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f ’ I 4* TTTE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. LEE JUST A SHOT II DARK: FATHER AND SON WHO FIGURE IN THE DEFENSE OF LEO FRANK L. Z. Rosser, Sr., and s on, L. Z. Rosser, Jr., both en gaged in Phasran ease Flashes ol Tragedy Pierce Legal Tilts at Frank Trial the If Mr. Luther Z. Rosser’s bfte is one-half so dangerous as his grow! undoubtedly is disconcerting and awe-inspiring, there will be little save shreds and patches of the prosecution left when the State comes eventually 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 of Ros ser’s mighty bombardments is in a decidedly uncomfortable predicament —no doubt, about that! True, Lee snapped back at Rosser and growled angrily every Httle bit, and strove this way and that to get away from the insistent prod of the tremendously menacing mass of hu 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. even' little bit. Lea would fall back into the witness chair, with an audil le sigh, and say. ever so softly and abjectly, "Yassir, 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 ha9 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 far the conviction of Frank. Conlev is the State's star witness and Xewt Lee is its second best bet. Both are densely ignorant, and. theo retically at least, more or less easy marks Cor the Rosser method of. ex Time and agrln. Lee rallied and came back at his tormenter with telling effect—Its is likely altogether that more than once the Jury s sym pathy went out to Lee In large meas ure. 'while Rosser was grilling him— and to the darkey’s occasional salll »s and adroit sidesteps, the spectators in the courtroom frequently respond ed readily with approving titters and guffaws. . , 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 ar„u- m "‘Rapiers’ Second the ‘Clubs.' And so, it seems to me now that battle is to divV'e after this fashion: Rosser is to wield th bludgeon, and Dorsey Is to neutralise or 'Ward off its shock wherever and whenever lie can. while Arnold an.. Hooper are to undertake the more skillful and artistic, but none the less deadly, rapier work Rosser Is to smash and hang things around, and Arnold Is to puncture, - th H wiH n he Pa in y .ho 8 e circumstance^ full and fair time <' , om small bo/s and persons of hesitating dlspOBi ons to stand from under—but neither Dorse- nor Hooper Is made of that variety of human cluy. "Whom the gods would destroy thev first make mad. of course an- I other Rosser has scored many a brilliant victory In the P*«t through the simple process of making the other fellow mad. . ^ And he can make Dorsey mad, too an( i does, frequently! If only Dorsey bad Hooper’s poise and unruffled calm, the assaults of Rosfter and the aggravating persist- ’* ti-ip man would be as harm-* fe n S s e as the smits of a popgun against a modern, man-of-war. Dorsey Fal.s Into Trap. Hut Dorsey isn't Hooper, and the consequence is that Dorsey gets very * angry now and then. which is ex actly what Rosser is driving at and when Dorsey communicates ana hu distress of mind and temper to the witness on the stand, the physchological condition Rosser U fighting for has been set up. and if he doesn't jnake-the most of it every time it happens, his hand w have lost its cunning and he wm heiie and contradict a lifetime 1 achievement at the bar. At times, there is something grro ly humorous about Rosser—as when, haying befuddled a witness and ex asperated him to the very verge of madness Mr. Rosser will say. with studied sarcasm find belittling em- nhasis "Oh. well, well not quarrel about* that—well 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- of the caliber of Sergeant Dobbs°Mr. Rosser does not perform any particular transformation in his ma He'eBay's mi Dr. Jekyll and Mr. t^Vm" ^powerful* crushing, snorting, fighting, destroy ing mw* of humanity, under full mental and physical steam ahead. His Scowl Good Argument. Tf anvbndy in this world is capa ble of 'lifting himself by his own bootstraps, unquestionably Mr. Ros rat* is trie man. No one in all the courtroom watches him so close,*, and ap rsu-enUy so analytical y. as does the Pendant’s wife. Lucile Frank. >ank watches turn rather cunpus- m even quizzically; the elder Mrs. ^Lnk- the defendant's mother—not Zfte so closely—hut the prisoner's ^lfe rarely takes her eyes off her husband's leading counsel. And there is something amazingly' fascinating about Mr. R dsser. . He is fascinating physically—of course his superb mental equipment Is not debatable-much after the same fashion that old John L. Sulli- van used to be. T . _ In his palmy days, one of old John And I mean It a? n compliment to Luther Z. Rosser when I credit him with that same .