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4 THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. WORSE THAN DEATH’ By JAMES Black and sinister, depressing in Its every aspect and horrible in its gloom. the testimony of Jim Conley In the Frank rase was Riven to the court and the Jury under direct ex amination Monday. The shadow of the negro had loomed like a frightful cloud over the courtroom for days -the negro him self came into the case Monday. And he came into it in an awful and unspeakably sensational way! The public was prepared for most that Conley said—It was not quite prepared for all he said The State, in its direct examina tion of Conley, climaxed its case against Frank most thrilllngly and most abhorrently. If that climax is not rendered impossible, ridiculous and absurd by the defense, then the young factory superintendent is doomed. It is. indeed, now a battle to the death -and to worse than the death! Either it la Leo Frank's life or Jim Conley's life that must pay the for feit of Mary Phagan’rt untimely and tragically miserable end' Can the negro's story be broken down? Either it is a pack of horrible and monstrously grotesque lies, or it is a horrible and monstrous recital of truth. Which Is It? That is the problem that MI ST he solved that is the puzzle that MUST be unraveled, if it be so that "truth is mighty and will prevail!” Burden Falls on Rosser. And into the hands of one man— Luther Z. Rosser has been intrust ed the responsibility of breaking it down so completely that I*eo Frank may go forth from that stuffy little courtroom h free man. enjoying again even a measure of the respect and esteem of his fellow men. Within the massive head of Rosser alone is the mental machinery mov ing now to free Frank. Rosser i« conducting the cross-examination of Conley. He is a past master in the art of examining witnesses. True, the keen intelligence of that other remarkable lawyer. Reuben Arnold, is aiding and abetting the big man but the result of the cross ing of (Jonley, upon w'hich this case unquestionably will turn, will be either Rosser's victory or Rosser's defeat. He must feel to the full the weight of responsibility upon him. Never before in all his long and successful career at the bar. perhaps, has ho much depended upon his skill and knowledge of the law, and his re markable ability at making witnesseH tell not only all they wish to tell, but much more than that, if necessary! Conley Is NOT the same sort of witness Newt Lee was. To begin with Conley is seeking to save his own neck, the while he seeks to place the noose about Frank’s. Gives His Evidence Glibly. He is far too sharp a negro not to know, despite his seeming ignorance in some directions, that failure to convict Frank likely would mean Conley's subsequent conviction. He knows that as a confessed accessory after the fact, the worst he faces is a few years in the penitentiary, where as as the principal to the murder, he would face the gallow’s. He delivered his testimony as glib ly as if he were a phonograph set going for the purpose. He rattled it off so rapidly at times that it was difficult to follow'. He remembered minute details of this, that, and the other—he seemed to have an almost superhuman memory under direct examination, unwinding his tale with few and far between suggestions from the Solicitor. His Memory Wa# Marvelous! It was only when he got to the cross-examination by Mr. Rosser, however, that he recalled possessing, among his other mental assets, even a little bit of a forgettery! Before the cross-examination had proceeded very far. nevertheless, Conley recalled that he could forget. Rosser already has mixed him bad ly in many wavs. Tf Conley is telling the truth— which many people believe—even in The main, Mr. Rosser will never shake him to pieces, however much he may shake him in spots. If he is lying—which many people also-believe—Mr. Rosser will shake him to pieces before he turns him loose—i: hardly can be doubted With Conley's story sustained, de- -nite the fire of Rosser’s cross-exami nation. Frank is undone and lost for ever, and every damning circum- tance cited against him will loom large and conclusive in the matter of shaping the verdict and public opin ion thereafter. With Conley's story crushed and fl-ittem-d out as a tissue of lies re- to save his own neck, all the y^ian cited hk Frank fated in <»nsequtntial and of &t—for without Conley to B NEVIN back them up they are worthless. The purely circumstantial case against Frank is not strong—the State doubtless recognizes that It has