Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, August 08, 1913, Image 3
3
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS
suit IS FORCED
TO
Must Stand By While Defense
Seeks Weak Link in the
Negro’s Story.
MAN WHO SAYS NEGRO JIM CONLEY ?
CONFESSEDSLAYINGOF LITTLE GIRL
„ r" - '
By JAMES B. NEVIN.
Ab the defense in the Frank case
gets under way, it is evident enough,
as it has been from the beginning of
this case, that there is but one big,
tremendously compelling task before
it—the annihilation of Conley’s ugly
story!
The State climaxed its case thrill-
ingly and with deadly effect in the
negro.
He came through the fire of cross-
examination. exhaustive and thorough,
in remarkably good shape, all things
considered. He unfolded a story even
more horrible than was anticipated.
Certainly, in every conceivable way,
he has sought to damage the defend
ant—even going to the extent of lodg
ing against him another crime than
murder!
Through th e cross-examination,
however, there ran an evident vein
of deadly purpose upon the part of
the defense. Conley was given full
limit to go his length. He went it—
no disputing that!
The question is, did he go TOO
FAR?
Did he, in his last minute effort to
get in EVERYTHING that possibly
might work against the defendant,
tell things, or say things, that even
tually will rise to plague him to his
utter undoing?
That is the defense’s task—THE
UNDOING OF CONLEY.
Conley the State’s All.
Conley is the heart and soul of the
States case—without Conley, the
State is rendered helpless. He is the
Alpha and the Omega of the charge
against Leo Frank.
That great detective, William J.
Burns, says "they always—criminals
—leave something out of gear in the
stories they tell.”
Burns declares there never was a
lie told to shield a criminal that did
not have in it SOMEWHERE a fatal
weakness, that might be located if
patiently sought for. The more elab
orate the tale the criminal relates,
the more chance there is, no matter
how .nflnL.ely shrewd he may seem to
he. that he will be discovered.
To-day is the defense’s day in court
—during its progress, which may be
for a week or more, even as the
State’s day lasted 240 hours, Leo
Frank must break down the awful
story of Jim Conley, and prove him
self innocent, if he can, of all the va
rious charges brought against him.
Can he do it?
Well, maybe he can, and maybe he
can not—at least, in the name of jus
tice and decency and all that is right,
he must have full and free OPPOR
TUNITY.
One Sride of the Case.
During the progress of the State’s
case, the defense was led far into the
gloom. People began to doubt Frank’s
innocence—people of poise and fair
minds, desirous of seeing the truth
prevail though the heavens fall.
Even these people found themselves
staggering and groping as the
hideous and sinister charges fell from
the lips of the negro.
Could Leo Frank, of previous good
reputation, of fair name and unblem
ished integrity, college bred and stu
dious in habit, so far as the public
knew or suspected, be the monster
responsible for little Mary Phagan’s
death, and also—the other unspeak
able thing?
In a rather remarkable interview
Mrs. Leo Frank gave The Sunday
American some few weeks ago, she
said this of Frank and herself: “As
sweethearts, we went hand in hand,
and intruded ourselves upon no per
son: as man and wife we have gone
hand in hand, and we have intruded
ourselves upon no person!”
They still are going "hand in
hand,” the man and the woman, the
husband and the wife—the one hold
ing up as best he can under the ter
rible charge of murder, the other
there beside him—"for better or
worse, in sickness and in health, for
richer or poorer’’—until death, or
worse than death, shall sever the
tie that binds.
That is something steadying to
think about!
It is the defendant’s day in court—
and he is entitled to fair play and a
fair chance!
To some it may seem that the bur
den has shifted, that it is up to the
defense now, notwithstanding the
more or less fictitious presumption
of innocence the law jealously has
established in his favor, to PROVE
his innoncence.
Be that as it may—even as the
gloom has closed about him and a 1
he holds most dear in this world—hu
still is a human being, in very dire
distress, as yet unconvicted; and it \%
only right that the public should be
patient, as he sets forth HIS side of
this terrible affair.
And I give it as my opinion here
and now, for whatever it is^ worth,
that the case against Leo Frank yet
may be far from conclusive—and it
may never be made conclusive.
Conley's Tale Impossible?
Suppose the defense is able to show,
by a sequence of logical, orderly and
*»WU},
SSte..
'SIS*: . .
SUITE SEES BITS
OF EVIDENCE AS
Chain as Strong as Its Weakest
Link, but Cord Must Be Cut
Thread by Thread.
Our Mr. L. B. Joel, who has been in the East for
the past week, has instructed us to sell all Summer
Goods to make room for the big Fall and Winter stocks
he is now buying—-so price is no object---if they are
Summer Goods, THEY MU$T GO.
Store Open Until 10 o’Clock Saturday Night.
jSJj&w*' 1 :-
fc, 1 h • . ™wm IlSitSp -
l '* a-it r . 1
W. H. Mincey,
the country
school-teacher
on whom the
Frank defense
depends, in a
measure, to
turn the sus
picion of guilt
of the Phagan
slaying to Jim
Conley.
Mincey says
the negro, on
the day of the
slaying, told
him he had
killed a girl.
This sketch
from life of
Mincey is by
P. A. Carter,
Georgian artist.
honorably sustained witnesses, that
the tale Jim Conley tells is utterly
absurd—and IMPOSSIBLE?
What then?
Will you be prepared, if forced to
a conviction against your will, if it
be that way with you, to say to
Frank: “All right, you came through
the fire, at times seemingly sure to
consume you, unhurt and unscorched,
but you came through, and I am con
tent.”
