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3
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS.
DIMRHY
FATHER AND SON WHO FIGURE
N THE DEFENSE OF LEO FRANK
L. Z. Rosser, Sr., ami son, L. Z. Rosser, Jr., both en
gaged in Ph»*ran ©ng©
f"'"'
By JAMES B. NEVIN.
If Mr. * Luther Z. Rosser’s bite is
one-half so dangerous as his growl
undoubtedly is disconcerting ,and
awe-inepiring. there will be little save
shreds and patches of the prosecution
left when the State cobles eventual 1 **
to sum up its case against Leo Frank.
Rosser's examination of Newt Lee
was one of the most nerve racking
and interesting I ever' listened to.
It reminded me much of a big
mastiff worrying and teasing a huge
brown rat. and grimly bent eventual
ly upon the rat's utter annihilation.
A witness up against one 0f Ros
ser's mighty bombardments is- in a
decidedly uncomfortable predicament
—no doubt ebr^jt that!
True, Lee snapped back at Rbsser
and growled angrily every little bit.
and strove this Way and that to get
away from the insistent prod of the-
tremendously menacing mass of
manity forever in front of him, wor
rying. teasing, sneering, and threaten-
, ing, but he could not.
Always the terrible Rosser was
there—and so. every little bit. Lei
would fall back into the witness
chair, with an auditle sigh, and say.
ever so softly and abjectly, “Tasslr,
yassir, Ah guess dat’s so!”
Sometimes Lee Countered.
Bulldozer Rosser may be, browbeat-
er perhaps, he still is far and away
the most picturesque figure in the
trial as it has progressed to date.
The Solicitor General outspokenly
resents the Rosser methods of exam
ining witnesses and endeavors with
all the resourcefulness at his com
mand to counteract them and set
them so far at naught as he may but
just as plainly he fears the powerful
figure leading the case for Frank, and
dreads to the very limit the effective
ness of his methods. _ , .»
It must be remembered that the
State is relying largely upon the
testimony of two ignorant negroes fjr
the conviction of Frank.
Conlev is the State's star witness
and Newt Lee is its second best bet.
Both are densely ignorant, and. theo
retically at least, more or less easy
marks for the Rosser method of ex
amination. , ,
Time and agftn, .Lee rallied arm
came back at hi* tormenter \ynn
telling effect—it is likely altogether
that more than once the Jury s sym
pathy went out to Lee In large meas
ure, while Rosser was gr,.,tng him—
and to the darkey's occasional salli-s
and adroit sidesteps, the spectator?
in the courtroom frequently respond
ed readily with approving titters and
* Still, more than once Rosser mixed
the negro up somewhat—and we may
hear more of that when the adroit
Arnold comes to the bar for argu-
mP,L, Rapiers' Second the 'Clubs.’
*nd so. it seems to me not\ that
the battle is to divide after this
fashion: Rosser is to wield th .
bludgeon, and Dorsey Is to neutralise
or ward off its shock wherever and
whenever he can. while. Arnold and
Hooper are to undertake the more
skillful and. artistic, but none the less
de Rosser^s i to smash and hang things
around and Arnold Is to puncture.
,h It U wmbe Pa riho. e circumstances,
full and fair time i’om small ho/s
and persons of hesitating dispositions
to stand from under—but
Dorsev nor Hooper is made of that
variety of human cLy.
-Whom the gods would destroy
thev first make mad," of course-ami
I iither Rosser has scored many a
brilliant victory, in the ^rough
the simple process of making tne
other fellow mad. .
And he can make Dorsey mad. too
, nr i does, frequently!
- If only Dorsey had Hoopers poise
and unruffled calm, the assaults of
Rosser and the aggravating Persist-
emv of the man would be as harm-
less 6 as the shots of a popgun against
a modern man-of-war.
