Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-06-12
FRIDAY MORNING. JUNE. 12. 1885
THE RICHMOND VERDICT.

L.
"He who wrongs woman should have
his foot in the stirrup," is an Arab pro-
verb which is peculiarly applicable to
the metropolis of Virginia. In half
century there have been three women
murdered there, and in every instance the
whole community has joined in hunting
the murderer to the gallows Or into exile.
1t is now nearly fifty years since the start
ling murder of Della Harris, a quadroon,
by a young member of one of the most
powerful families of that day, in the State,
took place. The murderer who had taken
the precaution to have his foot in the STIR
rup, fed, but was hunted into Mexico and
brought back. He finally saved his life
by night escape from prison, after which
he was never seen. It is about twenty
years since the famous Jeter Phillips wife
murder, 30 similar in many respects to
the Cluverius-M Madison crime, stirred the
community to its very depths, and enlist
ed whole population in sympathetic,
general and active aid to the officers of
the law. And again in the case just con-
cluded there, the population of Richmond
has seemed to be thoroughly leavened with
the eagerness of pursuit after the muir
derer.
The trial has been in some respects a
remarkable one. The murderer a member
of the bar of reputable though not long
standing, and his victim young kins-
woman, occupying the responsible position
Of teacher and governess in family of
the highest responsibility, did not come
from that criminal class which usually
furnishes the parties to murder. The
young law graduate of Richmond college,
and the bright young girl who graduated
with credit at Burlington Academy,
could by no possibility in the morning of
their lives have pictured to themselves, the
one going to the gallows and the other
lying in dishonored grave. Sin is a
magician who takes no account of time,
and to whom a year is but as a day in
working his startling transformations
Others have lived years and grown gray
in vice before they have met the catas-
trophe of their crimes; but these two
young people, Fate seems to have held
with vjse-like grip and hurried along
the short road Of two years to confront
them with inexorable Justice. What
agony crowded the minds of both in those
brief two years, what remorse. what nights
and days of dread, what anguish of appre-
hension, what depths of shame, what
loathing of each other as the cause of their
ruin, no human tongue can tell With
what pitiable anguish of soul have these
two looked back to the fair, clean fields
safety. and to which they could never
more return! To the woman; with feminine
helplessness there was but one outlet hat
promised safety-to cling fa&liverance
to her stronger companion id criSe. The
man with more masculine and brutal
nerve saw another way out-Murder. To
one, death in whatever shape. must have
come as q blessed relief To the other,
Death is surely looming up as an implacable
avenger. Many sermons from righteous
men may be preached on the text that
1.-THE wages of Sin is DEATH" but none
lesson that there is but One Path in life
which may be trod with absolute safety,
and that outside of that, Disgrace and
Death may be found without the seeking
During the progress of this noted trial
we have given with tolerable fullness and
which many thousands of the people of
Virginia have been eagerly reading for
the past three weeks. 1t has been said
since the argument of the cause begun,
that the defence made by the prisoner S
counsel was not strong. That is mis-
take, it was much stronger than the ma
terial with which they had to operate in
the way of evidence. 1t must be remem
bered that that there were two points,
essential to the acquittal of the accused,
which they were warned off from by the
guilt of their client. 1t was above all
the connecting link, the watch-key, which
fatally bound Cluverius to the spot of the
murder. A witness testified his belief that
he mended that KEY for the prisoner. and
that he would be certain whether he did
or not, if permitted to take the key apart.
IT Cluverlus was innocent, that key was
not his and the examination would have
acquitted him. His counsel, for the best
of reasons, refused to have the key taken
apart. 1t was essential to the acquttal of
the prisoner that be should show where
he was on the night of the murder. The
defence for the best of reasons made no
attempt to show where he was. The crime
was almost confessed by the points the
counsel in their able defence we're forced
to leave untouched. The conviction was
on circumstantial evidence, but it is true
of the law upon which every citizen relies
for protection of life and property. that it
arrests, tries, and hangs men on circum-
stantial evidence, and it is chiefly on this
sort of evidence that the motives of men
in all crimes are determined. Men do not
parade to crime, headed by band and car
rYing banner on which their reasons are
inscribed. It is unquesJionable, and,
doubtless. 80 the jury looked at it, that
the falsehood with which the prisoner
started out to the officers of the law,
thereby forcing his counsel to adopt line
Of defense to run with it, did more towards
his conviction than the evidence for the
prosecution. The faisehood is on the same
line with that which the murderer, Jeter
Phillips, whose case is mentioned above,
started out with. In that case Phillips