Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, July 30, 1912, LATE SPORTS, Page 3, Image 3

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Curious Spectators Find Sensations They Seek as the Famous Tragedy Is Unfolded in Court WOMEN SEE A MARRIAGE LESSON IN THE GRACE TRIAL A Graphic View of the Women at the Hearing Who Find in It a “Big Show,” Varying the Monotony of Dull Lives. By DUDLEY GLASS. If any spectator at the Grace trial expected to be awed by the solemnity of the tribunal and thrilled at the dra matic stage setting—accused wife and wounded husband glaring at each other before the judge—he must have been somewhat disappointed. The striking detail one couldn’t get away from was the women in the audi ence, the poorly clad women who sat in those rear seats breathing that fetid atmosphere, surrounded by men of every stamp, hearing little, seeing less and apparently supremely happy de spite the wilting of their garments and the trickle of perspiration through the powder on their cheeks. There were perhaps 50 of them —some old enough to be grandmothers, some girls not far in their teens. One wom an bore a child of five, who fretted and whined on her lap and begged to be taken outdoors again. There was a little girl who ran through the crowd when the doors were opened, dodging between the legs of the grownups, gain ing ground by her very insignificance, until she found a front seat by the judge's stand. Just Ordinary Women. There were little groups of women, dull-eyed, who chewed gum incessant ly and chatted together in low tones as the case progressed. I saw no wom an whose garb or manner stamped her as one of the demi-monde few of the type the world would call "refined." They seemed just ordinary women, whose husbands were at work for day wages. To them the trial of Mrs. Grace was the great "show” of the year. It was to their starved, sensation-hungry souls what the grand opera is to the lover of great music. It was the event of their lives. And how little they saw and heard! Most of them were crowded into seats far at the left of the court room, with the judge's bench and the railed do minions of the clerk shutting off their view of all the principals in the drama. They saw no more than if a wall had been built between them and the court. Perhaps they caught a glimpse of a white-covered cot as Eugene Grace was borne into the room and out again. Per haps they saw a bit of brown plume as Mrs. Grace rose to make her exit. But through all the six hours of the hearing they saw nothing more, for the railings and the standing men against it were between the audience and the stage. But they did not leave in disappoint- OEM ARREST UMS POLICE Lieutenant Is Held Under an Indictment for Rosenthal Murder. NEW YORK. July 30.—Mayor Gay nor today announced that he would call a special meeting of the board of aiderman to begin an investigation of the police department. Police Com missioner Waldo was with the mayor when the announcement was made. Panic reigned in the New York po lice department this afternoon when It became known that several high offi cials had been named to District At torney Whitman as participants in the graft system that resulted in the as s-issination of Herman Rosenthal and tiic indictment of Lieutenant Charles A Becker. Eight men occupying high positions "ere involved in the case by the con fessions of “Jack" Rose, Louis Webber and Harry Vallon, according to reports recurrent about M. Whitman’s office. The district attorney refused to give out these names. Every newspaper man who saw the district attorney was later besieged by’various police officials tor any information he might have se- Complete Exposure Os Graft Promised. Complete exposure of a graft system in which the police have blackmailed gamblers and other law-breakers and have protected them in turn, was promised today as a result of the indictment and arrest of Becker on the charge of planning and ordering the murder of Herman Rosen thal. District Attorney Whitman is confi dent that he will be able to fix the crime on Becker as a result of confes sions made by “Jack” Rose, who ad mitted that he had been Becker's col lector; Louis Webber, the gambler, and Harry Vallon, the East Side gang leader. They named Harrv Horowitz, Frank Muller, alias "Whitey Jack Lewis; Louis Rosenzweig, alias "Lefty Louis, and "Dago Frank" Clcerio, as the a< •- ’UH murderers. The last named is the only one in custody. Becker is in the nibs on a charge of murder In the first degree, while every possible effort ■ being intuit to irate the other three ■n accused of tiring the shots that killed Rosenthal. Rosenthal was assassinated Just in time to prevent him testifying before " grand Jury concerning the alliance i" tween the gamblers and the poin t nd concerning the personal alliam • between ffitke. and Rosenthal in one gambling tiouse in their confessions, Rose, Webber ment. No; they stuck to their seats in grim determination, knowing that ; should they leave a dozen other men | or women were waiting for their places, rhey sat and waited, in the forlorn hope that something might happen to break the monotony of the proceedings or perhaps satisfied with being mere’.. • in the same room with those famous characters immortalized by the papers. 