The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-07-03
VIEWS OF EDITORS.
The Loving verdict.

The acouittal of Judge Loving is enough
to alarm the State, If this trial and YER
dict establish a precedent in Virginia, here
after when a woman charges a man with
an offense against her honor, and relates
1t to a male member of the family and
so .in1ames his passion as to cause a
brain Storm such a man will be justi-
fed in Staying the person accused. 1t
will matter not whether the woman's story
be true or false; whether it be an exag-
g~eration Or a pure invention. Not a word
of testin ony can be introduced in court
to impe.Lch the witness. The only him
necessary will be to make the jury believe
that she told such a story to the prisoner
at the bar and that the shock Of it de-
prived him of his reason for the moment.
II the prisoner. was once a drunkard and
had injured his brain and weakened his
will power by strong drink. so much the
better for his case. He will be less re-
sponsible in law than otherwise he would
have been.
Can any doctrine more dangerous han
this be imaginedi 1t is simply astounding.
We have the Southern instinct. We under
stand why a Virginia jury will not con-
Wet a man who has slain another. IL thai
other have debauohed his home. But we
balk at this new version of the "unwrit-
ten law" which is the worst form Of
lynch law.-Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Sport of MilIiOnaires.
1t Is a great game, when you can afford
to play it, which not many people can
do. There Is great sport in defying Uncle
Sam and all his family, and turning into
derision the laws of the United States and
Of the several sovereign States that COM
| pose the Union. The select character of
the sport, the fact that 1t Is a game at
which comparatively few men can play,
doubtless gives to the game Its peculiar
charm. Anybody can play golf, but only
a Rockefeller can afford to play hide and
seek with the government of the United
States, and to succeed in compelling
Uncle Sam to keep at a prudent distance.
The freebooters of the earlier days en-
joyed the pastime of lodging the govern
ment troops and sniping at them behind
inaccessible rocks. but Mr.. Rockefeller
plays a more exciting game than Rot Roy
ever played. He has a whole continent to
dodge in, with i~mpregnable s~trongholds
in a dozen States and a host ofsmen who
| can be trusted to hold off the deputies so
long as the Standard OIL wells yield their
revenues. And doubtless Mr. Rockefeller
enjoys the spending of his millions ir' this
exciting game more than he ever did the
| earning of them.-Brooklyn Times.
Repeal OF All Law.
No man is allowed by aw to take ven
geance into his own hand. 1t is pretty
well settled, however. that a jury will not
punish a man for killing the destroyer of
his home. But before a man is killed. GER
| tainly his guilt ought to be established be-
You'd a reasonable doubt, as the guilt of his
| SLAYER must be before he can be convicted.
The new doctrine is that a lie, however
improbable, is just as good as the truth to
Justify the killing of a mar as a matter of
private vengeance, but the homicide cannot
be punished if anybody says that an i'm
probable story was told him some years
before the killing. The acceptance of such
a construction of the law is nearly equiva-
lent to the repeal Of all laws against MUIR
der.-Louisville Courier-Journal