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PAGE TEN
Paid for “a Receipt” that Leo
Frank was Innocent ?
\I7HEN wise men. astute men, shrewd
men. virtuous men. patriotic men. law
and-order men dig a pit for others,
and fall into it themselves, they never seem
to enjoy the situation.
That Leo Frank bunch are squirming like
Worms on a hot shovel.
It s about that settlement of the damage
suit of Mary Phagan’s mother —the quiet,
and most judicious settlement, “out of court.”
The Frank bunch are awfully indignant
and sore, because The Jeffersonian demon
strated that the settlement was an acknowl
edgement of Frank’s guilt, by the factory
owners who paid the money to the poor wo
man who lost her lovely little girl.
The factory owners included Frank's
uncle, as I understood. My recollection is
that his name is Mr. Sigismund Montag.
The Atlanta bunch now say that when
Frank’s uncle and the other owners of the
factory settled the damage suit by paying
Mary’s mother some money (they don't say
how much) they took her “receipt,” stating
that Jim Conley killed the girl.
O’. a receipt!
So we big lawyers, detectives, and capital
ists prove murders by “receipts ', do we?
When we go out after “vindications”, we
pay over the ducats, and take a receipt as a
vindicator, do wo?
That's a fine, new practice, to be sure.
Leo Frank, the Superintendent of the fac
tory, was the Company, for in law he was
what is called the alter ego of those who put
him in the place of the managing owners.
Therefore, when Frank entrapped the little
girl, in his office at the factory, where he
was In authority, and where he was in offi
cial control of the maiden, taking her back
as her boss to the room in which she worked
under him, his assault upon her and his cruel,
cruel murder of her, made the owners of the
factory liable in damages to her mother.
Jim Conley, the negro who swept floors
and did other menial work in the place, was
not in authority over Mary Phagan; was not
the personal representative of the owners;
was not their alter ego; and the company was
not in law responsible for his conduct toward
other employees, unless they had notice and
condoned it.
Consequently, if Conley, unknown to
Frank and themselves, pursued the girl and
murdered her, it would not have involved the
Company any more than the Georgia Rail
road would be involved, if one fireman has a
quarrel with another and kills him.
In law, Mary Phagam was in the custody
and care of Leo Frank, the other self of the
owners of the factory; just as a lady-pas
senger. for instance, is in the care of the con
ductor of a Pullman car.
Lawyers understand well enough what po
sition and authority a servant has to have,
before the employer can be held responsible
for the criminal, or negligent conduct of one
to another.
Laymen also will understand that a “vindi
cation” which is willing to pay money and
take the verdict in the shape of a receipt from
a woman who is poor —and who, not being
able to read and write, may not even know
what was in the paper she signed—is a vin
dication which dreads the court-house.
If it were not so tragic, it would be down
right funny.
Rich men go to a much wronged woman,
pay her a sum of money and get her signa
ture to a “receipt,” which is as much of a
vindication as they dare to seek.
They had sense enough not to face another
fury.
But, oh, what a splendid opportunity was
lost to the Atlanta Journal, to Mr. Hearst,
to Mr. Brisbane, to Judge Shearn, to Judge
THE JEFFERSONIAN
Powell, to old Brother Brewster, to Dr. Wil
mer, to Dr. White, to Luther Rosser, to M. J.
Yeomans, to W. E. Thomson, to John W.
Moore. to Adolph Ochs, to the Pulitzer
Brothers, to Rabbi Marcs, to John M. Slaton,
to the negro editor of the Atlanta Independ
ent, and to that beloved old carpet bagger,
Dr. Stockbridge of The Ruralist.
Nor must F'forget Samuel Adams, and my
versatile friend of the amber locks and
moustache. Hooper Alexander.
VINDICATION ! O, yes, we got our vin
dication: ire paid our money and took a re
ceipt for it.
Good night, nurse.
-e
Too Much Bryan for Nebraska*
TYNE of the surest proofs of good sense in
any man is, Knowing when to go.
The visitdr who wears out his welcome, is
a familiar example of the man who doesn't
possess good sense.
The lawyer who clings to the court-house,
after his clients have left him, and younger
attorneys are passing him, is another and a
very pitiful illustration.
The school-teacher who doesn't realize that
he is out of date, the doctor who can’t keep
abreast of the modern movement, the preacher
who has lost his lick, the writer who has
emptied himself, the singer whose voice is
gone, the orator whose speeches have become
stale —all these are examples of the lack of
common sense.
They did not know when to quit.
They waited to be told.
Even the Divine Patti came once too often,
and she was forced to flee the stage forever,
in a tempest of sobs and tears: her audiences
made it plain enough to her that she was a
“has been.’’
A similar fate has overtaken William
Jenkins Bryan; but, as yet, he is trying to
believe that it hasn't.
