Newspaper Page Text
- 11 1 Mi™**™—*■
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN ANT) NEWS
3
LD
HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION
STAGE IK FRANK’S TIL
• By JAMES B. NEVIN.
When a prospective juryman Is on
his voir dire in a given criminal case,
he is asked if his mind is perfectly
impartial between the State and the
accused.
If he answers yes, he is competent
to try the case, so far ns that Is con-
corned. If he answers no, he is re
jected.
How many people in Atlanta and
Georgia, having heard part of the
testimony in the Frank case, still foel
themselves to be perfectly impartial
between the State and the accused?
How many people, having heard
part of the evidence, still have re
frained from expressing an opinion
as to the guilt or Innocence of Frank?
Not many, I take It—and yet. that
jury Jg supposed to be perfectly
poised and as yet impartial between
the State and the accused, notwith
standing the State’s evidence thus far
delivered, and the presumption of in
nocence legally established in behalf
of the defendant.
I venture the opinion that nothing
developing in the Frank trial last
week so profoundly weighed upon
the minds of the people over Sunday
as the question of the digestibility
of boiled cabbage—nice, greasy, pal
atable, if often shunned, boiled cab
bage!
It is rather curious that of all the
mass of matter brought out last week
this point should have furnished the
greatest amount of food for thought
—food as difficult and as varied in
its aspects of mental indigestlbillty
as boiled cabbage Is in Its physical as
pect!
Everybody Has His Opinion.
Everybody has his own private
opinion as to the manner and meth
ods whereby his, at least, stomach
proceeds to the disposing and assim
ilating of this not too aristocratic
article of common, everyday con-
Vimption.
How many people In Atlanta Sun
day forsook their usual Sababth day
more or less elaborate program of
diet in favor of plebeian program
of boiled cabbage—Just to see what
would happen, anyway?
“Is your mind perfectly impartial
between the State and the accused?”
Perhaps an experiment with trolled
cabbage may help you in arriving at
a conclusion!
Remember. In judging Frank from
the State’s standpoint, there is noth
ing so vitally important as the time
element.
If Mary Phagan were killed be
tween 12:05 and the time Frank is
admitted to have left hlv office—
which narrows the limit sharply and
definitely—then the State’s contention
that Frank committed the deed may
Dr may not be true.
If she actually was killed after
Frank left his office, of course the
case against Frank falls to pieces
entirely.
Miss Monteen Stover swears that
Frank was not, to the best of her
knowledge and belief, in his office:
from 12:05 to 12:10—and there are
five minuter, if thq girl’s testimony
is conclusive, in which Mary Phagan’s
death might have been effected.
Defense to Dispute Claim.
The defense, to be sure, has sought
to show, and will seek to show even
more definitely yet, that, while Miss
Stover may not have seen Frank in
his private office, which is detached
from the main office, he rtill might
have been there, because of the ar
rangement of the two rooms and the
furniture therein.
But if the jury accept Miss Sto
ver’s testimony as conclusive, and
agrees that Frank was NOT in his
office at the time stated, and in spite
of the fact that Frank has stated,
and presumably will state again, that
he WAS in his office at that time,
then Frank’s full opportunity to have
slain the girl will have been estab
lished.
In addition to this established fact
—if it b e established in the minds of
the jury—will be the further testi
mony of Dr. Roy Harris to the ef
fect that Mary must have been dead
at least not later than 12:30, and
maybe earlier, as disclosed to Dr.
Harris’ satisfaction by the contents
of her stomach, examined carefully
after her death.
It looks as if the very heart and
soul of the State's case against
Frank, in so far as its entirely the
oretical and circumstantial side is
concerned, revolves very much about
the question of how long boiled cab
bage may have been in process of
digestion in Mary Phagan’s stomach
on the day she was killed.
Trivial Thing Controls.
It is rather a strange thing that
in so many cases depending alone
upon circumstantial evidence to sus
tain them, unexpected and seeming
ly inconsequential things should
eventually control.
When the Frank trial began, if
there was any one thing entirely re
mote from the mir.ds and opinions of
the people—the judge and the Jury
men Included—it was, I suspect,
boiled cabbage!
The lawyers for the State, of
course, knew what Dr. Harris was
going to testify—but beyond them,
nobody else knew.
