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I TTTE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS, 3 V VO M EN ON V vT To M N TEREST CENTERS AT TRIAL 0 Ll : RANK ~ The mother of I Leo Frank, who is at her son’s side constantly during his trial for life. { 'iVr&r, rir .7/' *<■ 'fti'-ij State Balloon Soars When Dorsey, Roiled, Cries Plant’ Poor John Black! With the unwitting assistance ot the Solicitor General and the assist ance of Luther Rosser, he furnished all the “punch” there was in Wed nesday’s story of the Frank trial. Black evidently was undertaking to tell the truth, and was unwilling to tell more or less than the truth, but that didn’t help matters much, so far as the State was concerned. When Solicitor Dorsey exclaimed “plant!”—which means nothing more than “faked” or “framed up” evi dence for the benefit of the defense— 1 glanced rapidly at Rosser. I saw precisely what I expected to S ee—a momentary flicker of a smile about the lips and eyes of the man. an almost immediate tightening Of the lips and narrowing of the eye*, and then a quick return of the habit ual ferocious frown. / I knew Dorsey had put his foot in it—put it right in. away up over the ankle, and I also knew that get ting that foot back to solid grpund again was going to be an undertak ing pregnant with extreme difficulty and danger. State Balloon Goes Up. The Solicitor was fretted when he exclaimed "plant”—thereby accusing the defense of rankly unfair and un pardonable methods of establishing Frank’s innocence. And right then ajid there, up went the state’s balloon, and it hasn't come down yet! If there is one thing in.all this world Luther Rosser loves better than anything else he knows of, it Is an adversary in the courtroom who hol lers “plant,” and things like that— particularly when said adversary is mad! When Mr. Dorsey on Wednesday, in a moment of forgetfulness and vexation, exclaimed “plant,” it was meat and bread and pie and cakes and beer and skittles to Luther Ros ser! Right then. I would much have pre ferred being a high private in the ranks of the Bulgarian army than John Black! The Solicitor handed Mr. Rosser the very club Mr. Rosser was lay ing for. and wherewith the said Mr. Rosser proceeded to pound poor, un offending John Black to smithereens! In no conceivable way did Black’s responses justify the Solicitor's pas sionate outbursts. Witness Goes Far Adrift. On the contrary, it served to con- By JAMES B. NEVIN. fuse and befuddle the witness, to send him far at. sea. After that he contradicted himself, failed to remember, became hazy and evidently worried and distressed. He had been shot mortally from an unexpected quarter, and he soon real ized that Luther Z. Rosser was de termined to finish the job—and finish it he did! As for the rest of the day and the beginning of this day— Court officials have settled them selves down In full expectation of a long siege in the Frank trial. So far, the progress of the case has been, in the main, commonplace in the extreme, and bewildering only when spectators have considered the thousand and one questions asked, and the always inevitable interposi tion of objections. The thing the average person m the audience does not understand, however, is that in all tha^t seem ingly interminable objecting and wrangling there is, a't least upon th part of 'the defense, a far-reaching purpose the mere mention of which will serve to illustrate its importance. Effect of One Little Error. In murder eases the defense has th* right, in the event the battle go s against it, to move for a new trial upon assignment of judicial error in the first trial. If a new trial be re-i fqsed.by the trial judge, the defense may appeal to the highest court «*f- review in the State, and if that court finds-error to have been committed or. the trial of the case, it will remand the entire proceeding back to the court of original jurisdiction for cor rection of the error, which means, of course, for another trial. Then the case will begin all over again, exactly as if it never had been tried at all. The State, on the other hand, has no such right as that—if it loses its case in the first instance, it loses .t for all time. Frank, save of his own motion, never can be tried a second time lor the killing of little Mary Phagan. The more rulings the defense, there- fore, calls upon the trial judge to make the more chances there are that error may creep in—and one little as signment of error sustained by the court of review would serve to re verse the entire Judgment, and send the case back for another trial. State Must Grin and Bear. In insisting that the case be held strictly within the leggfl rtiles, which a trial Judge never can be absolutely sure of doing, the defense throw's an anchor to windward in case of defeat —and the State can do nothing but grin grimly, and bear it. The big battle Wednesday to get the diagram of the pencil factory, containing as it did a red-lined indi cation of the State's theory of Uv crime, before the Jury had, as will readily be seen, a tremendous signifi cance—and although Judge Roan ’et it go in, it went in over the* bitter and carefully recorded protest of the de fense, and in case Frank should lose his fight now, the admission of that diagram doubtless will be assigned as error on original triah The State, of course, can not take advantage of its own errors, but Dor sey can hope to obtain nothing more than present advantage by combat ing them—hence the defense