The age-herald., 1900-02-18
GENERAL MOLINEUX
 ISSUES A STATEMENT

New York, February 17.-General Edward Leslie Molineux, the father of Roland B. Mohneux, convicted of the murder of Mrs Katherine J. Adams, and yesterday sen tenced ito death has issued a statement to the newspapers of the country which in part follows:
 ''I do not desire to intrude personal af- fairs upon the publis, but in view of the great number of letters and other communi- cations which have received and in view of very great publicity the district attorney has seen fit to give to personal and irrele- want details against my son, feed justified now that the trial is ended, in making this statement:
 T may say in advance that I have been deterred from making such a statement earlier solely by the advice of counsel and my own consideration of dignity and of pro- priety. It has been inhimated in some o. the newspapers that a fund should be raised for assisting the defense of my son. should not allow pride to prevent me from accepting such assistance if 1t were need ed, for the reason that should not myself hesitate to offer 1t to any person who need ed it; and I should never rbe ashamed to re- ceive what I should not be ashamed to offer. But, I owe man dollar, and neither need nor desire any assistance of such a character. I feel and am amply able in health, strength, and in the courage natural to man, to sustain all the bur- dens that God has placed upon me until He wills otherwise. I am rich in the firm belief in the justice of Almighty God, in the devoted love and comfort of a noble wife, my sons and their wives, all united, all certain in the innocence of Roland Burnham Molineux, and certain that it will be so found in time.
 q need for myself no other assistance and mo other comfort or support But for my household I do need, and I do appeal, for the support of the prayers of all those of every denomination and of every faith who like myself, feed that my son is innocent and the victim of unjust persecution. appeal, moreover, to every man who is a man to respect the san1tty of the grief of my afflicted wife and my sorely afflicted daughter, my daughter in affection and my daughter-in-laW by her marriage to my son. Blanche Cheesbrongh Molineux. In their be- half, my friends, gallant comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic gallant sol dlers of the Confedeiacy-late foes, but now friends-as well all others who resent injustice and revere womanhood, I ask you to assist them during my struggle in the front Hines of defense of those, my best of earthly blessings.
 "As for my sons, I trust that they are brave men, with the strength to live and die bravely. have seen my son Roland asleep as a child by his mothers side; have seen him asleep in his cell after the verdict condemning him to death had been pronounced. Who is better able than I, his father to judge whether that sleep was the natural sleep of innocence? have heard his first words on awakening at the call of his father as by reveille from that sleep after the verdict, How Is Blanche How Is mother? and before that sad awakening during al the dreary days of his confine- ment day by day, week by week, month by month, there has always been that first lowing cry from his lips for Blanche and mother Can he be guilty of cowardly pois- oning It is impossible. Gan it be? No. No, I know that he is innocent, as know am alive.
 Like his father, he has not been fault Tess but he has also had much of the bet ter and the kinder nature of his mother He, a degenerate and vicious person? It is impossible and absurd. Although no lawyer. I have always believed that the American bar Is the purest in the world, and I still believe honor and respect the bar as such. With this belief, it had been impossible for me to understand how a member of that bar and in addition Ia sworn public prosecu- tor a man educated in an American col lege and associa!tdpg with American men, could assault by Vile insinuations a wom- an the wife of the defendant.
 Moreover where should the mother and the wife of my son have been when he was on trial for his life?
 Does not every voice say that they should have been at hts side, and does not skszs. sgreart endorse that sentiment? And