Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-06-27

Robert NJ. Taylor, the youth who killed
Viola Carpenter, had asserted that his act
was the result of an accident. She had
confirmed this. It is probable that he
never could been convicted Of having de-
liberately killed her. Yet there are lesser
degrees OF punishment which Robert Taylor
could have suffered and which the law
might have inflicted If he had not married
the girl who had chung to him during those
two years of her sorrow
Here is mystery which may never be
revealed. Taylor has been released: the
law has accepted his explanation. What
happened during the five days between the
accident" and her death has not been ell
tered upon any police blotter nor is it likely
TO be. Detective-Scrgeant Harry Power.
the big. tender-hcartcd policeman whose
wedding ring it was that the dead girl
cln,ched so firmly says this:
What happened then was for the Re.
cording Angel TO set down II anybody
wants to read they'll rnd it In the Book of
Life-if they get chance TO look at it
WREN they have gone ZIP for Judgment
Here is the story--a page OF poignant
tragedy in real life. Bat il is far far
more than that. Ii tcache, w. that we
most soiled eXteriors. the most delicate
sentiments in the roughc.t OF men II
brings homo the immortal trutil spoken
1000 years ago: Judge not lest yu also
be Judged"
Three years ago Viola CARPENTER lived
on her grandfather's big farm in Seely-
Vile. He was her guardian--her father
was dead. She was then scarce seventeen
and the old mans idol. Her two brothers
had gone to the war. They were fighting
OH the side Of France. Her grandfather,
although ninety years old, was sturdy and
we'll lie had won great honors III our Civil
war. and it had been stories OF valor and
courage that had prompted the two boys
TO take up arms on the side OF France
The same warlike strain was in the girl:
and ii was fed b. the whitchaired veter.
ans stories even rs it had been fed in her
brothers Daily she pleaded with the old
man for permission to go to France TO give
what help she could Steadfastly he re.
fused
You are all have" he said az have
done my share for the cause OF liberty
iour two brothers are fighting, and your
place is here with me-"
Bat when the United States entered the
war. his viewpoint changed There came
10 her an opportunity 10 work for her coun.
try and yet not be separated too far from
her grandfather
She was offered fairly responsible
position with a firm at Akron Ohio. which
was then manufacturing balloons for the
United States Government. II was really
war worii. and this time her grandfat Their
consented to let her go at the factory in
Akron she met Taylor, a nice-looking.
e"ntlcmhniy youth not many years her
senior. She asked him why he was not in
me trenches, as her brothers were He
told her that he had tried to 20, but that
nc had been rejected AS unfit for active
service. He dep!ored this greatly. but he
H'ns ICING all he could he said for his
c"a"try she sympathized with him. And
soon her pity grew into love.
There came night when he proposed
marriage TO her Happily she accented
him They could not be welded at once
Taylor told her, because the work tina, he
was doing through patriotism would not
permit MIN to support two. She had only