wise ly and consistently shaped its every endeavftr toward Conley as the cli- | i max of its story. A* the ugly story was falling from Conley’s thick lips, I watched Frank. It will not do to say he was uncon* I corned. No person in all that crowd ed courtroom was more concerned than he. More than once he wet his lips with his tongue and gripped the arms of his chair tightly. He kept his ey«* 1 glued to the negro most of the time ; moreover—and occasionally he reach ed backward, gently and composedly to grasp the hand of his wife—and always her hand met hla more than halfway. There he sat—flanked by the two women in all the world most deeply concerned in the outcome of this trial —-Lucile Frank, the wife, and the elder woman, the mother. The one young Hnd beautiful, the other growing old, but still handsome after her type. There is something infinitely be wildering in the situation in that courthouse to-day. Is the awful story Jim Conley rat tled ofT as unconcernedly as he might recite the details of a "crap” game TRUE? If It l>e true, who In all the wide, wide world has been so outrageously and so inhumanly wronged as those two women sitting there beside the defendant ? Better for Mary Phagan that she sleeps in her little grave, her mem ory sweet and fragrant as the flow ers blooming about her last resting place, than Lucile Frank—and the mother—if what Conley says is true! Others Face Hell on Earth. At least, to the dead girl has come forgetfulness—and if Frank Is guilty, never again to either of the other two women shall peace come this side of the grave. If only little Mary Phagan might speak; If only she might say Just ONE little word directing each and all of us to the TRUTH of this amar.ing, terrible and strange story! She could say—and who can doubt that she, purified of death and utterly unafraid, would say—the one im pregnable word of truth so neces sary In the present moment? It Is in crises of the present kind, when reason reels and staggers he- fore the sinister and deadly story Jim Conley tells, that poor, weak mortals grope and seek to seize upon the friendly hand of some unseen and Infallible Power, to ask, like a child In distress, for guidance and the strength to see the light! Is the word of this negro Conley— many times a confessed liar, many times a ‘‘Jailbird,” many times a loafer and a street vagabond—to serve the purpose* of crushing utterly the young superintendent of the pen cil factory, heretofore of unblemish ed character and reputation? Is it to serve the frightful purpose of slabbing the wife and mother to the heart forever and forever, to blacken and make unthinkable tho memory of the husband and son? Story Is Not Impossible. Can it be the TRUTH that Jim Conley speaks? Yes, it can be the truth. It is seemingly far beyond the range of the probable, perhaps, but it is not beyond the range of the possible. It is possible that Conley is telling things as they actually happened, even though lying in parts—it is pos sible. if not probable. It must be remembered that the defense as yet has introduced no witnesses. Its case still is to be made out. Whatever damage it has sus tained—and it has suffered heavily, even at best, it must de admitted - whatever damage it has sustained at the hands of the State's witness (and such advantages as it has gain ed—and it has gained some advant ages—it has gained at those same hands. Will its own witnesses fare better under cross-examination from the other side than some of the States witnesses have, and yet may, fare under the pit less fire of Rosser? When Conley’s horrible story was l.nished under the direct examination, the spectators had been shocked into almost irresponsible indignation— they were in no condition to judg* with any approxi na* decree of fair ness the truth or the falsity of it, 1 in any aspect of those things. Rational men and women, honest men and women, ten and women willing for the right to prevail, and praying that only the right MAY pre vail. still are stru **■''•’* nr to keep their minds open and free of prejudice and immature conclusion. Why not, then, resolve in yojr heart and mind this: WHATEVER THE JURY SHALL SAY, THAT 8H m i. SPEAK THE TRUTH OF THIS TE(:AL: CONLEY'S STORY OF Many Discrepancies To Be SLAYING DIAGRAMED j Bridged in Conley’s Stories jL —^ ft JZ. Frank opened the door and showed me how to lock it. Frank went up to his office and I stayed on the first floor. The defense of Leo Frank will bring out vividly before the Jury : Tuesday that tlie striking feature of I Jim’Conley's dramatic recital on the i stand