Sob
| bling on his bosom, strong men sObbed, but
| the man about to be hanged seemed an un-
| interested spectator OF the absorbing scene
of which he was the central figure. For
| fully five minutes he sat there without the
least perceptible twitch OF a muscle. There
was no bravado in this composure; it was
rather the calmness of resign alton. At
the close of the religious exercises the two
stood up, and for the last time she embrac-
ed her husband, kissed hun passionately,
and with ''Good-bye, Walter" stepped
back and fell back into the arms OF the
good Christian ladies who were there to re-
ceive her. The last words of the unhappy
man were fervent prayer for mercy aud
for heavenly aid to his poor wife. At the
sheriff's house she saw the remains of the
husband in his coffin, and kissing his lips
and arranging the hair, turned away with
a look of woe, and said: IL can cry no more;
l have no more tears. God have mercy on
me and my little baby"
i An hour later the coffin was in an east
bound train, accompanied by the wife. At
Richland, a bleak station seven miles from
this point, it was deposited on the barren
ground, and as the train moved on only
one other person beside the widow was in
charge. The face that broken-hearted wo-
man turned up to the occupants of the
passing train, most of whom had seen the
hanging, will haunt many in their dreams