1 hey were like the crowd which gath er outside the walls of a jail waiting for the moment of the execution which ' they have no hope of seeing. Drama Strangely Dull. Rut the drama itself was strangely i dull and emotionless. Upon the wit- I ness stand a policeman in his Sunday , citizen's suit or a negro in worn and 1 dusty garments answered such ques tions as were put, waiting patiently while the young solicitor and the burly ; trial lawyer for the defendant quarreled ■ over the wording of a phrase. There were questions seemingly without a shadow of importance, answers appar ently meaningless. There were half angry altercations between the lawyers ovei points bearing no meaning to the auditor; flashes of rough wit as a cross questioner tried to ridicule the witness into tangling his testimony. And Mrs. Grace, central figure of "the Play, sat at her lawyers.' table, ex pressionless, inscrutable. There were moments when the testimony became unprintable; when almost forbidden subjects were discussed with comment bordering on buffoonery. But st in Mrs Grace leaned over her table, her dark eyes fixed upon the face of the wit ness, her cheek unmarked by blush or pallor. It was as though all the smaller' things of life had been forgotten in the face of the great question the tribunal had been called to answer. And Eugene Grace, the "dying man" of so many newspaper extras: the man who had descended into the shadow of death: the hopeless cripple who would never smile again—he lay on his cot and laughed softly as his friends made comments on the case. He chuckled at the sharp tilts between the counsel and commented caustically upon bits of the testimony. His face was brown, as though he had been playing golf in the sun. There .was no trace of the pallor u hich comes from long confinement save in the slender hands, which were white and emaciated. Grace seemed ' the merriest man in all the room. and A ailon declared Becker set the stage for the mprder and personally managed its details. Each swore he acted at the repeated direction of Becker, and that Becker both before and after the crime assured them of protection. These men gave to District Attorney Whitman the complete chain of facts leading up to the assassination. And in doing so they paved the way to the most remarkable exposition of graft that has ever been known. All of the statements lead to men higher up in the official scale than Becker. They caused District Attorney Whitman to state that he was no longer concerned for the little fish, but was determined to get the bigger men who were responsible for the direction of Becker. They told how the services of big Jack Zellg’s red-handed murder band had been called in to carry out Beck er's sentence of death, and how the whole startling crime had been com mitted under the threat from Becker that if the gamblers did not murder Rosenthal, Becker would send them to prison under "framed up” charges. For the telling of the murder story, Rose, Webber and Vallon will get im munity. They were called as witnesses and testified before the grand jury, which was called in extraordinary ses sion last night to indict Becker. Three Men Guarded Through the Night. All night long Rose, Webber and Vallon camped in the office of Hugh Byrne, secretary to District Attorney Whitman. Detectives Leigh and Russo, with Process Servers Kling and Zinn, took turns guarding them. There was no sleep for Webber. Intensely nerv ous by nature, the man sat in a chair and smoked cigarette after cigarette, alternately weeping, wiping his fore head with a huge handkerchief and staring vacantly into space. At that he said that it was the first good night he had passed in weeks. Becker Passes Sleepless Night. Becker passed a sleepless night in cell No. 120 at the Tombs. He said this morning: "This is an awful plight for an inno cent man to be in. I can't say any thing more now." The delicate health of his wife, who is expecting the arrival of an heir, weighed upon Becker quite as much as the charge against him. The man who had Jauntily twisted a panama hat the night before and smiled in the face of a charge of murder in the first degree was broken and unstrung. When Police Commissioner Waldo came to his office he was affected. "Have you any statement to make?" Absolutely none,” was his reply. "Don't you think that as the head of the department of New York and in view of what has happened In the last JI hours It is up to you to say some thing?" do not," "It ha bl 111 reported that you re signed from the position a- a result of this?" The commissioner ma l<* no reply. THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWSI. TUESDAY. JULY 30, 1912. MRS. GRACE, CONFIDENT, LEAVING HOME J. Photographed by a Georgian Photographer. 7 .■ . "- r • - / ijOwMWnll Ml / iiiimb / i / ’ Eaß fliflßP* K\ e”. ’’W ■ \\ Y|fc'. II ism ' > A rvv *■* ' - * a s I - ... * i h WiWC' t Vw'js'*' . ' 7 / y/ W '''ww • .