The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1889-04-20
NO. 16.
SENTIMENT GONE TO SEED.

lIlUDle DeecnieT III mouse Ol III
fame and attracted by her general
demeanor persuaded her to give up
the life of shame, and under promise
of marriage, to live with him
and reform. This she consented to
do. They lived together happily,
it is supposed: for some years, but
King always put off the marriage on
some pretense and finally deserted
her. She followed him and he finally
gave her $500 to renoance all claims
upon him and a contract to that cf-
feet was signed. King went his
way, and married, but Libbie could
not control her passion or love for
him, traced him to Omaha,
sought an interview, and in q fit
emotional insanity killed him.
Indicted by the grand jury for
murder, the trial took place last week.
After an exciting contest of eight
days-the defense resting their case
without introducing single wit
ness-the jury brought in in Il YER
dict of not guilty after ten minutes
elaboration.
Throughout the trial the sympa-
thy of the public was with the wo-
man, and the court room was daily
thronged with female sympathizers
of the defendant. The verdict sat
isfied the general public, but there
is such a thing as sentiment going
to seed. Not content with
an acquittal the enthusiasts
began shout that the ver-
dict was a great victory for
woman's rights instead of a mani
festation of mans natural regard
and weakness for the gentler sex
the woman being acquitted where
man would have received a death
sentence. Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
the we'll known woman's suffrage
agitator, having written a review
of the woman's rights phase of the
case for the Omaha Republican is
thus disposed ofby O. H. Rothacker,
writer on the same paper:
The public should be heartily
sick of the Bccchler matter. This
city is little ashamed of the exhi-
bition it made during the progress
of the celebrated case, and would
like to forget it, but the fates seem
against it, Yesterday Mrs. Eliza
beth Cady Stanton returned to the
tiresome subject in her article in the
Republican, and of all the stuff
which has been written about the
acquitted woman hers is the veriest.
Mrs. Stanton has passed the age of
gush. A wolnanhood continued
through many years of purity to
the age of serenity and judgment
should have saved her from hys-
tcrical rhetoric. Primarily there
was no principle involved in the
Beechler trial. 1t was distinctly
vulgar and sensational episode
throughout. If she is resting the
cause of which she is such a distin-
guishcd advocate upon the broad
basis that it is a sign of woman's
emancipation when a prostitute
the wilful author of her own fall
and the cast off mistress of halt
dozen men-can pick out the last of
the half dozen and murder him be-
cause he wants to escape from the
vile connection-she is doing the
cause very serious harm. IfLibbie
Beechler had killed the man who
seduced her there would have been
a poetical justice in it, and no one
would have raised a voice. But she
shot man who was in no sense
responsible for her fall-who had
paid her off on her own terms, and
only asked to be let alone. The
connection was a crime against So
ciety, but she connived in it. She
was a part of it. The circum-
stances made Harry King the vic
tim, but the victim might have been
number five or number ten, or num-
Der forty for that matter. 1t all de-
pended upon the conditions. She
killed him not because of a personal
wrong, but because Of personal
pique. Her maidenhood and her
! innocence were far behind her be-
fore she met Harry King. What
ever else may be charged against
the dead ears which can not hear,
and the dead lips which can not
speak, this can not be numbered
among the accusations.
There is no lesson to women in
this case. 1t does not bear upon
the question of the broader rights
of the sex. Women themselves will
resent it when they reach Il g cool
er judgments. Those who have
clear brains have resented it already.
Surprising Libbie Beechler had not
killed King, what then? Why, the
musty female sentimentalists, who
crowded into the jury room to kiss
the tainted lips of the principal &C.
tress in this farce Of justice, would
have swished their dresses to one
side as they passed her on the street
Does murder make adultery heroic
can prostitute become heroine
by shooting out life that God gave!
Does bloodshed commend ore either
to man or God? Solomon read thu