Dorsey Falls Into Trap,
Rut Dorsev isn't Hooper, arid the
consequence is that Dorsev ge.svery
angry now and then, which is ex-
■ antly what Rosser is driving at—
Y when Dorsey communicates
his distress of mind
the witness on the stand,
the phvschological condition Rosser
is fighting for has been set up. and
f h? doesn't make the most of it
every time it happens, his hand will
have lost its cunning and he will
hehe and contradict a lifetime
aC ^ 6 Ume e " t there h is something grim
ly humorous about Rosser-as when,
having befuddled a witness and ex
asperated him to the very verge of
madness Mr. Rosser will -AY. with
^udFed 'sarcasm and belittling em-
nhasTs "Oh. well, we'll not quarrel
about? * That—we’ll not quarrel, you
an i d f 'that doesn't make the witness
a thousand times madder than ever
before, I can not imagine why.
When it comes to handling a wit-
ne cs of the caliber of Sergeant
Dobbs Mr. Rosser does not perform
D rular transformation in his
and
some of
any partici
his methods.
m lie essays ‘no Dr.' Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde redes-he ever and always is
.ail same big.- massive, powerful,
crushing, snorting, fighting, destroy
ing mass of humanity, under . full
mental and physical steam ahead.
His Scowl Good Argument,
if anybody in this world is capa.-
M If o, lifting himself by his own
bootstraps, unquestionably Mr.- Rcs-
66 No R 'one Tn" all the courtroom
watebas him so closely, and ap
parent?? so analytically, as does the
Cendant’* wife I.urile Frank.
«.,nk watches Mm rather cunous-
H even quiMledfr: **
p-rank—the defendant’s mother—not
quite so closely but th. Prisoner's
wife rarely takes her eye* oft her
husband's leading counsel.
" and there is something amaz..-?Iy
fascinating about Mr. Rosser.
He is fascinating physically—or
■ course his superb mental equipment
f 8 not debatable-much after he
same fashion that old John L. Sulli-
vu n uspd to be. ., — .
In his palmy days, one of old John
L.’s scowls often served to scare anj
adversary instantly into a doubt that
a second scowl not infrequently
evolved rapidly into despair.
Old .Jake Kilrain told me oncte in
Washington city tbat he never was
genuinely afraid but once in his life,
and that wad the first time his an
cient enemy, John L. Sullivan,
frowqetl ferociously upon him in the
beginning of their first fight—and
th^t he (Kilrain) never got over it.
Both Ctfnter on Purpose.
“if 'only once or twice he had
smiled upon me and looked the le^at
little bit pleasant, I might have
licked him.” said white-haired old
Jake. Kilrain, “but he never (fid once
—iq^eed. I never once saw Sullivan
smll^ while fighting, in all the days
I have known him!”
And T moan it as,a compliment to
Luther Z. Rosser when T credit him
with that same sort of terrible defi
niteness of purpose in trying a case.
Mr. Rosser lets it be seen, cau
tiously and carefully at first, that be
had a deadly intent toward Lee. He
made it plain bv an adroit develop
ment of questioning, that he proposed*
showing, if he could, more in Lee’s
connection with this crime than the
public latterly has imagined to be
possible.
Eventuallv It dawned upon the
thick-witted negro there In the wit
ness chair that Rosier was leading up,
through all those puzzling and wor
rying questions, to a fixed and steady
mark, and Lee could be ^een plainly
to snuirm and twist as he drew' In-
evltablv nearer and nearer the peril
ous brink.
Storv Virtual'v Unshaken.
He began to shift and back away
from questions, to comnlain of inac
curacy in the stenographic reports of
the Coroner’s inquest, to evade and
become indefinite. Evidently, at one
time, the negro was growing afraid,
and he undertook to be as cunning
and as cautious as be might.
And vet, with all of that, he stood
the ordeal pretty well, and came
through relatively unhurt and cer
tainly not seriously damaged I think
his evidence, as an isolated thing,
amounts to little, anvway—but I think
it went to the 1yry fairly well unchal
lenged. at that!
