The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1911-08-24
BEATTIE JURY COMPLETED
STATE WILL BEGIN PRESENT
ING ITS EVIDENCE TO-DAY.
Prisoner Faces sixteen Provisional Jury.
men and Challenges Four-Is Sent to
Little Jaii to stay TIL Trial u Com.
pieted Jury Made ~ or NounG Men.

picted Jury Made ~ or Voung Men
CHEsTERr1ELp CorRT House.. Va. Aug
| 23.-There came a moment this afternoon
when a white faced young man with his
/ lips between his teeth stood alone before
fatal chance and played the gambler s
game.
He was Henry Clay Beattie. on trial
for wife murder. and the game he played
alone was that of trying to pick from
a row Of sixteen faces Of tentative jury
men four in which there might lurk the
shadow Of a menace to him.
For two days the Judge and his counsel
had gone over the venires. listening to the
qualifications Of the farmers of Chester
field to sit in judgment on the young
fellows life.
Very carefully they had winnowed out
sixteen men. according to the law Of Vir-
ginia. who were to sit for a final elimina :
lion 10 the jury number Of twelve. Judge
Watson had with grave courtesy once
more reviewed the list. had made each
man stand up and say that he was still
a fiji person to render impartial Judgment
according to the facts and the law.
Sixteen men counted fl by the Judge
sat there; yet there must be only twelve
to hold justice in their hands. Beattie.
his lawyers and his father had retired
to a little Jury room with the list Of the
sixteen and had consulted for fifteen min
utes. They came hack. All sat down
I but the young prisoner. he stood with his
whitened knuckles braced on the table
in front Of him and looked from face to
face in the jury box across the aisle.
The provisional jurvmen met his gaze
Most were the faces of young men, farmers
from the wilderness and men Of small
trades A few were old men; one had a
square sci jaw and little eyes that looked
! severely out of cavernous sockets These
faces young Beattie had TO read Hi:
lawyer rose and whispered in his ear
He shook his head impatiently Minutes
passed and there was absolute silence ir
the little court room Still his eyes
passed slowly from face to face and the
muscles of his jaw twitched
Sheriff Gill sat on the corner of the
Judges dais chewing gum 80 rapidly
that the sandy paint brush at the tip o.
his chin bobbed like a rabbits tail Judg.
Watson's fingers were running around anC
around the smooth green top Of a tele
graph insuator on top of his desk.
Yet the boy stood alone and gazed
, All of sudden his shoulders went back
with a quick jerk of decision He sat
down and with a pencil struck of foul
Of the names on the list before him The
clerk read the names OF the four Juror
thus eliminated One was the old mar
with the harsh eyes, one was a voGngstel
no older than Beattie who had dispo
sition to grin, another was a heavy faceC
man with slightly vacuous eyes and th'
fourth was just colorless citizen whc
e,chewed neckwear.
So the young man accused of havin:
murdered his wife on black road il
Chesterfield county a month ago mad,
, his discard and was ready TO play the gam,
with death across the able.
, But this was not the only trial Of nerv.
that came to Beattie to-day 4 shary
: shock was given to him when a; he clos,
of the days session, with the jury al
sworn and the taking Of evidence read,
to begin tomorrow morning Jud e
,, Watson. ordered III. young man to bs
locked up in the little handbox of n jal
, behind the old court house
This is a miserable little calaboose
hardly a. large Ms IA receiving vault II
a graveyard and qult. as uninviting
Behind the grated windows the shinn,
eyes Of six negro prisoners CHECKER
thieves and drunkards have been spark
ing for the last few days of aycitemen
on the green of the court house. and in
sinuating pleas for nickels to buy Tobacco
have been voiced whenever any on,
passed hv
Beattie's lawyers had hoped that IN.
Judge would allow ther\clien TO remain
in the Richmond jail of nights. as he ha
been doing during the preliminary dsv,
Of Jury getting hut Judg" Watson rulec
that he should 20 in the dingy lockur
behind the court house, there to remair
unit his fate shall he decided
When the prisoner heard the Judge
, ruling he smiled waverng sort of smii,