may cut in in all sorts of direction-s, with the burden of proof on the State and the oresumption of innocence always with he defendant at bar, and the State nay whistle for consolation. It makes the trial rather uphill puli ng for the State, therefore, however nuch one may think it otherwise. if Dorsey wins a point, it may avail aim something on the present trial, jut it will get him nothing eventually, in case he is forced to go to the high- r court. The Solicitor has one long, straight shot for victory—and no more. The defense, on the contrary, is not learly whipped if it loses its present ight. Defense Seems to Have Shade. If there has been any advantage rained by either side thus far, it has been gained, I should say, by the^de- fense. Nothing necessarily damaging has vet been set up against P'rank. In deed, much of the evidence drawn out seems almost childish in Us mean inglessness. Rogers testified that Frank was ‘nervous” w hen he (Rogers) saw him Sunday merning, April 27, and that he continued “nervous" for some time thereafter—although Rogers never saw him before, and had no way of comparing his conduct then with his general conduct. But if Frank was “nervous,” do >s the State seek to establish the pre sumption against him therefore that his “nervousness” was occasioned by the thought of little Mary Phagans dead body there in the cellar, and Frank responsible for It? Crimson Trail Leads Crowd To Courtroom Sidewalk Maybe so—but then—' Rogers swore almost in the 8{tme breath that Frank, looking up the record of Mary Phagan after the par ty reached the factory, deliberately set tfie combination on the office safe, opened it the very first time, without excitement or unusual circumstances of any sort. Does the State intend to establish the presumption here that Frank, not withstanding the weight of guilt upon his soul, was diabolically cool and de liberate in his movements, as indi cated by the safe incident? What Is State’s Purpose? Why not that presumption as ra tionally as the other? Which thirg does ‘he State intend the jury shall believe from Rogers’ — its own witness—-testimony? Fiddlesticks! What IS the State driving at, anyway? Maybe we shall find out eventually! Again, when Grace Hix was placed on the stand—and she was* the State's witness, remember—she testified or cross-examination that Frank had only spoken to her three or four times during her five years’ service in the pencil factory; that he talked to the girl employees very seldom, and that she had never known him to address Mary Phagan at all. This* very pretty young girl an swered the questions given her in a straightforward way—evidently she i was seeking to speak only the truth. So, too, Rogers had the appearance of sincerity—and what he said, wheth er significant or of small importance, apparently concerned him not at all. Then-fore since the State seeming ly made so little of either of these witnesses, although they were offered as the State’s witnesses and not the defense’s, prompts me to say that th*? advantage falling to either side be cause of their introduction fell, really, to the defense. What Has State Shown? What, frankly has the State estab lished thus far? That Mary Phagan i« dead; that she probably was murdered, that ih* place of the murder was Fulton County, and the date of it April 26. As a matter of fact, nothing much has been developed that has not been public property for w'eeks—pom* of it for months. There is a# feeling, growing more fixed every day, I think, that the State, if it hopes to win. must set up some thing more than it has yet made pub lic! If the State has some big card.® up its sleeve, if it is prepared to surprise the defense, and many people think it has the first and will do the second, then the case yet is *.n its infancy and the real charge against Frank still is to be made out. If the State ha“ no unrevealed evi dence and is NOT prepared to strike the defens* heavy and unanticipated blows, it is but the simple and honest truth to say here and now that the feeling, vague and elusive enough, but unmistakably there, that acquittal eventually will come to Frank and will steadily grow* and develop as th» days run by and the monotonous trial proceeds. The sun’s heat Is broiling. No man can stand it without suffering. An.l still men stand, not one man, hut scores of them, on a blistered pave ment gazing on a red brick building as unsightly as a gorgon’s head and look at nothing by the hour. They are led there by a trail of crimson, and they are held there by the carmine charm that—since Cain committed his deed of fratricide— has made murder the-deed that the law most severely punishes and his made it the act that most interests man. Go to Pryor and Hunter street**. You’ll find a study there. Leo Frank is being tried for the murder of Mary Phagan'in the courtroom in a building on the northeast comer. The trial is progressing in a quiet, orderly manner. Sheriff Mangums force is attending to that. Few per sons not vitally interested in the case are permitted In the courtroom. Outsiders are not even allowed m the same side of the street that abuts on the building housing Atlanta's most famous criminal trial. But those regulations fail to dampen the interest Atlanta feels In the case. Dickens was never wrong in his study of human frailties and human emotions. Do you remember when Mr. Pickwick was arrested for tres passing and when asked as to his identity replied “cold punch?” Do you remember when he was placed In the pound the sage of Gad’.