The fighting so far. In its fuller as
pect, has been so plainly skirmish
ing and jockeving for position that
manv spectators must have won
dered often, as I did, what sort of
accounting that other and far more
important sable figure In the Frank
trial. Jim Conlev. might be expected
to give of himself under the merci
less fire of Ro c ser.
It is about the negro Conlev that
the hn*rl#» will reach its zenith and
the fighting will be the fiercest.
After Conlev has been disposed of.
one way or the.other, the case against
Frank will be either up or down, ac
cording to the status of Conley, when
his remarkable story has been put to
the ultimate test.
Will Conlev Stand the Test?
Will Conley be as nimble-witted as
Lee was?
Will he be able to withstand the
onslaughts of Rosser and Arnold, even
approximately as well as Newt stood
them ?
If he does
Conlev thus far has held himself to
gether pretty well His examinations,
however, have hern altogether one
sided. A very different story may be
told after he has been up against the
best legal talent the defense could
secure.
Newspapers have reported, from
time to time, how Conley was "grill
ed" bv thus and so—never a party to
the defense—and It has been related
hew well he “stuck to his story” when,
after three trials, he apparently suc
ceeded in getting hold of a story he
could stick to overnight as a funda
mental proposition; but whether the
word “grilled” should not reaflv have
been “drilled" never has been per
fectly clear in my mind.
Conlev ought to have his story well
in hand by, now. in any event; and
so. if it is a true story, neither Mr.
Rosser nor Mr. Arnold will succeed In
breaking him down.
On the other hand, if Conlev relates
an untrue story, surely. Rosser and
Arnold will be able to locate the loose
joints in it and when they do Conley
should read a?* readily as anybody the
big and sinister danger signal that’
tinei»e and then will loom significantly
ahead of him.
Rosser Shoots in Dark.
As for the examination of Newt Lee
bv Mr. Rosser, it impressed me often
as a mere shooting in the dark, hop
ing to hit something
To my mind there is nothing much
to Lee save and excepting the one
fact that he diccovered the dead body
of Gttle Mary Phagan In the factory
cellar.
i He is a genuine negro, with all of a
negro’s superstitious antipathy for a
dead body. He went Into the cellar on
a perfectly natural and ordinary mis-
Hon. and there he discovered the body
Just so soon as he satisfied h’mself
as to what It was he undoubtedly
d'd a« be swore, “light a rag out of
thar!”
Immediately he called the police, as
hg had been instructed to do b v
Frank, when he (Lee) first was em-
ployed as a night watchman in the
factory.
That is all he knows about th*
crIme—and It Ip all Mr Rosser ever
got out of him and ever will get out
of hfm.
The remainder of his testimony Is
relatively unimportant, although, to
be sure, there are bits of It that will
xerve to account for any seeming un-
mturalnec; in the behavior of Frank
iust prior to his departure from the
factor* Saturday afternoon and later
along in the evening.
Battle Has Just Bequn.
The b-ittle for Leo Frank's l’fe lib.
erty and honor as a man. the fight to
clear hVs home of the shadow of trag-
edv forever has hardly yet begun
The fighting so far has been inde
cisive. and to neither sid^p has fallen
anv advantage worth reckoning upon.
The Rtate -has sustained itself very
m-aii because it hasn’t lost anything—
and about as much may be said for
the defense.
And not until Jim Conlev gets into
the case "ill the really big guns be
unlimbered.
Frank and Wife Perfect in
Poise; Mo ther Pi tifu l Figure
Arm akimbo, glasses firmly set,
changing position seldom. Leo M.
Frank sits through his trial with his
thoughts in Kamchatka. Terra del
Fuego, or the Antipodes, to far as
the spectators in the courtroom can
judge.
He may realize that if the twelve
men he faces decide that he is guilty
of the murder of Mary Phagan, the
decree of earthly court will be that
his sole hope of the future will be
air appeal to the Court on High. Hit-
mind may constantly carry the Im
pression of the likelihood of the
solemn reading of the death war
rant, the awful march to the death
whamber, the sight of the all terrify-
ing-gibbet, the dreadful ascension of
its ste*l stairs, the few words of re
ligious consolation—and then the
drop.