His hide is as tough as an alligator’s, and
his everlasting smile, being made of boiler
iron. doesn't immediately vanish.
Nevertheless, the inevitable has come to
W. J. B.: if he doesn’t see it, others do, and
that's what counts.
The Peerless leader undertook to compel
the Democrats of Nebraska to elect his
brother to the gubernatorial chair, and him
self to the next National convention.
To make sure of his success, the Peerless
one discontinued for a season his lectures on
J«sus Christ, vacated his “villa” in Miami,
and went in person to Nebraska, to manage
the campaign for self and Brother Charles.
Strange to relate, Nebraska had grown
tired of Bryan's repeated betrayals of her
candidates at National conventions, and he
was refused a place as delegate.
His brother was also defeated.
Heretofore, Bryan has always gone to the
conventions, as an instructed delegate, and
he has invariably been false to his in
structions.
He began it in 1896, when he went to
Chicago as a Bland delegate, and betrayed
the Free Silver hero, to get the nomination
for himself, on a sophomoric speech whose
Cross of Gold simile was stolen from Col.
Archie Fiske’s book, “Statesmen Three.”
His last performance was at Baltimore, in
1912, when he had lost his State to Clark,
and then begged to be sent to the convention,
as an instructed Clarke delegate.
He was so sent, accordingly; and even
before the meeting in Baltimore, he was
intriguing against Clark.
With a very slight effort to carry out
Nebraska’s instructions, Bryan could have
secured Clark’s nomination.
Only a few more votes were needed to turn
old Champ’s big majority into a two-thirds
clincher; but instead of honestly trying to do
this, Bryan vehemently assailed the candidate
whom he had been instructed to support*
A blacker piece of political perfidity hag
seldom been enacted.
Bryan pretended to advocate the nomina
tion of Doctor Woodrow Wilson, but his real
purpose was to capture the nomination for
himself, as he had done in 1896.
During the Sunday recess, he came out in
the papers hinting at a “compromise candi
date,” and he even suggested a fortnight’s
adjournment of the convention ’.
But his finesse was too tactless, and his
intended betrayal of Wilson, as of Clark,
could not be pulled off.
When Bryan resigned from the Cabinet,
because of a mild note to Germany, after
having signed two rough ones, the country
at last began to take his measure.
Many good natured people had excused
his neglecting his official work, and his
making Chatauqua capital out of his Cabinet
position; but when he deserted bis Chief, in
the midst of troubles which he himself had
helped to create by signing those earlier
notes, even the good natured people were
obliged to recognize the inordinate selfish
ness of W. J. Bryan.
He had made the President's troubles
vastly greater, by telling the Austrian am
bassador that those rough notes of his and
Wilson’s were not to be taken serioushjd
Under the earlier English laws, this trea
sonable utterance would have cost a minister
his head.
No one can tell to what degree this dis
loyal speech of Secretary Bryan contributed
to the persistence of Germany in that course
of sub-marine warfare which caused Presi
dent Wilson's latest and sternest note.
The general result is, that Bryan is dis
credited and distrusted.
Besides, it has become manifest to the most
casual observer that he has no real purpose
in life, save to enrich and elevate AV. J. Bryan.
He has not been true to any cause, any
principle, or any leader.
He has not studied and mastered any ques
tion: he is a mere surface man, gifted with
a fine voice, a fluent tongue, a brazen eye,
and a priest's professional smile.
He hasn’t the manners of a gentleman, nor
the tastes of a thoroughbred, nor 'the methods
of a statesman: in all things, he is self-push
ing, grand-standish, bill-boardy, and shallow.
And there are three incidents in his career
which stamp him, indelibly, as a bounder, a
cad, a plug:
(1) His speech, at a non-political assem
blage in New York, asserting the qualifica
tions of Mrs. Bryan to be the Alistress of
the White House;
(2) His address to his guests at his first
Diplomatic banquet, informing the ambassa
dors and ministers that they must not expect
wine, but must be content with grape-juice;
J 3) His taking away from the State De
partment the desk which Seward and all
subsequent Secretaries had used.
William Jenkins may flounder around
noisily for quite a while, yet; but Nebraska’s
rejection of him as a delegate to the National
convention is a blow that cannot be talked
and smiled away.
Watson’s Books on Sale in
Atlanta and Macon*
A complete line of Thos. E. Watson’s books are
on sale at Miller’s Book Store, in Atlanta; also at
Macon, with Brown’s Book Store. People in those
cities and vicinity would do well to call and look
them over. Jeffersonian Publishing Co.
Bethany, by Thos. E. Watson. A Romance
of the Civil War, with vivid pen pictures of
plantation life, before the war. Bound in
cloth. Price, SI.OO, postpaid. The Jefferso
nian Publishing Company, Thomson, Ga.