-ort of terrible defi niteness of purpose in trying a ease. Mr. Rosser lets it be c een. can- tiously and rarefullv at first, that he j had a deadly indent toward Lee. He made it plain bv an adroit develop ment of mipstion’nr. that be proposed showing, if he could, more In Lee’s connection with this crim® than the public latterly has imagined to be possible. Eventuallv it dawned upon the thick-witted nem there In the wit ness chair that Rosser was leading up. through a 11 those puzzling and wor rying questions, to a fixed and steady mark, and Lee could be seen plainly to squirm and twist as be drew in evitably nearer and nearer the peril ous brink. c tor v/ Virtuaf'v Unshaken, He began to shift and back away from questions, to complain of inac- curaov in th® stenographic reports of the Coroner’s inquest, to evade and become indefinite. Evideutlv. at one time, the neero was growing afraid, and he undertook to b® as cunning and as cautious as be might. And vet. with all of that, he stood the ordeal prettv well and came through relatively unhurt and ®°r- tainlv not seriouslv damaged I think his evidence, as an Isolated thing, amounts to little, anvwav—but I think It went to the iurv fairly well unchal lenged. at tF»at! The dghtjng so far in its fuller as pect, h®s been so plainlv skirmish ing and .1ccke ,r ing for position that manv cneotators m"st ^ave wop- dered often as I did, what sort of accounting that >ther and far more important spftie figure in the Frank trial. Jim Conlev. might be exnected to give of himself under the merci less fire cf Rosser. It is about the negro Con’®' T that the. battle will reach Its zenith and the fighting will be the fiercest. After Conley has been disposed of one wav or the other, the case against Frank will b® either up or down, acf cording to th® status of Conley when his remarkable story has been put th the ultimate test. Wi'l Conlev Stand the Test? Will Conley be as nimble-'wltted as Lee was? Will h® be able to withstand th? onslaughts of Rosser and Arnold, even approximately as well as Newt stood j them? { Tf he does Conlev thus far has held himself to gether pretty well. His examination*, however, have b®en altogether one sided. A very different storv may be told after he has been un against the best legal talent the defense could secure. Newspapers have reported, from time to time, bow Conlev was "grill ed” bv thus and so—never a party tn the defense—and it has been related how well he "stuck to his story" when, after three trials, he apparently suc ceeded in getting hold of a storv he Could stick to overnight as a funda mental proposition: but whether the word "grilled” should not reallv have been "drilled” never has been per fectly clear in my mind. Conley ought to have his story well in hard bv now. in anv event: and so. if it Is a true storv. neither Mr. Rosser nor Mr. Arnold will succeed in breaking him down. On the other band, if Conlev relates an untriie storv, surelv Rosser and Arnold will be able to locate the loose joints in it. and wh®n thev do Conlev should read a« readilv as anybody the big and sinister danger signal that there 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 th® one fact that he discovered the dead body of little Mary Phagan in the factory cellar. He Is a genuine negro, with all of a j negro’s superstitious antipathv for a dead bodv. He went into the cellar on a perf®ctlv natural and ordinary mis sion. and there he discovered the bo-***. Just so soon as he satisfied hims®lf as to what It was he undoubtedlv did. as he gwore. "light a rag out of thar! ” Immediately he called the police, as he had be®n instructed to do by Frank, when he (Lee) first was em- nloyed as a night watchman In the factory. That is all he knows about th® crime—and it if* all Mr. Rosser ever got out of him and ever will get out of him. The remainder of his testimony is relatively unimportant, although, to be sure, there are bits of it that will ser ve to account for any seeming un- naturalnes'3 in the behavior of Frank lust prior to his departure from the factor** Saturday afternoon and later along in th® evening. Battle Has Just Beoun. The battle for Leo Frank’s life. lib. erty. and honor as a man, the fight to clear his home of the shadow of trag edy forever, has hardly yet begun. Th® fighting 90 far has been inde cisive. and to neither side has fallen anv advantage worth reckoning upon. The State has sustained Itself very well because It hasn’t lost anything— and about as much may be said for the defense. \nd not until Jim Conley gets into the case will the really big guns be unlimbered. Frank and Wife Perfect in Poise; Mother Pitiful Figure By L. F. WOODRUFF. 