Frank's Face a Mask.
But If he does realize these thlnsf3.
his face le as completely masked
against emotion as that of a skilled
poker player.
To all appearances, he is the de
fendant in a civil suit on a contract
of $100. and he has the money in his
pocket to pay the Judgment If the
court should rule against him.
An outsider entering the court
room. uninformed, would look In vain
for the man whose chief interest is
In the trial.
There is a wirld of earnestness
written on the faces of the array of
counsel. The Jurors sit with fixed
faces. Their nervous fanning telis
their emotion. The court is all In
terest and the spectators lean for
ward, ears strained to catch every
word. eyeS keen to observe every
move.
But Leo Frank sits there placid as
a pool, calm as a champion about to
go forth to assured victory. If any
thing. hie appearance indicates thal
the trial is not a trial to him. It is
simply a detail of a misfortune that
is through circumstance.
Frank's months in prison have not
affected him physically. His eyes ars
By L. F. WOODRUFF.
extremely luminous. His olive skin 1
is exceedingly ejear. He holds his
spare frame erectly.
He speaks seldom. Occasionally he
turns to pass a word with his wife.
Every now and then he has a brief
conference with his Counsel. More
often he gazes straight ahead—at
nothing
He pits next to the massive Luther
Rosier. When Rosser is on his feet
he is next to studious-appearing Reub
Arnold. When he speaks to them, his
voice is impassionate and his sen
tence's are carefully framed.
Frank’s Wife Confident.
Behind him is his wife. Mrs Frank
is a remarkably handsome woman.
She shares the stoicism of her hus
band in the trial. Though she has
not missed one minute of the hear*
ing. she has never shown that she
realizes that the outcome of the case
may change her to a widow.
Twice after the court has taken
recesses, and Prank has been turned
over to his deputy sheriff guardian,
she has embraced and kissed him.
But afterward she has walked
from the courtroom, head thrown
back, shoulders erect, apparently un
concerned. On the street she would
be taken for a woman out for an aft
ernoon of shopping rather than the
woman who bears the name of the
man charged with the blackest crime,
known to Atlanta criminology.
Then to the left of her sits* the pa
thetic figure of the trial. To those
who believe Frank guilty. h!s person
ality is not one to arouse pity. His
self-assurance is too apparent. His
wife hardly stir* sympathy. She, too.
Is apparently confident of victory.
But there’s the mother Hour after
hour she ©its and listens to men try
ing to send her firstborn to the gal
lows. Hour after hour she is thrilled
by the skilled struggle that his coun
sel makes to have the family name
cleared of the stain brought by the
charge that now rests against It.
Mr* Frank is a motherly-looking
woman. Her form is ample, and in
her younger days was evidently a
woman of striking appearance. She
is typical of the mother of her race—
the revered head of the Hebrew fam
ily.
In this trial, though, her eyes are
practically always fixed on her son.
Their yearning light spreads through
the big courtroom.
Mother’s Looks Are of Love.
Their every flash pends the mes
sage that she wants him back on her
breast a fre^ man.
No single feature of the trial es
capes her. When the prosecution
scores, another line is added to the
face that has been wrinkled by the
three months of wa'ting and horror.
When the defense seem* to have an
advantage, there is a joy expressed
as great as the power of Niagara.
When the attorneys ask a question,
her eyes ^re fixed on the questioner.
When the witness answers, her gaze
is on him. When the court rules,
every movement of hi* lips is marked
by her.
But there is always an eye for her
son During the trial he wished a
drink of water. The pitcher was on
the desk of his counsel, far from his
seat and near here.
When he looked for it, she divined
his wish. She was on her feet in a
second. The glass was in her hand.
The water was poured out. In her
trembling grasp it w as passed to him.
As he took it. his stoicism broke.
