The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1911-09-14
IMPRESSIONS LEFT BY VIRGINIA DRAMA|
Edi toral in Washington Times)

winch life as 1t really Is makes It's
stagecraft counterfeit seem impotent
and pale has reached a elimination.
Under the eager scrutiny of an avid
pubic the crimson record has UNI
FOLDED to the final page. 1t has foe
allied national interest to the ex-
clusion Of those resounding issues
which the moot court Of statesman
snip calls paramount. 1t has caught
the eye and kindled the imagination
and stirred the heart after that eter-
nal fashion with which blood has ap-
pealed to blood since Cain, with the
MARK OF murder on his brow, took
sanctuary in the land Of Nod.
1t would be hasty to call this q
morbid interest. These human docu-
ments, these transcripts from life it.
self, are part and parcel Of those
seeming activities which mako uD
the sum Of human experience. The
man In the street who would take
but langud glance at the work of
ference still translates into mis- daily
lie and thought the pulsing Romans
worthy boast: 81 am a man; and
nothing which concerns humanity
can fail to concern me-"
1T Is from these compelling traga-
oles, written large in the daily re-
port-1t is from the bubbling cauI-
urons IN which have just been melt
ed smiles and tears, crime and pun
lShment, virtue and shame-that a
res1dium stands forth for the profit
or mankind. Where sermons with
the1r Obvious moral tag fall trite and
lheHectual, events like these which
penetrate every Granny of the social
structure carry with them a lesson
SO intimately interviewer with their
very texture that 1t sinks insenibly
INTO the mind and heart Even the
a. 'adly night shade has it's perfume.
l o the normal mind it is we'll nigh
incon "eivable that young man IN
the f,h,l enjoyment OF health and
worldly competency, with wife and
child as Hostages to fortune, should
coldly and cruelty break into the
bloody house of life, violate the
sacred instincts (which the beasts of
the field hold dear, and, eXpfating his
Wanton blood lust,
Leave a name at which til c world
turns pale,
To point Il moral or adorn a tale.
And yet the very beginnings or
society are but the safeguards in
which man takes refuge from hts
brother, and the hearthstone has
been stained with every crime. III
the case at bar the body Of the crime
has been established and 1t remains
for the twelve arbiters of life and
death to say whether it has been
brought home to the defendants
door.
1t would seem puny to the point
Of mOckery to dwell upon the agony
which must scar the very soul of
Henry Beattie If he be guilty, as
charged. The hi6eous hours must
come when assurance and bravado
have died within him, and he stands
alone with a conscience which lashes
him with scourge Of scorpions. The
heart knoweth it's own bitterness,
and we can but dimly guess what his
feelings must be as he realizes that
the life he has led has at least given
color to the fearful Indictment
drawn against him.
That no hue should be wanting to
this tangled skein Of tragedy, his
father seems to have been a type Of
high integrity. The obligations
which the young husband assume
when he establishes that unit of citi-
zenship the home, found frequent
expression in the disapproval with
which the elder Beattie looked upon
the derclictions Of his son. And yet
1T was In measure due to his own