The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-16
ghe ad1eha 1aiy gaoe Sunday gorimg nnsber s. 1900

O4A ear u OF III heaven imagine jessie
| Morrison with this exaggerated vision on
| her mind, seeking the solitude of affect
| ed sleep, alone in her room. If she IS
/ guilty, this idea became a torture a tor
/ ture which called for a psychological
! vent That relief is inevitably through
/ imaginative action, not action itself. Let
/ US understand this point. The person
1 who IS in a passion rarely acts forth
l with; he imagines himself acting. He
/ pictures a scene, a scene in which he
/ seeks to remove the object Of his go
/ mentary hate. He always pictures the
/ scene, with every advantage to himself.
! He struggles, Overcomes, vanquishes. he
rises to his feet and assails his enemy,
usually with rudinentary weapons. the
( hands. Now, this passion is step to
/ greater passion, but as single step Is
/ not dangerous. It soon passes. Take
| the average boy of nine, for instance,
! who, angered at his treatment at home,
determines to run away. The determine
alton with which Napoleon marched into
j Austerlitz is not greater than this boy S.
His resolution is iron. He marches
away from his home. When he gets a
| half mile away he will begin to
weaken. If, at that moment. his mother
should show concern and call him bacE.
she would drive him on But if he is
let alone, he finds himself curiously be-
reft suddenly Of his determination. hesi-
tates, and returns home sheepishIy
II Jessie Morrison. was guilty as the
state charged, the music and the picture
II crushed into her soul that night, gave
her mOmentary determination TO do
away with the figures which stood high
est in the instrument Of her torment
the festivities. If she is guilty, I think
she first imagined going there, before
all the people and dramatically bouncing
upon Mr.. and Mrs. Olin Castle That
she put this idea away as an impractical
DassiOn-suggesto is likely. That is,
the native hue Of resolution was sicklied
over by the pale cast of thought. She
probably tried to sleep and forget every
thing. The night was probably far gone
the music had ceased, the bridal recep-
ton was over. Now, then, there is one
thing more moving than music-that is
the memory of music. Did she suffer
that? Did q second passion rise upon
the cold wreck Of the first, a passion so
deep that this time it did only what
dangerous passions do, seek a practical
means to destruction2 The revolver idea
must have come at this time. It was
not practical. IF the states charge is
true Jessie DIorrisOn's anger, if it did
not subside then. had become dangerous.
Tt had taken the second step, the peril
GUS one in anger. It had not suffered
itself to be defeated by an impractical
passiOn-suggestion Instead it may
have vaulted the impractical barrier,
and sought the practical There was no
doubt razor in her room, a razor pos
sI5ly secured long before, and used in
chiropody This girl may have taken
this; handled it, s1ashed the air with it.
Tt was a practical weapon, and oh, the
terror of It, the sense of practically now
augmented the passion. She may have
dressed then and there, perhaps two
o'clock in the morning, and placed the
razor in the bosom of her dress and
sailed forth in the night towards the
Castle cottage. Before she reached
there, the impracticality of her expedi-
ton may have come TO her, If such ex-
petition she took and she returned,
again bafled by the barrier of the i'm
practicality of a passion-suggesti for
again may this safety valve on madness
have been opened. She did not know
the interior Of the house. She could have
done nothing in the dark But in the
morning? If that. then, came to her
mind, she had followed passion over the
brink. Imagine morning come. She had
an insomnta's weakness then, for she
had spent a sleepless night, possibly,
waiting, dressed, walking the floor, watt
ing for light She did her household du-
and the letter she picked up and car
RED with her was merely the outbreak
Of the average WOman's custom of carry
ing something in the hand handkerchief,
pOclzetbOOk, or anything small and
handy. She however, didn't go to the
Castle home. as she intended. Her pas
sion weakened. So, she went to the
dressmaker's instead. making a collar
pattern the excuse Then the passion
growing from petulance at her own
weakness, and she went back towards
the Castle home. When she approached
it she saw signs of domesticity, saw
evidences of the other wOman's happi-
ness She was next the gate. The i'm
practical passion again met a barrier.
1t was broad daylight. Mrs. Castle
might have callers. She passed the gate.
Then the passion OVERRIDE the barrier,
overrode everything, reason, a rational
feeling Of self-defense, a fear of detec-
ton, and she may have turned back and
entered, and with the little preliminary
conversation mentioned by Mrs. Castle
in her dying statement began the at
tack
Now, If this was murder. it happened
along these lines. not as the state II ed
to impress the jury, as a deed that had
been Matching for months and months.
Murder has to have q trigger. Tt has to
have a strike. a shock, a atch, TO set
it into action. All the powder in the
world in one place Is not dangerous. SO
long as fire or percussion is not intro
duced. The necktie incident, the mirror
gift, the buggy rides the letters. were
all insigni1cantly harmless, and the
small talk of the town. But somewhere
there was match put to them and the
tragedy flashed What was the match?
The evidence does not disclose it
J. O. NJ