// QU!. ’ ' 'Zf GRACE SUFFERS J BREAK-DOWN Victim ’of Shooting Ordered by Physician Not to Go to Court Room. Continued From Second Page. within a fraction of an inch. He be lieved the bullet rested In the spite. The spinal cord would not be shown in an X-ray. Mr. Rosser's Insistence that the witness "speak English" in stead of Latin phrases occasioned some amusement. Dr. Durr said Grace had no control of his legs when the X-ray was taken. He attributed this to the pressure of a bony substance against the spinal cotd. The X-ray plates were admitted in evidence. The court took a recess here until 1:30 p. m. So fearful for their seats were the morning spectators at the trial that they refused to leave the court room during the recess period. The same faces that peered over the rail when court opened this morning were there when Judge Roan rapped for order at 1:30 o’clock. The edges of the crowd were swelled to a considerable extent by a throng of men who dropped in "just to look on for a few minutes.” Quite a sensation was caused just prior to the opening of court by a thin, bedraggled old woman who forced her way Into court and demanded a seat. Not finding any seats vacant, she made her way to the inside of the rail. Here she deliberately caught a man by the coat collar and jerked him from his chair. She then took the seat herself. At the afternoon session the patent medicine bottles in question were ten dered by the solicitor general. Mrs. Grace was missing from her seat, but she arrived a moment later. Morris Prioleau, a relative of Eugene Grace's family and an employee of the Southern Bell Telephone Company, was the first witness at the session. Grace had not returned from the san itarium to which lie .had been taken in an ambulance nt luncheon time. He had felt the effects of the heat at the morning session. Mrs. S. L. Hill was recalled to the stand, Mr. Prioleau being taken down. "Did you tell .Mrs. Grace of any ac cusation made against iter?" she was asked. "No; I didn’t know of any.” she re plied "Mrs. Gra< e was not out of my pres- ence from the time she left Newnan until midnight. "Gene told me he had married Daisy on March 8, 1911, in New York. She is about 30 years old.” On cross-examination, Mrs. Hill said Daisy had told her she had given Gene a patent medicine that morning. She didn't remember testifying to this be fore Justice Ridley. She said Daisy had told her Gene was feeling "par alyzed" that morning and he seemed to feel better after the medicine. Heard at Depot That Mrs. Grace Was Accused. * At the Terminal station two police men met her. She and Mrs. Grace did not ride to the police station in the same vehicle. She hadn't meant to say they hadn't been separated at all. "Didn't you know," asked Mr. Ros ser. "that it was rumored around the streets that Grace accused his wife?” Mr. Dorsey objected. The court ruled in favor of the question. "I heard it at the depot,” said Mrs. Hill. "Didn’t Mrs. Grace have the same opportunity?" “I don’t know. A paper was shown me. I don’t know whether she saw a, paper or not. "I don't know whether Daisy knew whether she was suspected or not. Yes; she went down the street with Morris Prioleau, and two policemen followed them. Mr. Rosser gave a comical imitation of Mr. Prioleau, Mrs. Grace and the policemen. z Mr. Prioleau resumed the stand. "I saw Mrs. Grace at the Terminal station on the evening of March 5.” he said. "I said nothing to her about any ac cusation against her. I was with her all the way to the hospital. "Nobody told her anything about the accusation while I was with her. I was with her in the room at St. Josephs." Mr. Prioleau was extremely confident of his answers. He was in the room at the hospital when Mrs. Grace confronted Grace. Mr. Dorsey began to ask about the conver sation, but the defense objected and the jury was sent out again. “Mrs. Grace spoke first,” said the witness. "She said: ‘Gene, what -are these tilings you're saying about me?’ He replied: 'Daisy, why did you shoot me?' ” Mr. Rosser protested against Mr. Dorsey's leading the witness. Conversation is Barred From Jury, "This witness,, more than any other man, perhaps, is the friend of Eugene Grace,” declared Mr, Rosser. The court ruled that the evidence could not go before the jury. The jury returned to its box and the examination of'Prioleau continued, tin being questioned he said: "Nobody had said anything to Mrs. Grace about an accusation against her until the time l went to Grace's room witli iter. “She told me Gene had had a cold that day, and asked me what his con dition was with reference to the cold. "She asked me how the people had got into the house and expressed worry about tile furniture. “She said she wanted jo go out and spend the night and protect the fur niture. Tills was before she had seen her husband." "Did she manifest any worry or so licitude over her husband?" The defense was on its feet, ob jecting. and was sustained, Mr. Rosser was persistently leading the witness. After the question was put in proper form, the witness answered: "She asked about how badly Gene was shot. “She said Grace had intended to go to Philadelphia, and his failure to go would put her in an embarrassing posi tion.” Told Him She Had Heart Trouble. "She told me she was addicted to heart trouble, and her keys were in a handbag and her Jewels in her bosom, and if anything happened I must get them and keep them safe. "The question of Grace's being drow sy was not brought up. "Preston Hill took Mr. and Mrs. Hill away from Mrs. Grace and me at the station. Daisy saw them talking. She asked what had come up to make Pre.3- ton take Gene's mother away from her. She asked why we couldn’t al! go to gether. She asked what Preston was telling Mrs. Hill. "She told me J. Ruffin, the serv ant. must