The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1900-08-31
much weight such cry will have
remains to be seen.
Rooseve.ts Two Brave Deeds"
From Hearst's Chicago American.

old woman, committed most
atrocious murder. 1t was muir
der of jealousy. Homely, old, i'll
tempered, not loved by her hus-
band, she brutally murdered her
step daughter because she was
jealous of the husbands attention
to the step-daughrer.
Newspapers had predicted that
she never would die in the electric
chair. Governor Morton, a plain,
kindly old gentleman, who had
never shot anybody in the back
and had no especial claims to
glory, had twice declared when
governor that he would not allow a
woman to be killed by electricity.
No woman had ever been killed by
electricity. None-not even the
very worst-had been executed in
the state for years.
But Martha Place committed
her murder and was convicted
when Roosevelt was governor.
Roosevelt feared nothing.
When urged by his friends and
family not to allow the old woman
to be killed so brutally, he snapped
his white teeth and declared that
"mawkish sentimentality" could
not move him.
Women and decent men appeal
ed to him, but his courage"
could not be moved.
"What," he asked, can electric
chair paid for by the state and no
governor has had the courage to
send woman to that electric
chair? I'll show them what l
dare do"
1t was no idle boast.
The day came, the old woman
was half pushed, half carried into
the death room. The back of her
head was shaved so that the cur
rent might easily reach her brain.
One of her legs was barred to the
hip that the second electrode
might burn her without setting
fire to her clothing.
A score of men looked on at this
sight, which history owes to the
"brave" Governor Roosevelt. 1t
was sight to be seen only once.
Roosevelt will never again be gov
ernor. There will never again be
a man at the head of a great state
capable of sending a woman in
shameful dress to shameful death
before many men.
The "brave" governor was un-
der his bedclothes far away. The
woman was pushed into the chair
and strapped IN, the current
turned on by Roosevelt's order
entered the brain. Twice, three
times, it was turned on, while the
feeble frame moved convulsively,
and that a0as the end Of RoosevelFs
dravest deed.
Some men are mawkish. Some
are sentimental. Some could not
enjoy executing an old woman.
Some, ii especially authorized by
law to commute sentences to- life
imprisonment whenever they
thought wise to do so, would have
spared Martha Place the suffering
and shame of that death. Per
haps they will not give their vote
to Roosevelt for that particular
piece of courage.
But the second heroic deed may
move them.
That second deed can be told
more quickly.
Roosevelt had gone to war.
After heroic performances told
lover his own signature in numer-
GUS magazines-he informs us that
he took San Juan Hill.
At one stage of his glorious pro-
gress he saw fleeing before him q
miserable Spaniard. The man S
back was turned, Of course. He
was running away.
He had never hurt Roosevelt.
He was in the army because COM
lpelled to be there. The real CON
l fict was over
But q he ran, his back offered
: most inviting shot. Roosevelt,
lyou must remember. had never