« Hill told how the village populace gazed at nothing through the cracks in the fence of that inclosure? Old Scene Re-enacted. The same thing that Dickens wrote of a half century ago is being re enacted in Atlanta in this good year of 1913. Hundreds of Atlantans are figuratively looking through the cracks of the pound fence and seeing nothing. They are standing on that sun burnt pavement gazing on a building just because in the four walls of that structure a man is fighting for his life, just because a gallows threatens a man accused of ending the life of a little girl they never saw, th?v never heard of, until her dead body was found, and the incarnadined mys tery was added to the criminal his- By L. F. WOODRUFF. tory of Georgia’s capital. For hours they gaze. They can not possibly learn more of the progress of the trial there across the street than they could at their homes or their places of business. But there they stand. The intin&acj) of the lo cation with the tragedy enthralls them. When this crowd is viewed, the strange fascination of the old Re mans for the arena in Which men died, the allurement of the present day prize ring in which men suffer, is not so strange. A peculiar kink in nature has made man love to wit ness the tribulation of his fellows. Inside the courtroom the crowd is different. Frank is th°re because sus picion points to 'him as the slay?r. His wife is there, because it Is th? wife’s place to be near her husband In his supreme hour of trial. His mother is there because mother love demands that she be a protector, a guardian, a consoler, when others are trying to blacken his character, to have him declared unfit to breathe the air of free and 1 onorable men. Attorneys and Their Fight. The attorneys are there to fight a fight they think just. Hugh Dorsey is struggling to establish a record that the county of Fulton will up hold the law thou • the offender ne a* wealthy and as powerful as the chieftain of the greatest trust. Luther Rosser and Reub Arnold are there in their panoply of invincibility to main tain their reputations as well as de fend the* man they declare innocent. Mary Phagans mother and sister are there because the call of the blood tells them that the death ct the little ‘’actor- girl should be avenged. There are scores of spectators, young lawyers, who wish to witness the struggle between those master minds of their profession engaged 'n the case. Their interest is as nat ural as the Interest of a stock bro ker’s clerk in the personality of the heir to the fortune of Morgan. At a big round table ip seated a group of coatless men working it tr- sneed, every energy strained to let the -people of Atlanta know the varying issues of the battle. None of these men is there by choice. They would probably like to be In some other place, where, thougn dozens of electric fans are blowing constantly, the heat is as oppressive as that of a Turkish hath steamroom. But outside the railing, In the spec tators’ assigned seats, is a crowd a? incongruous to the atmosphere as * day laborer at a king’- levee. Every possible class is represented. I There are business men of nig n- terests. They sit through the hear ing with their mouths agape, just aa the crowd on the pavemen stands. There are typical Trackers in the throng. One man wearing tho badge of honor of a Confederate vc - eran has been in constant attendance during the trial. Mere Boys Har»^ on Every Word. Bur the large portion of the audi ence is young, pitifully young, too, when the issue and the result is con sidered. Boys just in long trousers have obtained admission in some wav. TLev are lustful for every word. every deed. They are not seeking informa tion. They, are attending the tri n as a result of the same impulse that leads them to spend their spars** nickels for a recital of the deeds if derring-do, of “Diamond Dick,” or “Old King Brady.” One man, hardly a man either for his face was youthful, has been at every session. He is palpably a drug victim. His pallor stands out in striking relief among the rather ro bust countenances of the rest of the audience. His hands twitch nervous ly. His head frequently droops. His physical being is demanding the drug he craves. But his mental desire the thrill of the trial holds him more firmly than the power of the opiate His interest in the case might be a study for the most eminent neurolo gists. A common link holds all of these people, those inside and those out. It is the rope of hemp that hangs a possible conclusion to this gripping tragedy that has held a city three months. No man has ever been seen who says that he enjoys witnessing i hanging. No hanging has ever been seen where there were not moTe peo ple anxious to see the execution than there was room In the death cell. The sun on Pryor street may scorch, but the awful charm of noose and black cap makes the place as pleasart as the veranda of a sea shore hotel. The heat of the court room may sear the very being of the spectator?, but the fascination of the death watch keeps them, as ftrmlv fastened n their seats as though there were bars of Iron about the chairs. It’s a morMd thought, but it's a morbid crowd. Those interested in I* rank listen to the case in the hope of developments that will free him of the ordeal of mounting the stairs of steel. Those who wish his conviction are there to see a web of circum stance weaved around him that leads only to that awful end.