When, as the case developed In its
preliminary and before trial stages,
the newspapers were digging daily j
in this and that direction for new
lines of thought, for new circum
stances and suggestions calculated
to throw light on the great mystery
of Mary Phagan’s untimely and most
distressing death, when constantly it
was being hinted that either the
State or the defense had “something
big and sensational up Its sleeve, yet
to come,” who thought of boiled cab
bage?
I confejs unblushingly and with no
reservations or evasions of mind in
me whatever that I never did—not
once!
And neither did you, reader!
And yet, there has been nothing
developed by the State, in the cir
cumstantial evidence, not including
Conley, thus far one-half so
sensational as its point about
boiled cabbage—nothing that the de
fense so surely and so completely
must break down and annihilate!
Clash Over Boiled Cabbage.
Upon the yet mooted points of the
digestibility of boiled cabbage, in the
average stomach, in Mary Phagan’s
stomach, in the weak stomach, in the
strong stomach, in the thus equipped
stomach and the otherwise, equipped
stomach—plainly one may anticipate
a long, bitter, and badly befuddling
battle between experts pro and con
as to boiled cabbage inside the hu
man physical make-up.
I suspect the Frank case now Is
getting to that stage wheretn the J
hypothetical question will figure se
riously and menacingly.
Already, of course, hypothetical
questions have been asked, on both
sides, but It is doubtful whether the
case really has quite progressed to
that point wherein the real hypo
thetical question should be expected
to make Its appearance. But it is
very near.
In the famous trial of Harry Thaw,
when there was no question what
ever of who killed Stanford White.,
the hypothetical questions asked of
the experts often ran into the thou
sands of words. Indeed, one question
was asked, if I remember correctly,
that contained over five thousand
words.
If the lawyers in the Frank case
get to handing those sort of queries
around—and both sides likely will
plunge heavily into the hypothetical
question pool, the water being fine
or not as they individually may vie*'
It— the Frank case likely will get so
very complex that ordinary folks will
find it extremely hard to follow *ts
movements.
Jury to Bear Burden.
The Jury, being on its oath fair and
impartial, will undertake, of course,
to get its mind exactly right on the
questions of boiled cabbage.
A human life, an erstwhile happy
home, a wife’s all and everything, a
mother’s love and confidence, a man’s
dearest honor, and the sympathy and
Royalty of hundreds of devoted friends
—these all are depending, in large
measure, upon what the jury in the
Frank case finally will conclude ;n
respect of the digestibility of boiled
cabbage!
If it were not such a serious mas
ter—such a very, very serious matter
—one might almost be tempted to
smile grimly to himself, that so much
should depend upon seemingly so
commonplace thing as boiled cab
bage.
It would be a frightful thing to
send a man to the gallows upon an
incorrectly diagnosed condition of the
alimentary canal, dependent entirely
upon boiled cabbage, and yet it would
be equally as frightful and unfor
tunate if Justice should gravely mis
carry and responsibility for little
Mary Phagan’s death fail to be fixed
righteously, because the Jury missed
the vital controlling point in respect
of boiled cabbage.
It is upon trifles light as air—not
that boiled cabbage ever sat that
lightly on human stomach—-that grave
issues often turn; and thus not infre
quently Is the “native hue of resolution
sicklied o’er with the palo cast of
thought,” as Hamlet says.
Has Jury Tried Experiment?
Was the Jury progressing satisfac
torily toward the acquittal of Frank—
or unsatisfactorily, as the case may
be—when it ran afoul of boiled cab
bage, that to give it serious pause?
And would it be right or wrong,
proper or improper, now to feed the
jury one meal of boiled cabbage, thus
to let it see by personal experience
what becomes of that article of diet,
once it Is introduced into the human
stomach?
Would that be dangerous to the
State, in that it might breed a variety
of opinion in the minds of the Jury
sure to produce, at least, a mistrial, or
an acquittal—or would it so shatter
all doubt in the jury’s mind as to pro
duce conviction?
Has rhe Frank Jury Inadvertently
been fed some boiled cabbage al
ready, and did every Juryman partake
thereof—and if so, will that, in either
event, be grounds for a new trial?
Far be It from me even to guess, so
hard is the battle for and against Leo
Frank being fought!
COUNSEL FOR THE STATE OF GEORGIA
IN THE PROSECUTION OF LEO FRANK
Frank A. Hooper, specially en
gaged for the State.
Hugh Dorsey
who has
borne brant
of the work.
E. A. Stephens,
Assistant to
Solicitor
Dorsey.
Envy Not the Juror! His
Lot, Mostly, Is Monotony
By L. F. WOODRUFF.