have shot Gene. She felt certain of it. She said they had quar reled. "Daisy never asked me what the pa pers were saying. "At the police station Daisy told Chief Lanford that the key to Grace's room was kept in a glass bowl down stairs." Mr. Rosser cross-examined. Prioleau said all his conversation with Mrs. Grace was in a cab and without witnesses. No, he hadn’t looked to see whether her waist bulged with jewelry. He didn’t know whether the furniture was the Graces' or the Kisers', owners of the house. Testimony Weakened By Cross Grilling. Witness said an unknown woman was In the reception room at the hos pital when they entered. Colquitt Car ter and a few others were there. Witness admitted that he didn't n ally know the detectives had* "beat- The Probable Causes of the Tragedy Speculated Upon by Two Women as They Study Gene and Wife. By T. B. SHERMAN. The wife's outward composure, the husband's disdain, the tender care in the face of the aged mother —each made manifest in many different ways throughout the course of the trial, play with strange effect upon the heart strings of the women spectators at the trial of Daisy Opie Grace. As for the men. they are there to sat isfy an appetite for details about two persons who have suddenly been lifted to the spotlight by a. plethora of news paper publicity. When the average man knows the result of the Grace trial hts Interest soon will wane. But no verdict of the jury will ever satisfy the un spoken queries which have arisen in the mind of every woman who has read of the Grace case. No matter what the trial brings forth, the Grace is but a varia tion of the domestic equation. The Graces were incompatible, either by na ture or through worldly circumstances which arose early in their wedded life. The wherefores of this incompatibility —the reason for the climax, whatever it was—are the things about the Grace ease which disturb and compel the at tention of the women. But She Wants to Know. "I object to being classed among the ‘idle curious,’ " said a well-dressed mid dle-aged woman who sat in a front seat at the trial. She was speaking to a friend. "Well, it's hard for me to say why I came." said the friend. "1 confess to this —1 am not so much interested in whether she shot him or not as I am in the chain of eircuinstances which brought about the shooting” “Os course,” said the middle-aged woman, “there was tragedy in the Grace home —that much is sure. There are a thousand possibilities. She may have been undutlful or he may have been. If so. why? Did their natures interlock? Or did an outside circum stance force Itself in and disturb the domestic balance? “If the full details of the Grace case were known—l don’t mean merely the details which led directly to the shoot ing—they would show a problem which arises In the lives of every married couple. In their case, it might have been primitive -they • might have fall en out about some petty thing, or they may not have fallen out at all —it might have al! been under the surface. "But whatever the trouble was—it arose because of the inability or the failure of one of them to bear an equi table part of the responsibilities of married life. There are a million ways in which this old, old formula can be violated. In some Instances you see a man and woman, apparently fashioned for each other. Both of them are gen tle in spirit, both are considerate, both allow to each other the little necessary privacies—and, there is enough money to keep the wolf at a safe distance from the door. Yet there is no permanent happiness. It may be that one of them tried to do too much. It may be that the stronger withheld from the weaker , certain matters which should have been met by both of them together. “And so It was with the Graces 1 am sure, regardles of what form it took.” en” him to the hospital, as he had said. They bad only told him so. Witness admitted that he had sworn to a thing or things he didn't know, except on hearsay. Witness didn't remember that news paper reporters came into the recep tion room at the hospital. He couldn't remember a reporter trying to inter view Mrs. Giace. Yes, he had carried an “extra" into the reception room himself. He had been out in the hall for fifteen minutes. A lady, Mrs, Stall ings, was talking to Mrs. Grace. He saw Mrs. Grace crying. No. he didn t know what she had been told. Prloleau’s statement that nobody had had a chance to tell Mrs. Gra< • of her husband’s accusations was com pletely broken down by this cross questioning. Mrs. Grace Wanted Policies Payable to Her. Luther Williford said Mrs. Grace told him she wanted Grace’s insurance policies payable to her instead of to his estate. She said she wanted him to take out an annuity policy. Witness was shown two Penn Mutual policies. This was late in 1911. He couldn’t state positively that the two policies shown him today were the same Grace had had. The two policies had been for a total of $25,000. Witness said his wife was a distant relative, by marriage, to Eugene Grace. Tracing the relationship was as in volved as determining the age of "Ann." Witness said he had no idea why Mrs. Grace had talked to him about insur ance. He was not an Insurance man. Mr. Rosser declared that Williford was a partisan witness, in favor of the prosecution. He had refused to tell Mr. Rosser anything