FATHER’S PLEA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2065, 27 April 1907, Page 1

FATHER’S PLEA.

HIS ELOQUENCE SAVES HIS SON’S LIEE. One of the* most dramatic trials that has over occurred on the I'aeific coast has just ended at Tacoma. Chester Thompson was charged with the. murder of George Meade Emqry, one. of the most respected men in Seattle, a judge of the Superior Court, and father of the prisoner’s sweetheart. The act was

committed in a moment of passion because Mr. Emory had endeavored on one occasion to stop Thompson from rushing into his house.

The prisoner was defended by his aged father, and his address to the jury had a tremendous effect, men and women crying aloud. : “I don’t want you to go and disagree,” said the aged advocate, walking up to the very railing of the jury box, his face twitching spasmodically anil the tears trickling down his face anil snow-white heard. “I can’t no 'through this thing again. For God’s sake bring in some sort of a verdict. If the sun is to go down, let it go down now. If you are going to strike, strike now. lam no coward. In tlie liell of battle my old commander said to me that I never blenched. 1 won’t blench now. I can take, my blows square in front like a soldier anil go down. DID NOT FEAR DEATH.

“Death is not a serious thing. The man who fears it deserves mockery ami contempt. If it were only a matter of death I could take this boy by the hand and walk out to meet it. But it is not death, it is dishonour I fear. Away hack to before the ra evolution there, has. never been a ’drunkard or. a criminal in my ancestry. I don't want it to begin now. ' “I come before you a simple old man who loves his hoy and who loves the law. Before God I am not here, to swing you from your fealty to the law. I have resorted to no cheap trickery in my. conduct towards my son in tliis court room to swing you away from justice. I have, come to the marble portals of your hearts to knock, and knock gitil you let me

After a short deliberation tlie jury acquitted tlie yon ill. Commenting on the verdict the following morning the premier paper in

Seattle, the homo of the dead man, says:—“The jury has said that the boy who rushed into a. peaceful household with a revolver in bis, band anil killed one of the finest men that 'Seattle lias ever seen is insane. Tears uf'n father have greater weight than ijlie grief of a widow who wept her heart out at home and had no tears to spare for, public parade. The naturally pathetic sight of a father fighting for bis son lias obliterated that other sight of not only a wife and little children bereaved, but a whole city is in mourning.”