Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1901-01-03
STILL ON THE BOARDS.
Philadelphia Press.

IuC IOCDCl lldSCuNs hOiOui ana VI
high comedy, which had steady run for
months in Kentucky and which the public
hoped had been withdrawn, Is, it appears,
still on the boards. Two new scenes have
been added within a few days, with the
hope apparently that the attention Of the
country will be kept fixed on the Blue
Grass State a while longer. These two
scenes consist of a confession of Noakes,
the chief witness in swearing away the life
of one of the men accused of numbering
Goebel, that he committed perjury, and
the alleged finding of the cartridge box
from which was taken the bullet which
killed Goebel.
The confession of Noakes is the anti
GOebel contribution 70 the play. Robert
Noakes was the star witness of the prose
cution in its attempt to fix upon the Re.
publican officials of Kentucky the murder
of Goebel. He was placed on the stand in
the trial of Secretary of State Caleb Pow
ers for completely in the crime, and swore
to a story which directly implicated Pow
ers, and it was on his testimony chiefly
that Powers was convicted and sentenced.
Noakes now confesses that the statement
he gave under oath was made up by the
Goebel attorneys and that he was bribed
to 90 on the stand and tell it, his nerves
being braced by plentiful supply of in
toxicants. The confession occupies an or
binary newspaper page of matter and goes
crcumstantially into all the events of the
trial with which Noakes was connected. 1t
proves him to be the perjurer the anti
Goebelites claimed he was, whose testi-
mony no reputable court would accept.
This is the first of the two new scenes in
the Goebel farce. The second scene was
added quickly. The Goebehtes evidently
saw that if the confession of Noakes was
permitted to 60 out alone it might increase
the prejudice of the public against them
and the methods by which they captured
the government of Kentucky would be
made to appear still more revolving. Some
thing to counteract the force of the con-
fession was needed. So the story of the
finding of box of cartridges in the vault
of the Auditors Office at Frankfort was
sent over the country, and it was added
that ''it is believed that it was one of the
bullets taken from the empty chambers
which killed Goebel" OF course the pub
lie is expected to take the story as it is
told and seeing nothing suspicious in the
sudden finding of the box of cartridges in
an Office which has been in possession of
the Goebelites for six months. The acci.
dent of finding the box and all its sur
roundings are related with as much cir
cumstantiality as Noakes put into his con.
fession.
These are the two new scenes added to
the Kentucky comedy with which it is
hoped to keep the public amused and the
Goebel farce before the country. The at
tempt will not succeed. The public has
made up its mind as to the merits of the
Goebel affair and no testimony, unless it
is of the most startling and convincing
character, will change the verdict. The
conclusion reached is that the Goebel De.
mocracy of Kentucky is the most debauCh-
ed example of political organization this
country has known, and that while the
assassination of its leader is an act to be
severely condemned it was a fate which
his own reckless and brutal course invited.
Whether his political opponents were
guilty of his death has never been proved,
but if they we're they have reaped no adj
vantage from it. That is the verdict of
the intelligent, impartial public and no
further high comedy acts in Kentucky will
change it. The chief favor the country
now asks of the actors in this Kentucky
farce is that they will retire themselves
and their play from the boards and permit
the nation to forget them and it.