Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-05-09
CARLYLE w. HARRIS,
Murdered May 8, 1893.
Aged 2S $ears, months, 10 days.
1--WE would not If we had known"
THE JURY.

I'VE would not If we had known
THE JURY.
s........................s..
There was sliding glass at the end
and the dead mans face could be seen.
His lips were slightly parted. The top of
the head and neck were covered, thus con-
cealing the marks of The surgeons lancet
which were made at the autopsy. There
was no sign of discoloring about the face.
EVERYTHING in regard to the final DISPOSE
ton of the body is kept secret by the fam
ily excepting that Allan Harris stated that
the ipterment would be in the family plot,
wherever that is.
There was very impressive scene at the
Amber house in the afternoon when Mrs.
Harris saw the reporters. It was a few
minutes after 3 o'clock. This remarkable
woman had endured not only the grief of
q mother losing her first born, but had
suffered the agony OF having her son,
whom she believed innocent, branded as a
murderer and killed by the State. And
yet she stood there calm and passive wait
ing for the score of newspaper men to
enter. Then facing them with dry eyes
and firm voice she said:
sit has been said that Carlyle Harris
was guilty because he shed no tears when
Helen Potts died. 1 shed no tears now,
and God knows loved Carl Harris My
DOy WAS luhOCeuO Ou Lu0A WIZ SeaW ILL
die know that he went to the chair an in
nocent man. With his last words he de-
clared his innocence. +, And yet'he has been
killed He has been judicially murdered.
His last statement was to have been given
to me as soon as he was dead, and l have
not received it yet. / do not think that I
shall ever see it, at least not as my boy
wrote it. 1t was my boys last wish that
it be given out to. day, but I am powerless
to carry it out"
Mrs. Harris then gave out the following
btatement for publications:
II feel that the many friends who have
tried to get Justice done to my dear boy
ought to know of his last hours-of Gods
great mercy to me and how He sustained
us both. l did not see my dear boy after
he was taken to Sing Sing till last Friday.
1t was his wish that should not see him
there; conscious of his innocence and that
we had proof of Helen's being addicted TO
the use of morphine, Carl hoped 1 need
never see him in the death cell. But
God allowed it otherwise, and although an
innocent boy has been judicially murdered,
can praise Him for even this last ordeal.
LAS soon as 1 saw my boy 1 felt he had
grown spiritually. He made no confession
1 of conversion; almost all his talk was of
what could do; what friends l had left,
ETC.; but all eagerness for life, for a career
was gone, and very quietly he told me he
prayed to God, had asked His forgiveness,
| and, though not sure of Immortality,
trusted in God for the future.
Il prayed with him, and calmly and
reverently he said the Lords Prayer with
me. To one who knows my boy this
| means much, for he never went through
| form of prayer. There was no confession
| of the crime for which he was charged
| how could there be? But he deeply re-
GREETED all the trouble he had brought
upon us by concealing his marriage, and
confessing again the temptation he had
i yielded to in Canandaigua he spoke of his
sorrow for it.
1 ''He felt deeply the disgrace his execu-
Il ton brought upon u.s. but l told him /
thanked God l was Carlyle Harris mother,
/ and could say what few mothers can say,
that in his % years of life he had not
given me one unkind word, or even dis
obeyed an expressed command. We
agreed that Gods way must be the best,
though Carl felt deeply that the only les
Il son his fate can teach us, is to warn a
young man who is falsely accused, not to
stand trial, but to run away-as he should
have done.
Helen Potts Harris has again and again
been called Carts child wife, She was
nineteen when she died. Two years before
| she boosted, at Miss Jackson's school, OF
having been engaged four times; while
1 there she contracted an engagement; after
that she was engaged to Harry Brown;
then she secretly married my boy, who
solemnly assured me he had never asked
any other woman to marry him. Which
of the two was the most innocent2 Ger.
tainly Helen was no innocent, igu0fant
i child. A morphine eater contracting g
secret marriage which was connived at by
her mother, for seven months, though that
mother had the marriage papers and knew
me. l leave the public to judge between
the two, as leave them to GodW
The paper then goes on to state some
facts in regard to the large fees $4,000
that the lawyers took from her, and which
had left her penniless. The statement
then continues:
Given the last interview we had wa
partly taken up with his plans of earning
money for me by having a book of hi
poems, articles, speechs, ETC., published
He was so anxious to have this done thai
if receive enough postals promising t.
buy copies at from so cents to 81. will
publish such a work A postal giving
name and address, directed to box 141
Brooklyn, will be sufficient. I hope t.
have an excellent picture of my murdered
son as a frontispiece.
GA last word of thanks to the hundred
who have felt for and believed in Carl.
, know no friend who has not proved him
, self Carl's friend. My last word would b
q testimony to Gods great goodness, ]
. proving my boys innocence beyond
reasonable doubt, and in sustaining US ii
this hour of trial.
II FRANCES McCREADY HARRIS"
I SING SING, N. Y, May 8, 1898.