The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-27

raise the average of its moral tone. The death penalty appears to me to initiate against this elevation. When It demands a life for another life taken, 1t recurs to the old Mosiac dispensa- ton: an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" This was suited to the intelli- gence of a society but little advanced In civilization. The teaching of the Divine Master pointed In another direc- ton.
 One strong objection to capital pun ishment lies in the uncertainty regard ing the perpetrator of the criminal act. Murder. especially when 1t is planned beforehand, is usually committed with every precaution of concealment. Ac- tual witnesses of 6 crime are usually difhcult to find. The innocent man sometimes suffers for the guilty one The thought of such an error is most repusnant to our sense of justice.
 In cases where an accomplice, real or pretended. bear witness to the com mission of crime, the law ordains that the character or want of character of the informant shall be duly taken into consideration How closely this ordi- nance is followed we cannot say. but the doubt which 1t involves tends to increase our uncertainty as to the per- son of the criminal.
 We may then state as objections to
 
 character of vengeance. and as such tends to degrade the sentiment of so- ciety; and, second, the uncertainty which must often exist as to whether the party accused is really the author of the crime.
 The celebrated Irish patriot and ora tor, OConnell, arguing against capital punishment, assured his audience that ne had witnessed the execution of three brothers. the fact of whose innocence was subsequently, established. Within the memory Of persons who may now De living. 6 father and son, accused of murder and already at the foot of the gaHows, were saved from death by the sudden appearance of the supposed vic- tim. Indeed 1t is not long since a man m our own country. dying in his own DedA confessed the murder for which another man, years before, had suffered the death sentence. The poet Dante. makes the entrance to hell fearful with these words:
 Leave hope behind. all ye who an. ter here"
 could wish that a sentence, the op- posite of this. should be written above the doors of our prisons. Why should We not trace there the banner of the Christian triad of virtuess
 Faith In mans power of seIf-redemp- tion.
 Hope that 1t will prevail
 Charity. deep and boundless, for the very wickedest of Gods children. HETTY GREEN AMERICAS
 RICHEST WOMAN.
 Two prominent women of Augusta. Ga, have recently been stopping at the Madison Square boarding house where Hetty Green, the great woman makes her home and they were seated at the same table. e her one of them writes:
 Mrs. Green is a womanly woman, despite the fact that she unhesitating- ly owns up that she will be seventy two years old in November She is a Quaker by birth and principle and "the spirit must have moved her" quite frequently as she chatted famiI- Iarly with her table neighbors who her as a medium size woman whose pretty almost babyfsh pink and white complexion. grey hair and fear less blue eyes gave no appearnce of the powerful mind and strenuous de- which have achieved such success for her. Her dress, contrary to accepted reports, is remarkable in no way save that she evidences no fondness for either fash onable or new clothes and invariably wears a short black cloth cape. An other accessory is long black bag filled with documents, the value of which would support many families