He smiled his acknowledgment of
the little act of kindness, and there
was a wealth of love in hi* smile, and
she smiled back reassurance. Su
perlatives couldn’t tell the meaning of
that smile.
' * * •
Mary Phagan is dead. She died
horribly, the victim of as cruel
beast r s ever polluted the soil of the
Southland.
But Mary Phagan is dead; she
sleeps peacefully beneath a flowered
sod.
The mother of Leo Frank is alive,
and be her wn innocent or guilty,
the mother is the pitiful figure in this
biack and baffling mystery.
V
Flashes of Tragedy Pierce
Legal Tilts at Frank Trial
By 0. B. KEELER.
The trouble Is, plain human emo
tion* won’t stick at concert pitch all
the time.
And go the Prank trial, after the
first twenty minutes, say, becomes
much Ilk© any other trial.
Except In th© flashes.
You get into the courtroom with
some formality. At once you are in
the midst of order. It is rather pon
derous, made-to-order order. But it
is order.
cold. And grim. And pitiful.
Rosser Soars—Regardless.
Then Mr. Arnold objecta again, anrl
there is another dreary wrangle, and
the idea get* uppermost in your head
that the city detective is a most lit
eral-minded witness.
It is confusing.
Mary Phagan's sister is there. She
wears a black hat and an unaccus
tomed veil. You look in vain for
tributes to emotion. She shows a
“A big splotch that looked like
blood.”
“Where waa It?”
"Well, some of it was over in the
corner. • * * It looked as if it had
been swept over with something
white. • * * The rest "
“Well, tell the jury vyhere was the
rest.”
“Around a nail that stuck out.
* * * The top of the nail was cov
ered with blood, and • • •”
Officials stalk about, walking on the
balls of their feet, like pussy cats. But
they do not purr. They request you to
be seated. You must not stand up;
you must sit down. Unfortunately,
you must stand up to walk to a place
to sit down. And that grieves the of
ficials. They mop their faces. Ore
in particular uses an entirely red
banciana handkerchief—sometimes for
for his face, sometimes to flag stand
ing spectators, who must sit down.
There is order.
Thrills Get Temporary Check.
Until you are thoroughly sitting
down there is no chance for the con
cert pitch to. vibrate. Human emo-*
tions are constituted so curiously that
a rasping collar has been known to
overbalance the diead presence of the
King of Terrors. Honest persons have
admitted this. And ie grim por
tent of the Frank tr.*i produces no
thrills while you are stepping on other
people’s feet.
mild interest In Mr. Rosser’* pomp
and circumstance of language. In
stead of another thrill, you gain £
hazy impression that Mr. Rosser is
an orator who loves to soar—who
would soar, in fact, when he might
get along faster by walking.
You hear the purr of the fans, the
shuffle pf feet, the clearing of throats.
You are sensible that it is very warm
and that the judge twice ha* handled
his palm leaf as if it were a gavel.
You see a Juror yawn luxuriously and
once more find proof that yawning is
contagious.
Oh, yes—after the first twenty
minutes (say), the Frank trial is much
like any other, except
You sit back and your hands hurl
from squeezing the arms of the seat.
They are taiking about a stairway
again, and the city detective is point
ing out something on the map with
the bent-handled umbrella.
No use.
Plain human emotions simply won’t
stick at concert pitch, even for the
terrific romance of murder.
Once in a while, over the whirr of
fans and the shuffle of feet and the
interminable squabbling of counsel,
you feel the shadow of a crime—an
uglier crime than that which took
Eugene Aram out of Lynn, “with
gyve« upon his wrist.”
But only in the flashes.
Defense Plans Sensation,
Line of Queries Indicates
Being seated, the first thing you do
is to perspire gently. That of Itself
is not romantic. Also it interferes
with the concert pitch. It is hard to
reconcile perspiration and cold pric
kles back of the ears.