A policeman’s Ilf© is not a merrv
one. The thought was expressed and
event set to music in those dim days
of the distant past when people heard
the lyrics and listened to the charm
ing lilts of Gilbert and Sullivan opera
Instead of centering their attentions
on a winsome young woman with a
record in the divorce courts and not
much else in either ability or raiment.
Gilbert and Sullivan, now being
tradition, can be considered authori
ties. Wherefore the thought is re
peated that a policeman’s life Is not
a merry one.
But there are twelve Fulton county
men who will say that he went too
far in his statement In one way and
didn’t come within a mile of ap
proaching the mark in another.
For after the sergeant sings “a po
liceman’s life is not a merry one,”
the chorus of constabulary cants, “ta
ran ta ra, ta ran ta ra," which sounds
rather Joyous.
The Jurors Dissent.
And the Jurors with whom the fate
of Leo Frank rests believe there is
no more Joy in the work which is
imposed as part of their duty as citi
zens of Fulton County than there i» in
a crutch to a man unaccustomed to
using that method of transportation.
They would like to be included In
the category of those persons whose
existence if* as far removed from
the paths of primrose as pole is from
pole, but they would voice violent
protest against any ta ran ta ra’e
There is much Justice in their po
sition and their claims to a place high
on the list of martyrs to the sacred
cause of duty.
An English humorist wrote of a
young man who kept a diary and
abandoned the pursuit when for three
days this entry was repeated: “Got
up. washed, w’ent to bed.” He rea
sonably figured that his existence wan
entirely too colorless to necessitate
recording.
Mostly Monotony, Their Days.
The members of the Frank Jury are
In much the same position. They
merely get up, wash and go to bed,
with Just the added duty of sitting
through hour after hour of legal bat
tling that has only its brief periods
of Interest. They are as securely cut
off from the rest of the world as they
would be were they locked in Ful
ton County’s Tower, and for this they
are paid by the State of Georgia the
munificent sum of $2 a day, that does
not go far toward the purchase of
the family corn meal and cabbage in
these days when certain persons find
it hard to live on a salary of $12,000
a year.
Here’s about the dally routine of
the men whose duty It Is to decide the
most perplexing mystery that has ever
confronted the law enforcing powers
of the city of Atlanta.
They are quartered together In the
Kimball House, and they are guarded
as closely from the Intrusion of out
siders as the foulest felon in a Geor
gia convict camp.
They all ariee about 7 o’clock, ftfr
they have to dine together, and there
is no necessity of one’s awakening
before the last. They are shackled
together by the orders of the court
as firmly as if a convict chain was
fastened on the wrist of each.
They eat their meals at the Ger
man Cafe, in Pryor street. The coun
ty does not stint them. Judge Roan
has given orders that they be given
every reasonable luxury.
On their way to their meals they
are under close guard. A deputy leads
them. A deputy acts as a rear guard.
Deputies flank them on either side.
Their One Dissipation.
After breakfast they are allowed
to take a walk—still under guard.
This walk is their most rakish amune-
ment. And or this walk they are
taken up back streets, where they
can see nobody and nobody can see
them. Imagine an Atlantan of this
good year of 1913 getting his amuse
ment strolling through a section an
Interesting as a glans of stale water
the morning after, and always con
scious that If a friend should happen
to say “hello,” he would be under dire
suspicion of having arranged a secret
code in which “hello” meant any
thing from “$200,000 if you acquit” or
“your wife will quit you if you
acquit.”
After this stroll they wend their
way to the courtroom. They are
seated before the spectators enter.
The court orders all the spectators
to remain seated until they file out
at recess.
The courtroom is not the most
pleasant summer resort In the world.
Atlanta has been in the throes of a
hot spell constantly since the open
ing of the trial, a.id then hundreds
of humans are packed in a »pace
where only scores should be. The re
sult is that the ventilation of the
courtroom is bad. The atmosphere
is oppressive.
Still the Jurors seem to be bearing
the ordeal bravely. There is always
a look of relief on their faces when
the court orders recess.
As the audiences sits, their guard
of deputies forms and they file out,
straight to the restaurant. When the
noonday meal Is concluded, there is a
chance for brief relaxation. The Ju
rors make most of it.
The same performance is gone
through with in the afternoon. When
adjournment for the day is taken,
the members of the panel are taken
to the hotel, where they bathe and
don clean linen. Then they are either
taken out for a walk or allowed
to postpone that pleasure until after
their supper.
