The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-09-10

promised TO all men. May Cod have
mercy on your soul" the court said
10 MIN In passing sentence. and only
! before that last bar of justice may
! Henry Beattie claim the mercy which
ne did not show to tho woman he
swore to love and protect.
Meets Wide Approval
The verdict OF the jury has'met with
general approval. Even before the
| trial. the public branded Henry Beat.
tie as the slayer OF his wife. But
fair and impartial trial by twelve OF
his peers was afforded him. and II he
had been able 10 prove his innocence.
or even to have shown the slightest
doubt that he was the guilty man. no
would have gone forth free man. and
none would have dared offer him harm.
Justice has never moved swifter than
IN TINS case. Within few days after
the perpetration Of the crime. when IL
, seemed. from the evidence, that Henry
was the guilty man. he was arrested
ana placed In prison Beulah Binford.
his inamorata. and Paul Reat,ie his
cousin were locked up s material
Witnesses
he was indicted almost immediately
ana shortly after his trial began. HIS
attorneys asked for n postponement 70
another term. a continuance at least
But the court fixed the trial for an
early date Though the request OF
the attorneys for the defense was NOT
granted. every reasonable indulgence
was granted them. AT any time they
asked TO be permitted TO leave the
courtroom that request was permitted
Judge Watson afforded the prisoner
every protection guaranteed by law.
nothing was withheld from him. for
ihoeed the very court. as Judge Watson
stated 10 the prisoner. hoped that he
/ fhrth
would clear his name OF the stigmn
attached. There was no one who
| wanted to believe him guilty of tina.
bloody deed general sigh of graft
fication would have gone up had he
peen able 10 establish his innocence
| 1t Is hard TO believe that a man would
| deliberately murder the Wife of his
bosom and the mother of his child,
and none would have believed 1t If
| there had been any way out What
ever, then, may be the outcome-and
now but one outcome is expected
Henry Beattie cannot say that his
own people. the people of his own
community. have not judged him fairly.
| They would have preferred to believe
him innocent But they have been
| forced to believe him guilty.
His One Great Crime.
For many things he has doae, all
/ i.
| There is much to palliate the minor
otenses OF his life. But for the crime
| which came as a climax to his life
| there is no confinement. no pnlliation.
| Had he not taken that final and fatal
| step. his fellowmen. all say, would
| have pardoned and have forgotten the
lesser things OF his youth. But In the
eyes of the law he mas committed an
offense which may not be pardoned by
man.
All feel and express sympathy for
his aged father, and there is no one
who would not try to bring himself to
a belief in the boys Innocence for his
fathers sake. ii that were possible
Louis Wendenburg. In the midst of his
to express his sympathy for that old
man. But he called attention to the
other side of the case.
He pictured that motherless baby,
on whose name tho stigma of an un-
bamable shame will be ever attached,
and he pictured the fearful, desperate
agony of that babes mother when she
saw the murderous weapon in her
husbands hand and realized that she
was to die, unprotected. on that lone
ly road. In the nature of things, as
the special prosecutor pointed out.
the. earlier scenes and the earlier
things were forgotten in the presence
of an aged fathers sorrow But he
| mirrored that young woman's last
| moments on earth: he depicted the
awful agony of her heart when she
saw that accuraed gun in her own
husbands hand He showed how she
was slain in the road and how her
body was thrown into the car as that
| of slaughtered beast, He showed
how Henry Beattie must have ridden
home on the lifeless form, and how
he lacked the grief which the ordinary
man would show had his wife been
slain as Henry Beattie said that his
wife was slaughtered on public high
| way
When he spoke of that innocent
baby. 5oy whom HsnKXG. 1Rsattisss i has