Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1911-12-01
GLOOMY XMAS FOR BEAUTIES
No Earthly Help For Such Sorrow
As Those OF the Aged Father.
Written for The star by Memo

tits over now-the tragedy of human
life-a life gone, wrong, and however
much We may condemn the sin, one
cannot help q sense Of pity for the
sinner who has evoked an awful doom.
In the Beattie case, as in most sucl
cases, it is the innocent ones who sui
fer most, who have to face the worl.7
bound hand and foot by the crime
that they did not commit.
The Christmas-tide will soon b.
here, and how the father-heart of th'
Elder Beattie will suffer as he travels
back ia thought over the bridge OF
years and sees again an innocent little
boy with his Christmas toys and joys,
and the happy home from which hap
piness has INV fed forever. This
father gave t0h;s sons wife fathers
love, and this made the pang OF SOL
row over his double loss strike deeper.
God help him! There is nc earthly
help for such sorrow as his.
But now we want to talk few m
ments to you young men who read The
Star. and we would ask you if you ART
giving heed to the stern lessons taught
by the dread tragedy that was enacted
in our state. Oh! study these lessons
we'll, for there is not one of you so
high CT so good that you are immune
from the danger of sitting in this chair
of doom, and bequeathing to those
wto love you an awful legacy OF
shame and dishonor. Every time you
ste aside from the straight and mar
row path of honor and right living.
you step into the path that led Henry
Clay Beattie TO his awful doom. That
path seems very fair at first: the how-
ers of beauty and pleasure line the
way, and they are so alluring that
they draw many to path that they
never meant to tread-a path that
leads down, down aud ends at yawn-
ing gulf. Are you .reading it? Stop
and think about it. Take stock in
yourself as merchant does in his
goods, and see where you stand. If
you live your life in the open, if you
| do not 60 to places that you could
not, would not speak of before your
lhome-folks, if you shun the company
of a depraved person as you would
that of leper, you are not in much
danger of sitting in the chair of doom.
You cannot think it possible that
such a fate could befall you, but
neither did Henry Clay Beattie think
so at this time year ago. He was
then young married man, and it is
natural that he and his lovely young
bride we're looking forward to happy
Christmas, the first one in their mar
ried life. II on that day the veil that
hid the present from them had been
drawn away and they could have seen
that which has happened-the Young
wife in bloody grave, the young hus-
band in that of a felon's, and their
Ifatherless, motherless. babe left to
grow up under the awful shadow cast
by their awful doom-they, too, would
have thought such things impossible.
But it was the old story, one that
has been repeated thousands of times,
and one that is being told in some
place every day-the spoiled, self
willed child; the pleasure-loving,
pleasure-seeking youth, regardless OF
honor or moral principle, passing
through different phases of character
before he became a criminal, but each
temptation he yielded to put him:closer
in the line that gets most of its re-
cruits from among the good fellows
of this world, and marches them
along the hower-lined road of pleas
ure to dreadful doom.
If they only had needed the words
of the Book of books: "Rejoice,
young man, in thy youth, and lie. thy
heart cheer thee 10 the days of thy
youth; and walk in the ways of thine
heart, and in the sight of thine eyes;
but know thou that for all these things
God will bring thee into Judgment"
Had Henry Beattie but needed these
words he might tonight be the central
figure in happy home, surrounded
by love and affection, with his inno-
cent baby's hands clinging to his own,
in place of lying in a dishonored
grave that he dug for himself. His
career and his doom are the lessons
that are now given to the young men
of our land to learn Will you take
them home and learn them we'll? If
you profit by them you are safe; il
iyou are on the road that leads down
you will retrace your steps before it
is too late. If you do not heed you
ere always in danger, for it only
needs temptation and circumstances
to develop the sin that is yielded to
into the crime that is yielded to into
the crime that destroys body and
soul alike.
| II you yourg men would only be as
careful of the seed you are sowing as
the farmer is of his seed your life
harvest would be a good one, for it is
as true as when Christ spoke it, that
You cannot gather grapes from
shorns. or figs from thistles." What
kind OF harvest are you preparing
for? Don't SOW the kind of seed that
,, Beattie did, or you may have to reap
the same dreadful harvest.
Lord Byron's mad pursuit OF plea
sure did not lead him tc a disgraceful
death, but it lead him to an early one.
At the age of 36, with his body worn
out by self-indulgence, he lay down
TO die after writing these word:
1.-THE thorns that have gathered are
OF the tree. [ planted; they ha We
torn me and l bleed.
/ might have known what frrit would
spring from such q seed"