El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-09
Great SOILS.

GREAT SOULS.
Great souls are slow to blame and quick
TO find
Excuse for errors Of the heart and
mind;
Confronted with the crime of broken
They 1 p"s aside the fact to probe the
cause.
with charity and faith divinely blest,
They look not on mans worst side, but
his hest,
And wnen a soul before temptation
falls
Their sympathy across the chasm calls.
There but few whom wanton love of
From honest ways and piouH paths
For sin Is scrdId, ugly, unrefIned,
And mortal man towards beauty is In
cIined.
The most who stoop nave known the
lash Of need
That drove them on to madness, snd
the deed,
And hidden In the souls of more, some
fault
Lay, waiting to Betrsy them to assault.
All. Man is but tool in higher hands,
And, IL some pnrt is shivered by
stroke,
1t may have served q purpose as IT
broke.
You ask the author? He is Charles
Blair Lynch. age p, convicted of for
gerry and under sentence TO spend the
next four years Of his life in the Texas
state penitentiary. Too honest to swear
to a lie, ne says, as a result OF which
ne might have been acquitted he is to-
day confined in the FL Paso county
jail. Retrospection of past good per-
f0rmances Is his only pleasure. for the
future is clouded with hay hopes.
He asks to be paroled, and his plea
Is eloquent but the Texas statutes in
clude no provision of that nature. Ex-
ecutive clemency is his only chance,
and influential force, not alone from
e Paso, for he has many ferceful
friends in many cities. IS TO be brought
into play. All, however, is to be kept
from his mother ana sister. bsfore
whom he some day hopes to present
himself without prison stain, and who
are at present ignorant of his predica-
ment.
Attainment Of an extraordinary edu-
cation is his; his flow Of language and
his diction are perfect. yet somewhere
in his makeup a cog slipped, seemingly,
for he was tempted and fell, and while
under the influence Of whisky, he says.
he passed three forged checks, and
without lawyer pleaded guilty. His
companion secured an attorney and was
acquitted.
IN a letter to district attorney Joe
Nealon ne pleads now what would have
exerted a powerful influence on any
Jury. The letter was written in the
county Jail, where he was surrounded
Only By others whom penitentiary SEN
fences stare in the face. The letter. in
part, recites:
1T is with considerable trepidation
and misgiving that venture 10 ap-
proach you upon matter of which
you are. presumably. ignorant I have
no warrant of intrusion othes than
that hope which springs eternal in
the human breast" unless-wen, there
may be greater justification. You are
my judge
II was arrested on the 18th day Of
November on a charge Of forgery pre-
ferred by the Rio Grande Valley bank
The charge was true was guilty.
pl6dQCQ guilty IL Ll6 O1lll Qlcl1lCt COUIL
and was sentenced to four years penal
servftude December % last The then
prosecutor, ". D. Howe. asked the jury
10 fix the minimum penalty, which
they did He said to me. upon leaving
the Courtroom that he believed me
TO be less guilty in the premises than
another.
Friends Of day q have mons other
IN FL Paso) had advised me to make a
pathetic juror or two might be reluc-
tant 20 send ne TO the penitent4ary:
at least. they said the jury might be
inpeled to tighten my sentence more
than they could f I voluntarily con-
fessed the crime. An offer Of gratui-
tous legal assistance was made me
But. after much consideration, con-
eluded there was no defence, morally.
and could not bring myself to believe
that lie would Tighten the burden Of
seif-accusatiOn weighing me down. /
may have been wrong IN this. Ignor-
ing IT'S ethical side and viewing only I
Its practical aspects. no doubt I was.
TT was my first experience with /
courts IN the role Of prisoner. It was /
the first time I had strayed so far /
afielo as 10 shafter statute or even
bemire myself / had sinned before
We all have But had never before !
been guilty or an act which could cause I
me to fear the judgment Of my fellow
or be ashamed to meet their gaze.
Why did I 90 it2 why did our first /
ancestor set the fashion in forbidden /
fruits? I think. now. there must have /
been a .stii1' concealed IN the first I
garden It happens that I am not +
Injured to heavy drinking Bouts with |
Bacchus were not included in my early I
exercise Excessive imbibing is not
PARTICULARLY attractive. and never had
any keen desire TO learn to hold my
liquor like a gentleman Moreover,
z-hen made my first communion Il /
I'm Catbolic5 Z took a pledge to alb
stain from the use Of intoxicants until
was p years old. I am now 22
With a companion drank heavily
he week Of my crime. So heavily +
hat have only the vaguest recoIlec-
ion Of many incidents Of the days i'm
nediately preceding and following its
commission, none at all OF some. / re-
nenbered presenting two checks for
payment, hazfly. albeit but Of the
names signed to the checks and the Il
mounts I had no memory There \
we're three checks in all.