Monday was that It differed not only from the first two affidavits signed by the negro, which he later repudiated in large part, but it also conflicted in several particulars with the last sensational affidavit in which he charged Leo Frank with the kill ing of the girl and related that he (Conley) disposed of the body and wrote the notev that were found at its side at Frank’s direction. As a conspicuous example, Conley in his narrative before the jury Mon day told for the first time of hearing the Phagan girl scream after she had gone to Frank's office and, according to his story, walked with the super intendent to the rear of the factory. He said nothing of this in his fir^'t two affidavits. Neither did he men tion it in his third sworn statement. On the contrary, he denied to the detectives at that time that he had heard any sound indicating that a crime had been committed. To a reporter for The Georgian who saw him after he had made the third affidavit he made the same firm de nial. He even denied that he had “seen the little girl enter the factory. That he was on the first floor and saw Mary Phagan when she went upstairs was not known until The Georgian published an exclusive story to that effect following the talk that Solici tor Dorsey and Frank Hooper had with the negro in the commissioners' room at the police station weeks after the third affidavit. There are probablv a score of other discrepancies that appear in hie tale 3. Miss Mattie Smith came in with Mr. Parley and went out again. before the jury and the stones con tained in his string of affidavits. The affidavits leave one with the information that Conley arose be tween 9 and 9:30 o'clock the day that Mary Phagan was killed. The negro told this, he said, by a large clock he could see by looking out of his window as he was dressing. By this same clock, he informed the jury .Monday that it was not 9 or 9:30, but 6 o’clock when he got out of bed Saturday. April 26. Although the third affidavit is cu riously silent in respect to time®, the other affidavits and the stories he told the police and reporters had it that he left home at about 10 o’clock Saturday forenoon. He said Monday that arrived at the factory at 8:30 Saturday morn ing. Previously he had said that he dll not get there until about 11 o’clock, after he had met Frank at Nelson and Forsyth streets and followed Frank to the factory at the superin tendent’s request In order that his new story should have sequence it was necessary for Conley to make other changes. He could not have spent all the time on Peters street of which he told if the new story was to hold water. He made changes in the time here. And, instead of meeting Frank ac cidentally at Nelson and Forsyth streets, he met him by appointment and returned with him to the fac tory. He told nothing in any of his affi davits of Frank’s alleged appoint ments with women in his office, nothing that would lead to the sus picion that Frank had been intimate or had sought to be intimate with any of the girls or women in his em ploy. Conley still insists that he over heard N. V. Darley and Miss Mattie Smith conversing in front of the fac tory after he had returned with Frank from Montag Brothers. This was 11 o'clock or after. But Darley swore under oath last week that he and Miss Smith left the factory at or before 9:40. Conley, in telling of the persons that visited the factory the day that Mary Phagan was billed, mentioned Lemmle Quinn, hut he declared that Oulnn came into the factory’ before either Monteen Stover or Mary’ Pha gan entered. Quinn and Frank have agreed that he visits Fra Vs office at about 12:20, which was after the Stover and Phagan girls had gone upstairs and the Stover girl had returned t j thj street. 4. Mary Phagan came in; I heard footsteps going back to the metal room. 5. Miss Monteen Stover came in and went out; I heard steps running back to Frank’s office. 