New-York tribune., 1918-06-13
Letters Reveal Paul Chapman
As dearest Mother" Knew Him
NOTES Breathing Cheer and Affection for Only Person Who
otood With Him Against the World Written by
Boy Who Faces Chair as Slayer

II young Paul Chapman could be
tried again tomorrow for the crime
01 MURDER and those unbendng rules
"a evidence beNueathed by the Middle
ages 10 the present just for once
eoo'o DC set aside, the defence scarcely
could do better than pin it's chief
hopes OF acquittal on the letters Paul
wrote to Dearest Mother" during the
months he spent in Raymond Street
Jail.
lhrouSh many weeks Mrs. Chpaman
hept the letters jcalously to herself.
\o olher eyes saw them-she wanted!
10 r o'her eyes to see them. She and
.e"l were two against the world By
INC world, under its inflexble old law.
raul had been tried, convicted and
sentenced. In the pride Of it's own
piepohderence of virtue, the world
TAs 'H:l comfortably prepared to sec him
"ie--and would remember him, so long
as memory lasted, as a boy incredibl
''o'ouS ana lrretricvably gone wrong.
Reveals Son as She Knew Him
This was the mothers reasoning
"hlch until now has kept Paul Chap
mans PRISON letters from the light
IN the days when she felt that hers
and Paul's was friendlcss, hopeless
common cause, she had resolved to
treasure the letters to herself when
the chair had had its sixteen-year-old d
victim, mementos of the real Paul
chapman whose life the Law had
blindly taken.
Today Mrs. Chapman knows that she
mas friends and Paul has friends. She
hho"s that many men and women huve
begun to reconsider Pauls case; tina,
tnought has grown into sentiment, and
mat out of sentiment has arisen in.
olgnatlon against the medieval statutes
"hich countenancc in New York State
ana IN this day and age the legal mur.
oer OF slXteen-yearo boy.
II tins Indignation is quite apar,
from the question of Paul's guilt OF
innocence, Mrs. Chapman has neverthe.
less conv inced herself the time is al
hand Tor society" to know Paul as il
has been given to her to know him
hence, the prison letters have come
into possession Of The Tribune.
Letters Not Those of Bad Bow
There may be no proof in the letters
that Paul did not commit the crime OF
which he stands convicted, but thew dc
show the boy had qualities of decency
!,!,: yond the ordinary, that whatever
wrongdong he may nave been led into
he never could have been thoroughly
bad. His penitcnce for what he did dc
and admitted doing; his laborious at
tempts to show how cheerful he was
under the threat Of the chair. and thus
to cheer up dearest mother"; his try.
to-forrget-me-to-day Christmas greet
ing; his belated discovery he was "onl,
a kid"-all argue that Paul's life is {
life worth saving and setting straight.
Here, for instance, is what he wrote
CHRISTMAS night-one of the few times
when he was not ablc to keep up hi;
pretence CT optimism:
dearest mother: l am very lionel,
to.night-more so than I've ever been
have just come from the entertain
ment we had this afternoon. 1 incloss
the programme. The singers cam,
around afterward and wished US :
merry Christmas, as if Christina
could be merry in a place like this.
Il am more downhearted than ",
eyer been. | feel now as if l wantet
liberty or death. I wrote uncle ant
thanked him for the Christmas presen
that he sent me.
1.-THE case will nrohah1v cono. -,