about the case but admitted that he had talked to So licitor Dorsey. Mr. Dorsey refused to permit witness to recount what he had told the solicitor. Mr. Williford said Giace was present when Mrs. Grace talked to him about insurance. He hadn't paid much atten tion to the conversation. He was dis missed Mr. Dorsey desired to offer the poli cies in evidence. "Why?" asked the court. "To prove the m<>tiv«. for murdering this man." returned Mr. Dorsey. The policies were ruled out, as the witness Just then the bailiff rapped for or der. "The spectators will have to keep quiet and stop interrupting the court,” he bawled. The two women were silent for a moment. At this particular mo ment Mrs, Grace turned her head and gazed for the barest part of a second at the cot where her wounded husband lay. "Look at her—she can't keep her eyes off him,” whispered the younger woman. “Yes,” responded the middle-aged woman. "Elementally she is no differ ent than she was the first day she saw Eugene Grace. He fascinated her. The two types point to that dearly—’’ “I don't see how they ever fell in love with each other,” said the younger woman. “She Was Fascinated.” "I don't know that they did,” said the middle-aged woman. "But I can see this. He hail never known much of her type of woman and she had never seen much of this type of man. They were novelties to each other. She is clearly a woman of a whimsical nature. She is the kind who could com entrate iter whole nature in the achieving of one particular thing. He was tall and good looking and with the unmistakable marks of Southern breeding—he was a new element in her life. Site was fas cinated —and still is, down at the bot tom, regardless of what she thinks sue thinks of him." “And what of him? What did she mean to him?” "I don't believe that tile emotions which she stirred in him could have been of a very firm texture, ’*■ answered the middle-aged woman. "I don't be lieve that he was ever more than mere ly infatuated with her. And that, I think, is in a. measure responsible for the present situation." The women were silent for a long period. They listened closely to the evidence. Finally the middle-aged wom an seemed to lose Interest. As if pos sessed by a sudden thought she nudged her companion. Then They Dissect the Men. “A woman will always know what to wear.” she said. “I'll wager that Mrs. Grace picked out the simplest gown she could find—although it fits her horri bly." "Yes.” agreed the other, "there are lots of things which figure in a trial besides the sworn evidence." " —But all mothers are just alike. They all look the same, they all act tile same. Their actions spring from tile one primitive animal impulse of protection for their young. The fact that Mrs. Grace's mother has rushed to her daughter’s side proves nothing. If her daughter were innocent as an angel or black witli guilt, her attitude would be the same. It’s beautiful, though.’’ The two women then fell to dissect ing (he men. The prosecuting attorney was certainly very insistent for a lit tle fellow—and how Mr. Rosser roared. Neither one of them could understand how such a benevolent looking man as Judge Roan Could sentence anybody to prison. Both agreed, however, that the jury was a very intelligent looking body as a whole. had not identified them. Lewis S. Hill of Nev. nan. not a rela tive of Grace, was next. He had made a demand on Mrs. Grace's lawyers for policies drawn in favor of Mrs. Grace. He hadn't seen Mrs. Grace about it. Objection was made to his testifying that he hid made a demand on her attorneys. Court Refuses to Admit Evidence. Mr. Dorst-y said Mrs. Grace was in the next room when the demand for her policies was made. His object was to prove that site had the policies and wouldn’t surrender them, even after Grace was shot and had demanded them. The court refused to admit the. evidence, as there was no proof that Mrs. Grace, herself, had refused to give up the policies. Witness had not heard Mr. Moore talk to Mrs? Grace. Mr, Dorsey insisted that he was try ing to show by a set of circumstances that Mrs. Grace shot her husband for his insurance. Mrs. Grace entered the room at 8:55 o'clock, accompanied, as on yesterday, by C. W. Burke, a private detective She wore a large white panama hat with a black velvet ribbon around it. Her dress was of black silk, with low shoes to match. Diamonds flashed in her ears. A bracelet with the insignia of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity was on her left wrist. She wore white silk gloves and wielded a palm leaf fan vigorously. Her face wore the marks of the long ordeal she had gone through the day before. She took her seat so that iter back would be turned toward the spot which Grace’s cot had occu pied on the previous day. "Oh, yes; I slept very well last night,” site said. “No; I’m not worried a bit. Os course, one's nerves suffer under the strain of such a day. But the heat was the. worst of all. There never was such awful heat before.” Grace was borne into the court roorr at 9:22 o'clock and placed in the sarnt position as on yesterday, looking to ward the Jury and away from his wife’t seat. Mrs. Grace had retired from the room for the recess and was not pres ent when her husband was borne into the room. Mrs. Grace came in a moment later, but did not glance toward her husband. 3