The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-03-20
TIE Washington Tragedy.

The death of Hon. w. +. Taulbee in
Washington, as announced last week,
from pistol shot wound fired by Judge
G. E. Kincaid, caused the re-arrest of
the latter. He will, no doubt, be indict-
ed for murder, and his trial proceeded
with on that line. The evidence in the
case shows that there had been bad feel
ing between the two gentlemen for a
year or two, occasioned by publication
in the Louisville Times, by Mr.. kincaid,
the Washington correspondent OF that
paper, of a scandal in which Taulbee
and a female clerk in one of the depart
ments were the principal parties. The
story did not originate with Kincaid.
He took the main facts from publica-
ton in a Washington paper, and doe
tored them up to suit Kentucky con-
stituency, where both Kincaid and Taul-
bee were known and lived. Kincaid,
after the letter appeared, offered Taul-
bee such space as he might desire to
reply and refute the implications con
tanned in the recital. This courtesy
Taulbee declined; but it did not assuage
the luminosity he felt for Kincaid. Ac-
cording to the statement OF the latter,
Taulbee neglected no opportunity to
insult and provoke him. On the day OF
the shooting they accidentally met in
the corridor of the capital, when Taul-
bee approached Kincaid and said that
he wanted to speak to him. kincaid
replied that he was looking for gentle
man, and did not want to talk with him.
Taulbee responded by taking kincaid
by the coat collar and pulling his ear.
Kincaid being a small, sickly man, and
Taulbee a giant in size and strength,
Kincaid replied that he was not armed,
and therefore was not on equ ii terms
with Taulbee The latter replied well
then, arm yourself"
Shortly afterwards the two met on the
steps leading down to the basement
ROOM Kincaid approaching Taulbee
said, ''Taulbee, you can see me now" and
pulling out a pistol, fired shot, it tax
ing effect in Us head, causing death in
about 12 days.
The indignity which Taulbee placed
upon Kincaid by pulling his ear, was
such an offense that recourse to the
Courts could not possibly have relieved
him of the disgrace he felt had been
placed upon him. Public sentiment in
the State where they both resided, and
under whose influence both had their
thoip 40 aotor
shaped, would not allow any other re-
sort than an appeal to force. The
proud, Southern nature. such as Kincaid
possessed, death would be preferable to
enduring in silence the stigma that Taul-
bees action placed upon him. He was
not able, physically, to meet Taulbee.
The only recourse he had, which i'll the
estimation of himself and in the eyes of
the people among whom both lived, was
a deadly weapon. This Taulbee ought
to have expected if he did not look upon
Kincaid as coward. In physical con-
test there was no chance for kincaid,
and this Taulbee knew. 1t was not the
part of a brave man to assault a sick,
weak man, as Kincaid was assailed; and
it was the most natural thing in the
world for the resentment to come in the
way it did.
There are conditions more unbearable
than death, and Kincaid was placed in
Just such a condition. Not to have
resented as he did, would have caused
him to bear the brand of coward through
life, and that in a community where
such stigma was tantamount to uni
versal ostracism, socially and in every
other way, he could not face.
These conditions will doubtless weigh
forcibly in the trial. While it is de-
plorable thing for a man to fall at the
hands of a fellow man, it is even more
deplorable to live a social outcast.