You get the first tingle when you
pick out the accused. Your neighbor
does not help you do this. One’s
neighbor at a trial rarely knows any
thing about anything connected with
it. v
You pick out the prisoner because
you have seen many pictures of him
He is one of tho** whose pictures look
like them. You are quite certain who
it is. %
First Chord a Mere Tinklt.
But the opening chord of the con
cert pitch is disappointing. It is
not majestic and soul-stirring. Frank
ly, it is more of a tinkle.
Here is a slim little man. He is
dark. His face Is sharply cut and
lean. His eyes are well opened,
back of thick lenses. • • * That
was the first real tingle. • • *
Did those eyes glare down upon the
huddled figure of Mary' Phagan in
th© echoing loneliness of the pencil
factory that Saturday afternoon?
Glared through the thick lenses?
The grotesquely jars oddly.
The thrill passes
There Is Rube Arnold, objecting to
something. It is among the duties
of counsel for the defense to be
constantly injured. Mr. Arnold is
good at that. He is not going to
fail, if the court please, in his full
duty to his client, who sits there.
And the particular part of Mr. Ar
nold’s duty at this moment is to s?e
that his learned brother does not get
before the jury from this witness any
of his (the witness’) ideas as to how
the defendant looked the morning aft
er the tragedy at the pencil factory.
Mr. Arnold Philosophizes.
Mr. Arnold begs to submit that an
olfi-cer, if It please the court, thinks
everybody looks guilty. Mr. Arnold
begs to submit further that the hu
man face is the most inscrutable
thing in the world. And Mr. Arnold
will say—
You discover the defendant’s wife
and mother, and lose the thread of
Mr. Arnold’s philosophy.
They sit by his side. The mother s
face is of the inscrutable type pi -
That a sensation Is to be sprung by'
the defense by the production of the
mysteriously missing ribbon and flow
ers from the hat of the murdered girl
wag repeatedly indicated by Attorney
Rosser’s line of questioning Tuesday
and the afternoon before.
Beginning with Mrs. J. W. Coleman,
mother of Mary Phagan. the attorney
for Frank interrogated every witness
who saw the girl alive or dead that
day in regard to the ribbon and flow
ers.
Mrs. Coleman said that the ribbon
and flowers were on the hat when
Mary left home. Newt Lee said that
he had seen no sign of the missing
trimmings. The testimony of Ser
geant L. S. Dobbs was the same. De
tective Starnes, when he was turned
over for the cross-examination, made
the same admission.
It is believed that Rosser will pro
duce the ribbon and will attempt to
establish that it was found in a place
throwing suspicion upon the negro
Conley.
Frank was brought to the court
house at about 8 o’clock Wednesday
morning. There was no change in
his demeanor or physical appearan .o.
If the trial has been any strain upon
him he does not display the effects.
He was dressed in the dark mohair
suit he wore Tuesday. He greeted
hi* friends cheerily and spoke con
fidently of acquittal.
The juror*, sleeping in three rooms
at the Kimball House, spent a rest
less night. They appeared rather
fagged when they were brought into
the courtroom at 9 o’clock.
First Witnesses Unimportant.
Attorneys for the State have an
nounced that the witnesses called
Monday and Tuesday were only for
the purpose of starting the presenta
tion of. evidence against Leo Frank
right from the opening incidents of
the day that the murder was commit
ted, and that they were important
only in so far as they assisted in mak
ing a continuous chain of evidence,
and as they made here and there
statements which might be interpret
ed as damaging to the accused.
Working on the foundation laid by
Tuesday’s testimony. Solicitor Dorsey
was understood to be prepared Wed
nesday and Thursday to introduce
witnesses who would swear that the
red stains found In two places on the
second floor were splotches of blood
and not aniline or any other color
ing stain; nlao that the bloody finger
prints on the rear door of the base
ment were the finger-prints of Leo
M. Frank.
City Detective J. N. Starnes Jus:
before he left the stand Tuesday
night identified pieces of wood as
pieces he had chipped from the rear
door of the factory. There were fin
ger-prints easily distinguishable upon
them. A finger-print expert was in
the employ of Solicitor Dorsey for
some time during the investigation of
the murder mystery and was named
among the State’s witnesses.
