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3 TIIE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. MONDAY. APRIL 28. 1913. ST MARY ANYWHERE, / COULD T1 99 HER WEEPING MOTHER SAYS J f GIRL SLAIN IN STRANGLING MYSTERY Mary Phagan, 14-vear-o! d daughter ol Mis. .1. \v . (.'ok'Uian, 14(> Lindsay Street, whose slain body was found in the basement of the National Pencil Factory,; 37-149 South Forsyth Street. The girl left her home Saturdaj morning to go to the factory, where she had been employed, to drawj wages due her. She was seen on the streets at midnight Saturday* with a strange man. She was not seen alive thereafter. 1 “No Working Girl Is Safe,” She Sobs, Overcome by Her Sudden Sorrow. ADT14TTO l\/f ITT J IXT A V This • vou,tl * fo, ' merl . v aeaP,,on - illV J- 1 1 vJ lVl vJ doctor, is held in connection with the investigation of Uie slaying of Mary Phagan in the basement of the National Pencil Factory in Smith Forsyth Street. He stoutly denies any connection with the crime, and declares his arrest is a “horrible mistake." He has accounted for himself, and likely will be released. HORRIBLE MISTAKE, PLEADS MULL1NAX, DENYING CRIME Arthur Mullinax, identified as the man who was with Mary Phagan at midnight Saturday, a few short hours before her dead body was found, and now a prisoner in solitary confine ment at police headquarters, declared to a Georgian reporter that his ar rest was a terrible mistake. He declared that h© had never seen the girl except as “the sleeping beau ty” in a church entertainment In which both took part last Christmas. Here is his complete story: "I had absolutely no connection with this affair and have been wrongfully accused. Sentell is horribly mistaken when he says he saw me in company with Mary Phagan shortly after mid night Sunday morning in. Forsyth Street. I did not even know the girl —that is, never had been introduced to her—and had never been anywhere with her in my life. Sleeping Beauty.” “I had seen her one time. Tha: was last Christmas at an entertain ment given in the Western Heights Baptist Church. We both took part in that entertainment. She played the part of ‘the sleeping beauty,’ and T did a black face act and also sang tn a quartet. “But T was not even introduced to the girl., During the entertainment the girl remarked to me that I was a good black face artist, but this was all that passed between us. 1 have never been with her at any time since then, much less at midnight. “As to my movements Saturday- night, I can easily explain them. Af ter supper, 1 ‘ ailed on .1 girl friend. Miss Pearl Robinson, who lives In Bell wood Avenue, and we caAie down town on the English Avenue car. We got off of the car at Marietta at* Forsyth Streets and walked directly across to the Bijou Theater. We saw part of the first show and part of the second, leaving before the per formance had concluded. We th n boarded a car, and I took Miss Rob inson directly to her home. Slept Soundly. “I talked with her there about fifteen minutes, I should judge, and. bidding her goodnight, returned to my boarding house at 60 Poplar Street, In Bell wood. On arrival there, I gave Mrs. Emma Rutherford, ny landlady, a dollar, for some work done on my clothes. “Mrs. Rutherford slipped the bill under her pillow, and I went on to my room and went to bed. And 1 slept soundly until late Sunday morn ing. “The only time I was on Forsyth Street Saturday night was when Miss Robinson fend I left the car at 'Forsyth and Marietta Streets and walked across to the Bilou. “Horrible Mistake." “This is absolutely all I know of this affair. I had nothing to do wi‘n it, knew nothing of it, and, being a stranger to this dead girl, certainly had no motive for wishing to get her out of the way. It’s all a horrible mistake. I’ll have no trouble prov ing an alibi and showing myself in nocent.” When Mullinax was locked in a cell at 10 o'clock last night, instruc tions were given that he not be al lowed to communicate with anyone GIRL’S GRANDFATHER VOWS VENGEANCE Standing with bared head in th* doorway of his Marietta home, with tears falling unheeded down his fur rowed cheeks, W. J. Phagan cried to heaven for vengeance, for the mur der of his granddaughter, fourteen year-Old Mary Phagan. and vowed that he would not rest until the mur derer had been brought to justice. Ii^ a silence unbroken gave by the sound of his own sofcto and the noise of the gently falling rain, the old man lifted his quavering voicT in a passionate plea for tne iif** of the wretch who bad lured the liytb* girl into the darkness of a desert ell build ing and strangled her to death. It was ari infinite grief -the grief of an old and broken man -that Air. Pha gan expressed when, with hands oiit- mploringly, he invoked divine, wringing the murderer of the train, nocent child, with remorse victim suffer* he suffers as are suffering. thr power of the living God.” old m i t.. his voice rising dear above th« patter of the roar of a passing the murderer will be he dealt with that in- I hope his heart is torn in the measure that his d pain and shame; that' we who loved the child No punishment is too brute who foully muV- : **t<“ i and^purest thing young girl. Hanging for the crime he has d the suffering he has Eying on the bed in her little home on Lindsay Street, prostrated with sorrow over the murder of her 14- > ear-old daughter. Mary Phagan. Mrs. W. J. Coleman sobbed out