Bed Is the Exciting Climax.
When bedtime comes they are usu
ally fairly well ready for the mat
tress.
That is their day, and there is a
reward of $2 for those services com
ing to them at the end of the trial,
whenever that Is
"What are their amusements?”
Chief Deputy Plennie Minor, who Is
one of their most zealous guardians,
was asked.
Minor smiled. “I don't know that
they have any. They talk among
themselves, but they' are not allowed
to read any newspaper, by strict or
der of the court. A few carefully-
censored magazines were doled out
to them for Sunday recreation.
“They smoke a good deal: and. well,
they talk pretty much all the time.
“No one is allowed to communicate
with them in any way. Every letter
they receive has to be Inspected by
someone from our office before the
Juror can read it,” he said.
Aarcordingly, the Jurors get few
letters, even though they are married
men as a rule. A wife would hardly
Frank Witness Nearly
Killed By a Mad DoS
Deputy Sheriff W. W. (“Boots”)
Rogers, witness for the State in the
Frank trial, Is taking the Pasteur
treatment at the State Capitol Mon
day after being bitten half a dozen
times on the right ankle by a rabid
dog that pulled him from his motor
cycle at Henderson’s crossing, on
Capitol avenue, Sunday night about
11 o'clock.
After a battle of more than fifteen
minutes Rogers finally drove the dog
away, and though his right leg was
badly torn and lacerated, rode the
two miles from the crossing to Grady
Hospital. When he arrived at the
hospital his leg had begun to turn
black and was very painful.
Treated at Grady Hospital.
The Grady Hospital surgeons cau
terized the wounds and gave him tem
porary relief. This morning the leg
which the dog had gnawed was still
swollen and painful, and Rogers de
cided to take the Pasteur treatment.
The dog was a big shepherd and
attacked Rqgers just ks the officer
was crossing the railroad tracks.
*T noticed the dog running along
the side of the road several minutes
before he bit me.” said Rogers Mon
day morning, “but I had no idea he
was mad. As I passed under the arc
light at the crossing I heard a growl
right behind ine, and before I could
turn I felt the fangs of the dog sink
ing into my right ankle.
Pulled From Motorcycle.
“I tried to kick him off and tried
Wife and Mother of the Accused
Pencil Factory Superintendent
Sit Calmly Through Trial.
to get my revolver from its holster.
My coat was buttoned and before I
could reach my gun the dog had
pulled me from my motorcycle. As
I fell to the ground the dog let go of
my log and leaped at my throat, and
I struck him in the muzzle with my
fist Just in time to save myself.
“Before I could get up the dog L
grabbed my leg again, and we rolled
in the dirt for several moments, the
dog trying to get at my throat. At
length I regained my feet, with the
dog hanging on to my leg and biting
and gnawing. The froth streamed
from his mouth and ran down my
leg. I grabbed the brute by the throat
with my hands, but could not shake
him loose.
Too Weak to Kill Animal.
"Then I began kicking at him with
my other foot, all the’time trying to
get my gun. The revolver had
caught on my coat and I could not
draw It. After about fifteen minutes
of the hardest work I ever did in my
life I managed to kick the dog loose
from my leg, and he ran. I was so
weak after the fight that I couldn’t
draw my gun and failed to get a shot
at the brute.”
Rogers was forced to lie In the
road several minutes before he had
strength enough to drag himself to
his motorcycle. He finally reached
his machine and started the motor,
and then with blood streaming from
his wounds rode to Grady Hospital.
He was barely able to drag himself
into the office when he got there.
like to have a deputy peruse the inti
mate secrets of family life, nor be
made familiar with the pet names re
served alone for her husband.
“Even their linen is examined to
see that there is no note of communi
cation Is enclosed.” said Miner.
These precautions are absolutely
necessary They are as necessary for
the protection of the Juror os they
are to the assurance of a fair and
honest trial.
The court is not trying to be severe.
It is simply trying to preserve the in
tegrity of the laws of Georgia.
Small wonder then that there arc
men who seek to evade Jury duty by
failing to qualify as an elector, who
hide their name* from the directory
compilers, w'ho serve In the militia to
escape possibility of having to do
the work that these twelve men are
doing.
There is absolutely nothing to make
the work one to relish. The judge,
the lawyers, the detectives, the wit
nesses, all are more or less in the
coveted spotlight. It Ip doubtful if
there is a man in Atlanta not inti
mately connected with the case who
could name the twelve men on the
Jury.