6. I sat down on a box and went to sleep; I was awakened by Frank’s stamping his feet for me. Rosser Goes Fiercely After Jim Conley The determined onslaught against Jim Conley, his string of affidavits and the story he told before the Frank Jury had its real beginning Monday afternoon. Luther Rosser, starting with the avowed purpose of breaking down the negro’s story an i forcing from the negro’s Ups a story more incriminat ing to himself than any he had ut tered, went deeply into Conley s past history, his home life, his prison rec ord and everything that directly or remotely might have a bearing on the solution of the murder mystery. Before taking tip the events of the day that Mary Phagan was murdered, the attorney made Conley admit that he had been in Jail seven times. The negro did not seam particularly loath to make this admission, but was in clined at first to let it go into the record that he had been behind the bars “five or six timdfe.” % Rosser, however, seemed to have about as thorough an acquaintance with these circumstances of Conley’s life as did Conley himself, and he re freshed the negro's memory until Con ley was willing to agree that it prob* ably was seven times. Rosser’s manner x of examination provoked recurrent wrangles among the attorneys all the afternoon. He was unmolested so long as he main tained his kindly, ingratiating atti tude toward the negro, which he man ifested several times by the remark: “Jim and 1 are the best of friends; we’re going to get along fine.” As he departed from the inconse quential incidents of Conley’s career and began to touch on the vital is sues of the trial, the attorney’s be nign manner vanished and his ques tions were rasped out in such rapid succession that many times the negro did not have time to complete his an swer to one of them before Rosser had asked another. Hooper protested vigorously and often against this. The Solicitor protested as strongly against the method which he declared Rosser was employing to impeach the witness. He asserted that the affida vits concerning which he said Ros ser was questioning Conley should be read to the witness Instead >•:’ Con ley being a-*ked about them with no reference being made to their word ing. Protest^ of Little Avail. The protests were of little avail. The objections, for the most part, were overruled, and the cross-exam ination proceeded along the same line. At one point late in the afternoon. Dorsey threw a law book down on the table with an expression of dis gust when he failed to get a favora ble ruling from Judge Roan. Rosser began his interrogation in the afternoon by asking Conley in re gard to the times he said he had watched at the street door of the fac tory when Frank had w omen upstairs in his office. Conley said that the first time he remembered doing this was on Thanksgiving. The lawyer then pro ceeded to ask Conley about all of the times he had performed this office for Frank and couples, who, he said, made the factory a rendezvous. Ros ser made the negro give dates, the evident purpose being to show’ later in the trial that Trank was not at the factory at the times mentioned in the negro's testimony. Dalton May Take Stand. Conley related that he was given extra money each time that he watched at the door. Rosser forced him to tell the amount that he re ceived on each occasion. The names of Miss Daisy Hopkins and a Mr. Dalton figured frequently in the negro’s stories of the clan destine visits of couples to the fac tory. It was said that Dalton later would take the stand and corroborate Conley’s story. Conley said that Daisy Hopkins worked at tke factory in 1912, but he could not remember much in re gard to her appearance. Rosier tested Conley's familiarity with various parts of the factory and questioned him iiu great detail in re spect to his knowledge of the ar rangement of Frank’s office, the outer office and all the rooms on the second floor. It w’as when Rosser began ques tioning the negro about his many statements to the detectives that his manner began to arouse the objec tions of the attorneys for the prose cution. Admits That He Lied. “You told Harry Scott that you got up at 9:30 Saturday morning, didn't you?” asked Rosser. “I guess I did, sah,’’ the negro ad mitted. “Well, It wasn’t so, was it?” “No, it wasn't so.’’ “What time did you get up?” "About 6 o’clock.” "When you were teliing Scott this 1 lie. you looked him right in his face, I didn’t you?” “No, 1 kinda hung my head. Rosser continued along this line, bringing out the differences between 1 the stories he told the detectives and ' the testimony he gave on the stand I in the forenoon. He called the ne gro's attention to his account of vis iting numerous saioons Saturday morning. Conley admitted that much of this was false. “I told Mr. Scott and Mr. Black just part of the truth,” Conley ex plained, “so that Mr. Frank would get scared and send some one dow n to get me out.” TRADITIONS OF THE UPSET; WRITE Sinister as a cloud, as raven as a night unaided by moon, planet or satellite, Jim Conley is to-day the most talked-of man In Georgia. His black skin has not been whit ened by the emancipation proclama tion. The record of his race for re garding an oath as It regards a drink