the pitiful story of how sweet ami fresh her child had left home Saturday, and issued a warnine to all Atlanta mothers to guard the welfare of their own daughters forced to work for a living. “There are so many unscrupulous men in the world," she cried. "It’s so dangerous for young girls working out Their every step should be watched. Mothers should question them and ask them about their work and associates and surroundings. They should continually tell them what they ought to do. and how they ought to act under certain circum stances.” Girl Liked Work. She declared that she never w T ould have permitted Mary to go out to work at the age she did—12 years—if it hadn’t been that there were five children in the family and it was absolute^ necessary for all of them to earn something toward their sup port. That was before she married her present husband. Mr. Coleman. “That was a year ago,” said Mrs. Coleman, “and then it wouldn’t have been necessary for Mary t<> work. But she had got into the habit of it and liked it. and 1 Thought she could take care of herself as she al ways had." “Off ’he poor baby!” she sobbed. “1 did talk to her! I did tell her what to do! 1 w.ts always telling her! And she took my advice, 1 know, because she was always so sensible about everything. Besides, she never was a child to flirt or act silly. That’s why I know' that when she ‘went away with this man tv ho killed her- she was either overpow- j ered or he threatened her." Mrs. Coleman said that girls ought to look out for themselves, too. and never permit any familiarity from men. “When a girl is pretty,” she de clared. “naturally she is attractive to men. Mary was pretty, too; and, be sides that, she was always happy and in a good humor. She had never stayed out any night before in the two years she had been at w r ork. I could trust her anywhere 1 knew be cause she was always so straightfor ward. and what 1 thought when she didn't, come home was that she had met up with her aunt from Marietta, who was in town, and had gone home with her and had no way to let me know.” Too Young to Know. She covered her face with her hands. “And to think that at the time I was thinking that she was in the hands of a merciless brute! Oh. if only Mr. Coleman had happened along the street and found her! They tell me she was crying on a corner at 12 o'clock and this man she was with was cursing her when a police man came up and asked her what was the matter. She just told him she had got dust in her eye. I guess tlie reason she didn’t say anything was because she was afraid the man would kill her. and, in fact, just didn’t know what to do. She was too young.” But with everything. Mrs. Cole man said, it wasn’t possible for a mother to be with a child all the time or to stave off all harm that rouId come to her with advice. “Even with the. greatest care, it looks like things will happen any way- we don't know how or why,” she declared, weeping. “Oh. it’s ter rible to think of a young girl roming to her death like that' And she had already started home when this man rnet her and made her come bark to town with him!” So Young and Bright.^ “Often I watched Mary on the car when men would look at her,” Mrs. Coleman said, "but she never paid any attention to them I think she must have made the man who killed her mad. and that's why he did It.” She said lhat when Mary left the house Saturday she had only intend ed to go to the pencil factory to draw the little salary that was com ing to her $1.60. "If you could only have seen her.” she told the reporter. “She looked so beautiful and so young and so bright! She said she was only going to see the parade before she came home And look now’! i am so sorry for all other young girls working every where! To think that they’re all open to the same things, and there is nothing to protect them: it’s so hard on mothers; it’s so hard on every body. Rut there doesn’t seem to be any help for it, and that's the worst part of it all.” GIRL AND HIS LANDLADY DEFEND MULLINAX Declaring her belief in the absolute innocence of her sweetheart, Art hut* Mullinax, in the murder of Mary Pha gan, pretty 16-vear-old Pearl Robin- ! son made a pathetic figure as she ap'- pe&red before <’hief of Detectives Lanford this afternoon and accounted for the w hereabouts of Mullinax Sat urday night up until about 10:30 ! o’clock. With Miss Robinson were Mrs. Em ma Rutherford, the landlady of Mul linax. and her two sons, Thomas and James, who took up the moves of Mullinax from the time he left. Miss j Robinson until the next morning, es tablishing what appears to be a com plete alibi. In order to establish the I alibi Mrs. Rutherford had to centra- i diet entirely a statement she made last night to th police in which she itad said that she knew nothing of (where Mullinax was from noon Sat urday until Sunday morning. Call Mullinax “Good Boy.” “Arthur is a good boy,” said his (loyal little sweetheart. “I know he would do nothing bad. He was too good and true. He was with me Saturday night from 8 o’clock until nearly 11 o'clock.’ We went to the Bijou theater together and left be foie it was over. We got home about 10:30 o'clock. “Arthur stayed for ten or fifteen minutes, talking to me. and then he started for his rooming house, which is only a short distance from where I live. ‘‘1 stayed on the porch a few mo ments and I could hear him whistling as he went down the street an : turned into Poplar Street, where h * ! lives. When the w’hlstlo died out, I judged that he had reached home. “I have known Arthur for about five j months and have gone around to dif ferent places with him. He always has been kind and good, and a per fect gentleman. 