The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-07-30
BY DOROTHY DIX

BIZ DOROTHY DIX.
Never has staid and ultra -conserya
tive Richmond been SO stirred up by
! anything since the Civil War as It has
by the Beattie auto tragedy In homes.
on the street, in Offices and stores the
~anton killing of the young Wife and
mother continues to be the sole topic
OF interest. Business has been practi-
caliy paralyzed by 1t and a merchant
told me yesterday that nothing has
been done In his store for a week: that
| customers and clerks alike had forgot
to buy or SELL while they leaned over
the counters and discussed the new
est phase of the horror and told each
other the latest bit OF news concern
Ing II that the police had unearthed.
| Nor is this surprising. for the imagi-
nation can conceive nothing more ter
r!ble than the circumstances that sur
round this strange midnight murder.
1t Is terrible enough that a young,
beautiful and gentle woman should be
foully slain. but when this woman is a
young mother. with a 1ve-weeks- old
babe at her breast the crime becomes
diabolical.
Common humanity has made even
the animal mother safe at such n time.
| and 1t passes credulity that any man,
and especially womans husband and
the father OF her child, could nerve his
Yet that is practically the charge that
is laid against Henry Clay Beattie. Jr.
Moreover, he is believed to have sur
rounded the killing with a brutality
| at which an Apache might we'll be ap-
| palled.
What the Police Declare.
| The police claim that they will show
| that riding along quietly with her in
| an automobile on dark night. Beattie
suddenly stopped the machine opposite
! a tree stump where he had hidden a
| loaded gun, and that he got out and In
duced his wife to get out of the auto
| mobile; that he went behind the
bushes, secured the gun. and bring
| ing 1t within a few inches of her un-
suspecting face. literally shot her head
almost off. Then. they believe. he
flung the bleeding corpse across the
seat and sat on 1t to hold ii in the car
| until he got almost to her uncles door.
for the seat OF his trousers was satu-
rated with blood, while there was none
on the left side of his coat, as there
must have been had he held her in. as
he said. with his arm. while he drove
home
Such story would arouse any com
munity, but IT has worked Richmond,
which is Southern and chivalrous to
It's core, up into perfect frenzy OF
| Indignation. In Virginia knighthood is
still in flower, and It goes hard with
any nan who harms a woman, IS wit
ness Cluverius, who killed woman
not his wife. but who paid for 1t with
his own life; and McCue. Mayor of
Charlottesville, rich powerful socially
and politically. but all of whose in
| fiuence did not save him from the gall
lows for Staying his wife in a fit of
! anger.
| Henry C. Beatue, Jr.. can urge no
possible excuse for killing his Wife. If,
indeed. he did kill her. The crime was
! cold, passionless. incredibly cruel, and
unless he can absolutely prove him
| self innocent and guiltless of her blood.
| no man ever went before jury with
less hope III receiving mercy
Public Opinion Snys "GniIty."
| Certainly. as the matter stands to-
| day, no has been tried at the bar of
public opinion and found guilty. and
so bitter Is the feeling against him,
! as one woman. Richmond Srande
/. dame said to me. the only wonder Is
! that he had not been lynched.
The absolute conviction that Beattie
| is the murderer of his wife, that Is
! held alike by police and people. and
| that has been held since the very
/ morning after the killing. is one OF the
most curious features of the case. The
: bearded highwayman, or farmer, of
i whom Beattie told, who had the gun
! that Paul Beattie had bought a few
days before. and who Henry Beattie
says killed his wife. Is regarded as
such a mythical figure that no effort
has really been made to find such an
| Individual.
/ 1t is a serious matter to be Judged
and condemned by the community In
which you have lived all your life, and
to understand why Beattie should be
Low Colonist Fares to California,
| in effect Sept. 49, Touriat sleepInR ca "a with