Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-03
Morse Starting for Prison,
Denounces Courts and Jury

NEW YORK, January 3.-Charles w.
Morse. convicted bank president and fin
ancier, left New York yesterday by train
for Atlanta where he has been condemned
to serve a fifteen-year sentence. He was
still defiant. AS he was about to step
from the Tombs into a taxicab bound for
the train he called the newspaper men to
the grill and with grim smile said:
Here are a few words which state my
case pretty clearly, 1 think" He thrust
through the bars this signed statement:
Il am going to Atlanta to begin penal
servitude under the most brutal sentence
ever pronounced against a citizen in a
civilized country. have hoped. with that
hope which comes from consciousness
of my innocence. that L would not have
to close out forever the light of liberty
of. this world under such an inhuman
sentence. 1 had felt that the fact that
paid fine of S7,OOO,OU0 and served a
year In prison would satisfy the cry for a
victim, and l have steadily believed that
the courts would be compelled to give me
a new trial.
when l learned that the private de-
tectives of the prosecution were the keep
ers of the jury, and that the jury drank
like men upon jaunt or holiday rather
than citizens engaged in a serious service.
and that as a result two of them We're
rendered unfit. 1 naturally hoped that
would be allowed another trial by another
jury free of these hostile influences.
"Rum-Drinking Jurors"
'It seems. however, that the courts in
tended to establish the practices which
make rum drinking a part OF jury service
and private detectives as the custodians
Of the jury a permanent institution. BY
this sentence and judgment l may be
brought to ruin, but the damage done to
me is not half as important as the injury
to the administration of justice.
II am now up in years and must with
the passing of time pass also; but the rec
ord of my conviction and the way it was
brought about will remain lasting and
dangerous example of government gone
mad in search of victim.
Whether l shall serve my full sentence
1 am not able to say. much depend ng
upon how the government at Washington
shall look upon IL. l have great faith
that all right-thinkng men and women
who know of me and my case, and who
realize the inhumanity of my sentence.
will make known their feelings to the
President Whatever the future may hold
in store-liberty or Imprisonment shall
endeavor to meet in the same way / have
struggled against the misfortunes of the
last two years.
Except for only a minute. when tears
moistened his eyes as he elapsed his loyal
wife in a farewell embrace, the little
financier bore himself with all his old
fortitude Indeed, In his departure from
the Tombs for the southern prison he ap-
peared as If going on some ordinary busi-
ness journey.
Bids Wife and Sons Goodbye.
1t was behind the bars of the Tombs
that Morse last talked with his wife and
his two sons, These three members of
his family arrived at the Tombs about y
O'Clock in the morning. Marshall Hen
kle and Deputies Stiebling and Linicus
waited until 9:15. then signaled that their
prisoner must say his last goodbye
The taxicab. with Morse. Henkle and
Stiebling inside and Linicus mounted on
the box beside the chauffeur. spun out
of the Lafayette street gate OF the
Tombs, swung south through almost de-
serted streets and boarded the Cortlandt
street ferry of the Pennsylvania rail-
road.
Although the struggling morning
Continued on Ninth Pagel