1 never heard him mention the name of the Phagan gi 1 except, the time he was in an amateur entertainment with her. "I know he couldn’t have commi* | ted the crime about which he has j been questioned.” Landlady Changes Statement. Veering directly from her form r statements and. in conjunction witn Miss Robinson, establishing an ap parently unshakable alibi for Mu!!i- nax, Mrs. Rutherford told the police detectives that Mullinax had come to her home, 60 Poplar Street, where lo roomed. Saturday night shortly before 11 o’uJLo* U. Site said that sit** was asleep at the time, but that her J f» year-old daughter heard Mullinax come in anil saw him leave $1 for a payment on some clothes he was pur- ! chasing. He went to his room and a f minutes later her son, James Ruther ford, came in and found him asleep ir. the bed which they both occupied, ac cording to Mrs. Rutherford. Thomas Rutherford, another son. went to Mullinax's coat about 11:30 o’clock to get ea cigarette. Mullinax a ws .asleep, he said, and he was still asleep at f» o'clock in the morning, ac cording to James. M>s. Rutherford said that her ex citement at the presence of the de tectives was responsible for her other statement in which she declared she had seen nothing of Mullinax from noon Saturday until Sunday morn ing. ‘ ! was so confused that I didn t know' what I was talking about," she said. In her first statement to th * police she said that Mullinax paid her the SI Saturday noon and left the house. From this time until Sunday morning, she said, she. knew’ nothing of his whereabouts. Bed Found in Factory Wall. Another important discovery was made this morning by detectives who continued their search of the base ment of the National Pencil Com pany’s building on ForAyth Street. Built., into the wall on one side of the basement, tic police found a se cret compartment, in which was a cot. improvised from old boards and a blanket. The footprints of a wom an, found near the cot. is evidence that some woman had been in the small room recently. There were also signso f a struggle, the earth in front of the cot being disturbed. Several large footprints, presumably those of a man, were found near the cot. The coroner's jury was shown this room wht n it made an investigation of the plant this morning. Rased on the finding of the cot in the secret room, the police have evolved a theory that the loom has been used as i rendezvous, and that the negro janitor, Newt Lc., knew of any permitted its use. Employees^ Severely Quizzed. J A White.* fl!) Bonnie Brae Ave nue, and Harry Denham, 660 East Fair Street, were put through a severe quiz to-day by the police detectives in uu effort to find out if they had any knowledge of the circumstances lead ing up to the murder. Both are employees of company and they wer* workmen In the building S’J far as Is known. The othei beca nse ol Memorla i I )ay. They said they were w the fourth floor from ubou in the morning until about : the afternoon, but that, tin girl- about the factory while they department were there. The police are’ investigating the statement of White, who sajd he had heard one of the girl employees sa? that the front doors of the building were se *n opijn at 8:30 o’clock Satur day night. Ney\t Lee. the negro watchman, who is supposed to keer the doors barred and locked, will be naked to explain This if it is true. They said they had talked with Leo Frank, the superintendent, about 1 o’clock in the afternoon and that he had told them to go at 3 o’clock. Man Forcing Girl Along. Hilaries Hall, of 25 White Oak Street, a chauffeur for the sanitary believes that he saw tha girl being led by a man toward the pencil factory at about 12 o’clock Sat urday night. He said to-day that he drove hi« brother and a friend to Alabama and Forsyth Streets at midnight, wherq they took an East Poin street car. He went into a Qreek fruit stand nearby arid when he came out he was at tracted by the sight of a man appar ently having trouble in forcing the girl to accompany him. Hall declares that he would know the man again if he saw him, and will go to headquarters to look at! Gant this afternoon. a onl A Double-Good Breakfast What will you serve for tomorrow's breakfast - griddle cakes, waffles, muf fins. biscuits?—any one of these will be great with Velva—that good syrup. It makes all goodies like these better, and makes the family relish its meal. VeIva with the RED LABEL is the finest syrup for making candies, fudge, cakes. It simply can’t be beaten for making toothsome desserts. Velva is a wonderful spread for bread beats other sweets, goes fur ther and tastes better. Little chaps like it and they hnotv. Velva in the green can, too, at your grocer’s. Send now for the free illustrated book of Velva recipes. It tells you ways of using syrup that you've never thought of, and their goodness will surprise you. These recipes arc all by the cooking expert of the Ladies' Home Journal, and every one of them is'a good one. No trouble to send you a copy upon receipt of your name and address. ' .PENICK &. FORD. Ltd. New OrlcMitu, La. Vdv FREE PONIES BOYS FREE THEATER TICKETS FOR EVERYBODY SEE PAGE 4 FREE