The red-stained chips from the fac
tory floor were sent to Dr. Claude E.
Smith, city bacteriologist, for analy
sis. Dr. Smith also is one of the
State’s witnesses and was expected to
be called Wednesday or during Thurs
day's forenoon session.
Writing Pad Evidence?
Starnes was on the stand practical
ly all of Tuesday afternoon. While
the direct examination was in prog
ress the detective told of his pari in
scouring the pencil factory for evi
dence.
one of his statements on which the
State is relying to establish that
frank acted and talked In an Incrim
inating manner th morning the body
was found consisted in his testimony
in regard to a telephone conversation
which he said he had with the fac
tory superintendent that morning.
Starnes, under the examination of
Dorsey, said that he had been very
guarded when he called up Frank
that morning and had merely said
that he desired Frank’s presence at
th© factory. He denied that he had
mentioned the fact that a gir! had
been killed.
Claim Frank Knew.
It is the purpose of the State to
seek to establish that Frank, without
being told of what had happened, had
made remark* to the officers when
they came for him which indicated he
was not unaware that a girl had been
murdered in his factory.
The main points of Starnes’ testi
mony were:
That ne had discovered stains re
sembling blood In two places on the
second floor of the factory.
That Frank acted nervous when
brought to the factory.
That Frank made a strange remark
to Foreman M. B. Darley that he "had
more than one suit of clothe*,” refer
ring to the fact that he had on a
different suit than the one he wore the
day before.
That Lee appeared composed when
questioned Sunday by the detectives
That he witnessed the new night
watchman in the pencil factory make
a complete punch of the time clock
covering a period of twelve hours in
five minutes.
Unaer Rossers cross-examination
Starnes admitted that it was practi
cally impossible for him to remember
the exact words he used in certain
parts of his testimony at the Cor
oner’s inquest. This admission was
obtained by Ro*ser to show that
Starnes’ memory in respect to the tel
ephone conversation with Frank could
not be regarded as any more reliable.
Rosser brought out that Starnes failed
to mention at the Coroner’s Inquest
either the matter of the tejephone
conversation or of th»» alleged conver
sation he held with Frank the morn
ing of the murder.
tured by Mr. Arnold. The wife's
face. * * * That was thrill No.
2. * * * You realize In a flash what
the Frank trial means to her. * * *
She watches the witnesses more
closely than her husband. She moves
her fan nervously at times. She re
gards the prosecutor and his assist
ant with a certain contemptuous do
fiance. • • * The tingle lasts un
til you realize she is chewing gum.
Mr. Arnold's philosophic objection
has spun Itself out. Mr. Dorsey re
sumes his questioning. Mr. Dorsev
has a querulous manner of asking
questions. Mr. Arnold's injured ob
jections may explain that.
The Pathos of a Dress.
The testimony juat now is not
thrilling. It has to do with a stair
way and an office and some very
usual-looking cord or heavy twine.
The witness has to get up frequently
and point out things on a framed plan
of the pencil factory that hangs on
the wall where the Jury can see it.
He uses an umbrella. He may be
pointing out the very spot where Mary
Phagan • • • But th© handle of
the umbrella is bent. Is it his own
umbrella? It looks like a woman's.
♦ • * Where did Mr. Dorsey get
that twine, anyway?
Oh. the suitcase. There are other
things in the suitcase • • * A
little heap of things on the floor of
the witness stand—a crumpled dress,
a hat. * • •
And that time you wink your eyes
very hard, because they sting. What
was in that little girl's mind as she
put on that hat for the last time?
'What painstaking care had she used,
to make it her ’’best” hat—what
needle pricks, maybe, in the sihall
fingers? And the lavender dress.
* * * And the *nd of all, in the
dust and dirt of the pencil factory
: basement.
1 Just for a flash it’s all real. And
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