CARROL'S DRAMATIC COMPANY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 348, 29 March 1911, Page 3

CARROL'S DRAMATIC COMPANY.

The following is a copy of a touching letter written from John Lee from his home in Devon :—"No doubt the majority of the people in this world who have been interested in my case look upon me as guilty and deserving of my 22 years' imprisonment. What advantage have I in protesting my innocence now? None whatever; but my experiences have made me believe in what many people call "fate" (I believe in pre-destination), and that consequently my career was mapped out for me—l was to suffer for the crime of someone else (which I have done), but have found many friends since my release, and am not deserted now. There are many people who derive pleasure from oppressing the outcast, and to them there is no suffering possible to the human heart; in fact they multiply it by all sorts of unworthy means. There will perhaps come to these people a moment when they, too, will "stand on the brink of detruction.' In that time they will remember how they pursued an unhappy man who has suffered through 22 years of agony. May they obtain more mercy then they have allotted me. I cannot question the verdict of the jury on the evidence placed before them. They could have come to no other conclusion than that I was guilty. I have my own opinion about some of the witnesses, and do not question my trial. His Majesty's judges are supposed to be beyond suspicion. No jury would wickedly send a man to his death. What Ido complain about is that even before I was tried, and during the time, malice was shown by certain witnesses and a section of the public. To'all these people I say again, may more mercy be shown them than what was shown me. As for my wonderful escapes from death (for they tried three times to execute me and failed), I have only one thing to say. It' it be true that the Divine Will is manifest in everything that happens, if it be true that not even a leaf fall or a sparrow perish without His knowledge, then I say that Heaven and Heaven alone spared me on that terrible morning. The Supreme Being does not always send only 'with a ilaming sword.' The planks of the scaffold may have swollen with rain, as the public imagine, the bolts may have been rusty, the lever may have jammed, but the question that puzzles the world at large is: Why did the mechanism of the scaffold not work with JOHN LEE?" On Friday. March 31, at the Town Hall, Te *Kuiti, Edward Carrol's Dramatic Co. will produce the stirring life story of John Lee, written by the clever English author, Mr Claude M. Murrell. It is claimed to be absolutely the most sensational drama ever staged in New Zealand.