The daily sentinel., 1908-03-26
(By Glenn Guernsey.) }

New York, Mar. ga pallid,
covering youth, led shrinkingly into
the room of sudden death by plying
but implacable executioners, strap
ped shuddering, into the fatal cleo
trio chair and then hurled, quickly
and quietly, into enternity-this is
to be the fate next week of Chester
E. Gillette. So will end the last
chapter in the tragedy of Big Moose
Lake, in which Grace Brown gave
up her life for love of the cowardly,
wretched lad whose life must now
pay the penalty of his crime. To the
penitentiary maintains his innocence
declares that Grace Brown leaped
from the boat on that trip on Big
Moose Lake which was to have been
their honeymoon voyage, and that
he, frightened, ran away and let her
drown.
1t is an old story, this tragedy of
Big Moose Lake-a story of the great
love of maid for a man, an affec-
ton so overpowering that she will
ingly placed her honor and good
name in his keeping. The man tired
of his conquest, as men so often do,
and sought relief from the ties that
bound him by Staying the innocent
y
ed him with all her heart.
poor little grill" said the Herki-
mer policeman who found the
swoolen, battered body of zone more
unfortunate" and poor little grill"
the people of the nation echoed
when her letters, written to the man
who had so often promised to marry
her and had so often failed, were
read during Gillette's trial in the
little Herkimer court house. Those
letters, written from heart waver-
ing between love and shame, are
classics and might well furnish ma
terial for a poet, novelist or a
philosopher.
After Gillette had postponed the
wedding she wrote him:
81 simply can't stay here any long
er. Mamma worries and wonders
take me, dear. l am afraid you
won't come and I'm frightened, dear.
Chester, there is not a" girl in the
whole world so miserable as / am
tonight, and you have made me feel
so. | don't mean that, dear; you
have always been so good to me and
1 know you always will be-
Three weeks before her death she
wrote, from the depths of her poor
buffeted heart.
"I won't interfere with any OF
your plans. / was i'll nearly all yes
terday, and tonight the veins in my
head are frightfully swollen. Nam
ma bathed them in cologne and they
are not SO bad today. They were
swollen because l cry so much
Chester, l don't suppose you will
ever know how l regret being al
this trouble to you. l know yor
hate me and I can't blame you one
bit. My whole life is ruined, ant
in measure yours, too. OF course
it's worse for me than you but the
world and you, too, think | am the
one to blame, but somehow / cam
just simply can't think am
Chester. l said, No. so many times
dear. OF course the world will moi
know that but it's true, all the same
My little sister came up just min.
ute ago with her hands full OF
daisies and asked me if | didn't want
my fortune told. / told her / guess
ed 1t was pretty well told. Now,
don't want you to mind this letter
for l am blue tonight
And there were many other letters
-pitiful appeals that would have
touched the most hardened heart:
Il will try and not worry. You
are a dear, anyhow. l have cried
so much l am a sight. dear. / an
so thin, and my face is so deathly