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, so 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 an appeal to the Court on High. His 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 chamber, the sight of the all terrify ing gibbet, the dreadful ascension of its steel stairs, the few words of re ligious consolation—and then the drop. Frank’s Face a Mask. But if he does realize these things, his face is 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 world of earnestness written on the faces of the array of counsel. The jurors sit with fixed faces. Their nervous fanning tells 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 a.« a pool, calm as a champion about to go forth to assured victory. If any thing. hip appearance Indicates that 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 are extremely luminous. His olive skin is exceedingly clear. 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 sits next to the massive Luther Rosser. When Rosser is on his feet he is next to studious-appearing Reub Arnold. When he speaks to them, his voice is impasslonate and hl« sen tences are carefully framed. Frank’s Wife Confident. Behind him Is his wife. Mrs. Frank is a remarl ably hand?*ome 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 Frank 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, his person ality is not one to arouse pity. His self-assurance is too apparent. His wife hardly stirs sympathy. She. too. Is apparently confident of victory. But there’s the mother Hour aft®r hour she sits and listens to men try ing to send her firstborn to the gal lows. Hour after hour she is thrilled by the skillful struggle that his coun sel makes to have the family name cleared of the stain brought by the charge that now rests against it. Mrs. Frank is a motherly-looking By 0. B. KEELER. woman. Her form is ample, and In her younger days was evidently a woman of striking appearance. She is typical of th* mother of her race— the revered head of the Hebrew fam ily. In this trial, though, her eyes are practically always fixed on her sqn Their yearning light spreads througn the big courtroom. Mother’s Locks Are of Love. Their every flash sends the mes sage that she wants him back on her breast a free man. No single feature of the trial es capes her. When the prosecution scores, another line 19 add®d to the face that has been wrinkled by the three months of wa'ting and horror. When the defense seemp to have an advantage, there is a joy expressed as great as the power of Niagara. When the attorneys ask a question, her eyes are fixed on the questioner. When the witness answers, her gaze is on him. When the court rules, every movement of his lips la 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 1 from his seat and near hers. When he looked for it. she divined his wish. She was on her feet in a second. The glase wa* in her hand. The water was poured out. In her trembling grasp It v.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 hip 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 a beast ; s ever polluted the soli of the Southland. But Mary Phagan is dead; she sleeps p®acefully beneath a flowered sod. The mother of Leo Frank is alive, and be her son innocent or guilty, the mother Is the pitiful figure in this black an 1 baffling mystery. The trouble Is, plain human emo tions won’t stick at concert pitch all the time. And so the Frank trial, after the first twenty minutes, say, become? much like any other trial. Blxcept in the 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. 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. One In particular uses an entirely red bandana nandkerchief—sometimes for for his face, sometimes to flag stand ing spectators, who must sit down. There is order. Thrill* Got 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 cold. And grim. And pitiful, Rosser Soars—Regardless. Then Mr. Arnold objects again, and there Is another dreary wrangle, and the Idea gets 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 mild interest in Mr. Rosser’s* pomp and circumstance of language. In stead of another thrill, you gain l hazy impression that Mr. Ropser 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 of feet, the clearing of throats. You are sent»ible that it is very warm and that the Judge twice has 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. yea—after the first twenty minutes (say), the Frank trial is much like any other, except "A big splotch that looked like blood.” "Where was 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 where was the rest.’’ "Around a nail that stuck out. * * * The top of the nail was cov ered with blood, and * * •” You sit back and your hands hurt from squeezing the arms of the seat. They are talking about a stairway again, and the city detective la point ing out something on the map with ihe 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 arrd 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 gyves upon his wrist. ’ But only in the flashes. rasping collar has been known to overbalance the diead presence of the King of Terrors. Honest persons have admitted this. And the grim por tent of the Frank trial produces no thrills while you are stepping on other people’s feet. 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*6 neighbor at a trial rarely knows any thing about anything connected with it. You pick out the prisoner because you have seen many pictures of him. He Is one of those whose pictures look like them. * You are quite certain who it is. First Chord a Mere Tinkle. 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, j back of thick lenses. • • • That was the first real tingle. * • * Did those eyes glare down upon the I huddled figure of Mary Fhagan in j the echoing loneliness of the pencil factory that Saturday afternoon? Glared through the thick lenses? The grotesquery 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 go’ng to fall, if the court please, in his full ( duty to his client, who sits there, i And the particular part of Mr. Ar nold’s duty at this moment Is to s*e that his learned broiher 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 officer. 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 pic 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 de 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. Dorscv has a querulous manner of asking questions. Mr. Arnold’s injured ob jections may explain that. Th# Pathos of a Dress. The testimony just 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 the handle of the umbrella Is bent. Is It his own umbrella? It looks like a woman’s. ♦ • * Where did Mr. Dorsey gel 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 small fingers? And the luvender dress. * * * And the end of all, In the duet and dirt of the pencil factory basement. • Just for a flash it’s all real. And Defense Plans Sensation, Line of Queries Indicates That a sensation Is to he sprung by the defense by the production of the mysteriously missing ribbon and flow ers from the hat of the murdered girl was repeatedly indicated by Attorney Rosser’s line of questioning Tue>*da> 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 end 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- g®ant L. 8. 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 whs no change In his demeanor or physical appearance. 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 his friends cheerily and spoke con fidently of acquittal. The Jurors, 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 Inf 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; also 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 Just before he left the stand Tuesday night identified pieces of wood as pieces ho 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 part in scouring the pencil factory for evi dence. One of his statements on which the Staie is relying to establish that B rank acted and talked in an incrim inating manner the 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 Frame that morning and had merely said that he desired Frank’s presence at the factory. He denied that he had mentioned the fact' that a girl had been killed. Claim Frank Knew. It is che purpose of the State to seek to establish that F*rank, without being told of what had happened, had made remarks 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 he had discovered stain* 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 “hai more than one suit of clothes," refer ring to the fact that he had on a different suit than ihe one he wore the day before. That Lee appeared composed when questioned Sunday by the detectivea That he witnessed the new night watchman in the pencil fftcfory make a complete punch of the time clock covering a period Qf twelve.hours in five minutes. Unqer Kossers cro^s-examination Starnes admitted that ft was practi cally impossible for him to remember the exact words he used in Certain parts of his testimony at the Gof- oner’s inquest. Thi.s admission was obtained by Rosser 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 telephone conversation or of the alleged conver sation he held with Frank the morn ing of the murder. SPECIAL REDUCTION For a few days you have an opportunity to get your eyes fitted with first-class glasses at lowest possible prices. EYEGLASSES and SPECTACLES $2.50 Glasses Now $1.00 $5.00 Glasses Now $2.50 We are thoroughly equipped to fit you with any style of glasses you may desire. Our oculist will give your eyes a thorough scientific examination, and we guarantee glasses he prescribes to give satisfaction. L. N. HOFF OPTICAL CO. 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