They are not professional jurors,
who seek the $2 a day because they
are incapable of making that much
money as easily in any other way.
They are doing this work with a
sense of duty to their city, county and
State. Their reward must be only a
realization of a duty well done.
Small wonder they do not class
their lives a* merry ones. Small won
der that they wish no ta ran ta ra’s.
By TARLETON COLLIER.
Women are brought into a court
room, as all the. world knows, for one
of two purposes. Their presence may
have a moral effect in softening the
heart of a Juror, particularly if they
be young, pretty or wistful of counte
nance. Or they may be there on the
affectionate mission of cheering and
encouraging a beloved defendant.
Two women sat with Leo Prank
through the hot, weary days of
last week. Their object was the one
or the other. Which?
A study of these women was the
answer. Everybody studied them.
Everybody knew that love and trust
Inspired them. "Whether Frank be
Innocent or guilty, to his credit be
it said that he is loved by the women
clo**est to him.
His mother was one of the two,
a woman on whose face was written
plainly the story of a life in which
there was much of grief, much of the
tenderest Joy, much of loving and be
ing loved.
Tragedy in Mother’s Face.
Her eyes were sad. Her featured
never lost their tragic composure.
But it was plain that smiles had
come often to her in the course of
her life. The face Is* common to
mothers.
The other woman was his wl’fe, a
robust, wholesome young woman.
Her face was the piacid face of one
whose life has been pleasant. No un
happy event had come to mar a single
feature. None of the troubles that
had been the mother’s had come to
her. until this calamity.
If the younger Mrs. Frank were not
so plainly the sane, rational young
woman that she if, you would say that
she should be overcome by the cir
cumstances of the accusation and
trial of her husband. She impresses
you as being very young, indeed. But
she is too wholesome of mind and
body. You see that, as you study her.
She is reserved, too, in a sort of
proud w’ay. It is not a natural pride,
but a glory in her love for the man
on whose chair her arm rests, day
after day of-the trial.
This proud reserve is the mother’s,
too. These women do nctf laugh at
the not Infrequent ludicrous incidents
that arise. They do not smile, ex
cept when the man at whose side
they sit smiles into their eyes. Neither
do they cry.
It is this reserve that supported
them through the ordeal that came
Friday and Saturday. Two physici
ans were on the stand, and the things
they told was not lit for casual con
versation. Other women left the
room.
Womanly Reserve—and Ugly Words.
But the two had come to be with
Leo Frank. Through all the ghastly,
sordid revelations they sat, armed
with this quality of womanly reserve.
The face of the younger woman
quivered at times, involuntarily. But
for most of the time the two sat
unmoved, as if unconscious that hun
dreds of curious mas< ullne eyes win
on them, after the unsparing way of
masculine eyef, to see how the ugly
words affected them.
Through it all the women looked
straight ahead, as if seeing nothing.
The arm of Mrs Frank, the wife,
rested on the back of her husband’s
chair, encircling his shoulders and
lightly touching them. Now and then
the hand pressed his arm as a par
ticularly revolting bit was uttered.
It was a sublimo courage and re
serve.
You knew then that the presence
of these two women in the court room
was not for its effect on the jury, not
for affectation, but for the encour
agement of the man who is on trial
for his life.
These are not women, is your con
clusion. to sit in company with an ac.
cused man for policy’s sake.
You would find your conviction
deepened could you see this mother
and thle wife with FYank in the ante
room of the court during recesses
They arc not demonstrative during
the trial. There is a smile now’ and
then, for a bare second, and nothing
more.
The Reserve Is Broken.
But when recess is taken, and the
court room is cleared, and the prison
er and his wife end mother are to
gether in the little room at the side,
the *e breaks. The wife kisses
her hi and, freely, tenderly. Then
the mother After that they part, he
goes to jail, and they await the call
of court.
When the trial begins, they usually
are in their chairs waiting for him.
He enters with the deputy, to be
greeted by a smile or merely a look
from them They are a reserved peo
ple, these Franks.
And it is all very plain why these
women come to court, and sit by the
side of the man who is on trial.
Not for effect, surely.
Opportunities
Neglected
Are Lost
There is no use talking
about that housej»r lot you
DID NOT buy yesterday.
That particular opportunity
to make money has been
lost. Don’t miss another.
The Georgian “WANT
AD" columns are alive with
good Real Estate bargains
at all times. Read them.