Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-12-01
he grief that the killing had laid upol

the grief that the killing had laid upol
him.
So it was with gallant old Gen. MOI
ineux. He. however. was spared the
grim horror Of knowledge of a sons
guilt, for he firmly believed in RoL
and's innocence of the murder, and
his fight for the youths acquittal was
urged on not only by affection but by
confidence In the triumph of justice.
Another father who was buoyed up
to the last by faith in his boys limo
cence was A. F. Tucker, whose son
Charles was put to death for killing
Mabel Page. To tAe very last he was
firm In this faith. He xept up the
fight to prove his son innocent right to
the hour of execution, and IN one Of
his petitions to the governor for elem
ency he expressed in a sentence the
tragedy Of the parent whose son 10
accused Of grave crime: Our hearts
are bursting with anguish"
Such a case as this was that Of
Henry Clay Beattie, the Richmond
banker. whose son has been convict
ed Of numbering his young wife. He
kept up the fight, having appealed for
a new trial, without result The IA
Tiers heart must be wrung with grief
over the wild career that led his
hayward son into these direful straits.
Much was written about Carlyle
Harris mother when that boy was on
trial for killing his young wife. and
old Charles Harris. the father. was
mentioned only incidentally. Back
into the shadows cast by his strong
wife sank the figure Of the unsuccess-
ful old man. Nobody paid any atten-
ton to him. He was alone with his
great sorrow.
When DIR. Crippen was being hunt
ed, tried and put to death for killing
his wife a lonely old man in Califor-
MIA followed the reports Of the case
with trembling interest Myron A.
Crippen was too old to be Of any help
to the son who had left him long ago.
Though unheralded, the greater trag-
edy was the fathers, not the sons.
When Albert Wolter was convicted of
killing Ruth Wheeler his old father.
veteran Of the Franco-Prussian war.
felt the blow as long-delayed retri-
button for the one great sin OF bis
life, and so expressed himself. Albert
was the child of a woman Carl Albert
Wolter had known In Germany. De-
sorting the mother and baby. the elder
Wolter had come to America and
welded another woman She had died
and he, stricken by remorse. had sent
for the mother and child to join him
in America and had legitimatized the
one by wedding the other.
"The Sins Of the Fathers"
And now this child had committed
a murder so fiendish in its horror that
the old Prussian soldier bowed his
head under the shock and murmured
words about the sins Of the fathers
being visited upon their children
Another case was that Of Gen. Jere-
miah v. Messerole of Brooklyn, whose
son, Darwin j. Messerole. killed Theo-
dore w. Larbig in a fight The old
soldier fought bravely to save his son
and the verdict Of acquittal, followed
as 1t was by the young mans CONVEX
sion and reception into Plymouth
church, was balm to the fathers
wounded heart
There can scarcely be doubt about
the grizzled Confederate veteran. Col
T. v. Richeson. believing in his sons
innocence. But the tragedy Of such
an accusation against a dearly be
loved son is less only than that OF bis
conviction.
These fathers whose gray hairs are
brought down in sorrow to the grave
as the patriarch Jacob expressed IT.
are tragic figures. They appeal foI
sympathy. but their weight OF woe IL
TOO heavy to be alleviated by words
New York World