of gin, something to be swallowed, remains unattacked. , But Georgia is to-day listening to the words of Jim Conley with breath less interest. His every syllable has ten thousand of eager interpreters. His facial expression is watched as keenly as he answers the questions of Luther Rosser as would be the physi ognomy of the President of the United States be watched as he signed a declaration of war against Japan. Jim Conley has upset traditions of the South, even as the Phagan case has upset traditions that have lived for years through the length arffl breadth of the country. The South Listens. A white man is on trial. His life hangs on the words of a negro. And the South listens to the negro's words. Had Jim Conley happened to be a negro of the new type, now’ so fre-. quently seen in Dixie, a negro with education enough to halt his racial tendency to lying under fire; had he happened to be a negro of the old type, the type the South best loves and venerates, the Id slave that is faithful to the family he belonged to as a dog is to his master, tradition would still exist. Rut Conley has wrecked tradition. He is a negro of the type that the South has been trying since recon struction to destroy, the meagerly educated, shiftless, gin-guzzling, half- anthropoid black that any nation could well be rid of. But they are listening to Conley. The South has not thus suddenly for gotten the fact that negro evidence Is as slight as tissue paper. Th^ South has not forgotten that when white man’s word is brought in com bat against negro's word, there is no question as to the winner. Topsy Turvy Case. Here’s thp answer. The entire Pha gan case has been as top.sy turvy as the greatest creation of a Coney Island artist. “White people believing a negro!” you say and laugh. Why shouldn’t they, when a little factory girl can go into the innermost circles of the life of Peachtree streat or Pace's Ferry Road? She’s there. Mary Phagan alive could have approached these mansions 9 Atlanta’s aristocracy an hundred times in her plain little calico dress, and each time she would have been told to go to the back door. But Mary Phagan, dead, is to-day in every home in Atlanta, as there as lares et penates set up. be those household gods, simply a family Bible or the gem-encrusted wedding crown which the wife of the household wore when society fought to witness her wedding and hoi polloi struggled to catch a glimpse of her beauty as she walked through the church chancel. A Theme for a Sermon. Mary Phagan in her lifetime never made much more than $5 a week. The laws of labor made that amount her position. Twenty-five cents taken from her salary would have probably caused the absence from the family table of the cabbage and biscuit that are playing such an important part in these cases. Now the State of Georgia is paying out hundreds, yes, thousands of dol lars to discover and punish her slay er. The Frank family is expending as much or more to prove to the world that he is guiltless of the crime. A sermon could be written on the f-aibject. Mary Phagan. alive, was a pro toplasm in the life of Atlanta; dead, she stands out in a bas relief that Is as striking as the great torch which the Goddess of Liberty holds aloft in New York Harbor. Her name will always be remem bered. In noted criminal cases, it has al ways been the defendant for whom the trial was named. The word “Thaw” will be remembered when the name of Stanford White has passed into oblivion, and Stafford White did more with one stroke of a pen than By L. F. WOODRUFF. Harry Thaw accomplished in his en tire life. There are few people who can re call to-day the name of Caesar Young, but there are few that forget the name of Nan Patterson. Caleb Powers was charged with killing a Governor of Kentucky. The average man would have to seek ref erences to remember his name. But Mary Phagan died, and the case remains the Phagan case Frank’s* name will be carried with it a few years, and then will be for gotten. The little factory girl will be re membered as long as law exists tn Atlanta. It i« an awful shaft to erect. But It is more enduring than marble; It means more than man’s words have ever expressed. AUTO SKINS RffiANDROUGli Soothed by $9 WRIGHT,SVILLE BEACH Round-trip, August 16th. Good 15 days. Through sleepers. Sea board. The Use of MURA SOAP AND OINTMENT No other emollients so quickly allay irritation, redness, rough ness of face and hands, remove dust and grime, and keep the skin soft and clear under all con ditions of exposure. 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