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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS.
L INTO FIGHT
E 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 case was given 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 iato the case Monday.
And he came iwto 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 thrilling!y and
most abhorrently. If that climax is
rot 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 is Leo Frank’s life or Jim
Conley’s life that must pay th e for
feit of Mary Phagan’s 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 MUST be
solved—that is the puzzle that MUST
be unraveled, if it be so that “truth
is mighty and will prevail!” *
Burden Falls on Bosser.
And into the hands of one man—
Luther Z. Rosser—has been intrust
ed the responsibility of breaking it
dowfi so completely that Leo Frank
may go forth from that stuffy little
courtroom a 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 is
conducting the cross-examination of
Conley. He is a pastmaster 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 Conley, upon which 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 so much depended upon his skill
and knowledge of the law, and his re
markable ability at making witnesses
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 gallows.
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 Was 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 vefry far, nevertheless,
Conley recalled that he could forget.
Rosser already has mixed him bad
ly in many ways.
If 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—it hardly can be doubted.
With Conley’s story sustained, de
spite the fire of Rosser’s cross-exami
nation. Frank is undone and lost for
ever, and every damning circum
stance 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
flattened out as a tissue of lies re
lated to save his own neck, all the
circumstances cited against Frank
will be rated meonsequential and of
■Vj to
B. NEVIN.
hack 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
e ideavor toward Conley as the cli
max of its story.
As the ugly story was falling from
Conley’s thick lips, I watched FTank.
It will not do to say he was uncon
cerned. No person in all that crowd
ed courtroom was more concerned
than he.
More than once he w*et his lips with
his tongue and gripped the arms of
his chair tightly. He kept his eye
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 his 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
and 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 off as unconcernedly as he might
recite the details of a “crap” game
TRUE?
If it be 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 ahgut 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 be
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 stabbing the wife and mother to
the heart forever and forever, to
blacken and make unthinkable the
memory of the husband and sen?
Story Is Not Impossible.
Can it be the TRUTH that ;im
Conley speaks?
Yes. it can be the truth.
It Is .seemingly far beyond the
range of the probable, perhaps,
It is not beyond the range of
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 be 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 State’s
witnesses have, and yet may, fare
under the pitless fire of Rosser?
When Conley’s horrible story was
finished under the direct examination,
the spectators had been shocked into
almost Irresponsible indignation—
they were in no condition to judge
with any approximate degree of fair
ness the truth or the falsity of it,
in any aspect of those things.
Rational men and women, honest
men and women, nen and women
willing for the right to prevail, an!
praying that only the right MAY pre
vail. still are Btrup^n*? 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
SHALL SPEAK THE TRUTH OF
THIS TRIAL!
but
the
CONLEY’S STORY OF
SLAYING DIAGRAMED
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 the striking feature of
Jim Conley's dramatic recital on the
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 notes 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 firsn
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 upstair*
was not knefton 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 probably a score of other
discrepancies that appear in hiss tale
3. Miss Mattie Smith came in with Mr. Parley and went out again.
before the jury and the stories 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 2t>.
Although the third affidavit Is cu
riously silent in respect to times, 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 he arrived at
the factory at 8:30 Saturday morn
ing.
Previously he had said that he dli
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 Htill 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.
Hut 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 killed, mentioned
Lemmie Quinn, but he declared that
Ouinn came into the factory before
either Monteen Stover or Mary Pha
gan entered.
Quinn and Frank have agreed that
he visited Fra. k’s office at about
12:20, which was after the Stover and
Phagan girls had gone upstairs and
the Stover girl had returned tj the
street.
4. Mary Phagan came in; I heard footsteps going back to the metal room.
ill a
j
i,
i
’
K
' ■ • .n-cia^.. .. ■■■
5. Miss Monteen Stover came in and went out; I heard steps running back to Frank’s office.
t
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
By L. F. WOODRUFF.
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 break'ng down the
negro’s story and forcing from the
negro’s lips 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 up 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 seem 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 times."
Rosser, however, seemed to have
about as thorough an acquaintance
with these circumstances of Conlev'a
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 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 I 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 of Con
ley being asked about them with no
reference being made to their word
ing.
Protests 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 women upstairs
in his office.
Conley said that the first time he
remembered doing this was <fh
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 Frank 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 h e 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 the factory in 1912, but
he could not remember much in re
gard to her appearance.
Rosser tested Conley’s familiarity
with various parts of the factory and
questioned him in great detail in re
spect to his knowledge of the ar
rangement of Frank’s office, the outer
office and aJl the rooms on the second
floor.
It was 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 telling Scott this
lie. you looked him right in his face,
didn't you?”
"No, I kin da hung my head.
Rosser continued along this line,
bringing out the differences between
the stories he told the detectives and
the testimony he gave on the stand
in thl forenoon. He called the ne
gro’s attention to his account of vis
iting numerous saloons 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 down to
get mo out.”
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 emapclpatlon 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
ha.® upset traditions that have lived
for years through the length and
breadth of the country.
The South Listens.
A white man Is on trial. His life
hangs on the wrords 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 loVea
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.
But 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, gln-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. The
South has not forgotten that wrten
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 the answer. The entire Pha
gan case has been as topsy 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 street
or Pace’s Ferry Road?
She's there. Mary Phagan alive
could have approached these mansions
of 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 w ife of the household wore
when society fought to witness her
wedding and hoi polio! 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 $fi 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 ts paying
out hundreds, yes, thousands of dol
lars to discover and punish her flay
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
subject.
Mary Phagan. alive, was a pro
toplasm in the life of Atlanta; dead,
she stands out in a has 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 Stanford White did
more with one stroke of a pen than
Harry Thaw accomplished in his en
tire life.
A Tragic Shaft.
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 in
Atlanta.
It is* an awful shaft to erect. But
It Is more enduring than marble; it
means more than man’s words have
ever exoressed.
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