The Washington times., 1911-08-31
JUDGE WATSON'S
CONDUCT OF TRIAL
Wins LOUD PRAISE
Jurist's Personality Is the
Dominating Force In
4 Court Room.
By JAMES E. BREADY.
Over Times Leased Wire From Chcs-
terfeId Court House.

CHESTERFIELD COURT HOUSE,
Va, Aug. SL-"One mans poison
another mems meat"
II the trial of Beattie for the murder
Of his wife is thrusting that young
man nearer and rearer the electric
chair, it is even more surely making
Judge Walter A. Watson.
Those three sisters, capricious arbiters
Of fate. presiding o'er spindle, thread
and scissors. must be laughing in ironic
glee as they behold their handiwork.
No presiding judge in a famous MUIR
der trial has ever more quickly and
more fixedly gained golden opinions
from all than Judge Watson. Newspa-
per men and women are attending the
trial of Beattie who saw Harry NJ.
Thaw tried twice, who heard Nan Pat
terson sob out denial of Caesar Young's
murder. who wrote" the Schenk pois-
oning trial. and who sat tense while
a Virginia jury pronounced the doom
OF Mayor McCue; and all of these de-
clare that not in their experience have
they met a trial Judge who so COM
bined dignity and courtesy with ripe
knowledge of criminal law.
"Where Manners Come From"
Judge Watson is from Chesterfield,
where the manners come FROM" is the
epigram now current.
The saying was made by a former
Pittsburg resident, and promptly some
thing was said in return about Where
the scandals come from"
Judge Watson's knowledge of the law,
and his seemingly expert decisions on
h. I'D of
more deeply because one or two Rich.
mond people, who evidently did not
know much about him, declared before
the trial began that Judge Watson was
a country judge" and if only Judge
So-and-So, of Richmond, were presiding,
the trial would be much better, and so
forth. The reflection of these one or
two people is plainly begot by ignorance
out of urban prejudice.
II Judge Watson's career is reviewed,
any element of surprise at his ability
as displayed in the trial, disappears. He
has been a lawyer twenty-one years,
just half his life. He was Common
wealth attorney of Nottoway county
bench when still holding the former po-
sttion.
How He Rules the Court.
1t is no easy task to uphold the dig
nifty Of a court under such physical con-
dItions as prevail in the little Chester
field court house. Judge Watson keeps
the aisles clear where witnesses must
pass, but except for this, every inch of
space in the thirty-two by twenty-five
foot court room is packed with crowd
ed humanity. Suppose some one in a
rear row of seats should laugh loudly.
Sheriff Gill and his deputies would be
physically unable to get at the offender
at once, if able to locate him at all.
It is by mental dominance that the
court room must be and IS :uled, and
order kept and dignity preserved. And
It is by this power OF personality, cou-
pied with the spectators consciousness
Of court room etiquette, that the dignity
Of the law has been upheld by Judge
Watson.
Once laughter did break forth when
Sheriff Gill's voice cracked most anus
ingly. 1t was then that Judge Watson,
rising, said in tones most solemn and
most SOLDERING:
THE life of a human being is at stake
in this court room. 1t hangs suspended
in the balance above us. If there IS
more levity here 1 shall cause the
sheriff to clear the court. / hope and
believe no further warning will be nee
essary."
No further warning was needed.