Conley’s story has not YET be-2 a
bi .yken down—no. But it MAY ;>8
broken down.
In an article a few days ago. I said
this, and I feel like repeating it now:
In Judging this Frank case,
purely from the State’s own
standpoint, there is nothing so im
portant as the TIME ELEMENT
in which the State uncompro
misingly claims the crime was
committed.
In another article a few days there
after, I said this, and this I also
feel like repeating now:
If the Conley story is a lie, if
it has been TOO CLEVERLY
“framed up”—if and a thousand
other “ifs”—what matters that?
It matters this: If it be a lie,
it MUST break down, somewhere,
sometime; if it be the truth, it
will stand against ALL the as
saults made upon it!
State Tied by Conley.
Remember, unless Conley’s story
holds together, the case against Frank
goes to pieces. Everybody who has
read the evidence and who still is ca
pable of rendering just judgment will
admit that.
Suppose It can be shown, and is
shown, that the story Conley told
CAN NOT be true?
The defense MUST show that, or
Frank is lost!
Can the defense do that?
The State has pinned itself down
to exact and definite propositions.
Remember, the defense has hardly
started its story yet—it may be able
to make absurd those very proposi
tions the State ha* set up.
The crime, according to the State’s
witnesses, MUST have been commit
ted thus and so, in exact order, and
just as stated—or Conley's story falls
down.
The biggest element in the State’s
case is the time element—mark that!
Upon it the State will stand or fall
eventually.
If Mary Phagan was NOT killed
before 12:05, then Leo Frank didn’t
kill her. If she was not killed at
that time, Conley’s story will not do.
Then is when the State says she
was killed—THEN and not at any
other time. Conley’s story ALL leads
up to and away from that.
Remember, too, that the only wit
ness who swears to knowledge or
suspicion of any unspeakable conduct
upon the part of Frank is—again—
Conley.
Dalton a Tame Witness.
When it came to corroborating Con
ley, Dalton proved a tame corrobo
rator. The ugly, nasty charge of per
version and degeneracy, glibly drop
ped from the lips of Conley, rests
ENTIRELY AND ALTOGETHER on
Conley’s word.
If Conley’s story of the murder is
shown to be IMPOSSIBLE AND AB
SURD, will you then reverse your
other opinion concerning Frank—if you
have accepted Conley's word as to
that—and agree that Conley, having
lied to send Frank to the gallows,
would have lied as readily to besmirch
him with unmentionable scandal oth
erwise?
Shall not Frank have the right, un
challenged and fair, to clear himself
of every charge lodged against him?
To-day is hi* day in court—will any
living person begrudge him, sore
pressed, one moment of it?
Will, in the end, he be able to read
and take to himself, happily and se
renely, Tennyson’s beautiful poem
ending—
"And now it is daylight every
where'.”
Will he?
We shall see.
At least, he is entitled to his day in
court—and it is at hand!
Holiness Meeting at
Indian Springs Opens
JACKSON, Aug. 8.—With visitors
from all parts of the South present
and with every indication pointing to
the largest and most successful meet
ing in its history, the annual ten
days’ session of the Indian Springs
Holiness Camp Meeting opening
Thursday night.
The railroads have offered reduced
rates for the occasion, the cottages
already are filled and the hotels it
Indian Springs have capacity crowds.
Charlie Tillman, of Atlanta, will con
duct the singing.
3 Japanese Killed
In Riot in Oregon
SALEM, OREG., Aug. 8.—Fear of
further trouble to-day led the police
to guard the section of the city where
last night three Japanese were killed
in a riot.
A man. woman and child were kill
ed outright and another Japanese
man was reported dying to-day.
Savant to Kill, Not
Cure, by Violet Ray
Special Cable to The Atlanta Georgian.
HAVRE, FRANCE, Aug. 8.—The I
violet rays, which have come to be |
an agency in medicine, may take their
place In war.
Signor Vlivi, an Italian scientist,
to-day began experimenting with the
object of perfecting a device by which
explosives may be set off with infra
violet rays.
By 0. B. KEELER.
They call it a chain that the State
has forged, or has tried to forge, to
hold Leo Frank to the murder of
Mary Phagan.
But isn’t it a rope?
A chain, you know, is as strong as
its weakest link. Take one link out,
and the chain comes apart.
With a rope, it’s different.
Strand after strand might be cut
or broken, and the rope still holds a
certain weight. Then might come a
time when the cutting of one more
strand would cause the rope to break.
The point is. the finished rope will
sustain a weight that would instantly
snap any one of its several strands.
Bits of Evidence Threads.
And that is what the various bits
of circumstantial evidence might bet
ter be called—strands or threads.
Edgar Allen Poe, in “The Mysterv
of Marie Roget,” has nearly exhausted
the philof«ophical phase of accumula
tive circumstance and its relation to
evidence.
Applying the system of the well
known Dupin to the case in point—
and REGARDING IT. BE IT IN
DERSTOOD, STRICTLY FROM THE
STATE’S VIEWPOINT—an analysis
of part of the evidence againat Leo
Frank follows:
First off, the isolated circumstance
of Conley’s ability to write would
seem as futile as a smoke wreath in
austaininj? any weight of evidence,
except against Conley himself.
But to that fact is added the fact
that Frank knew Conley could write.
Still, the thread is flimsy, and, even
connected with the case against
Frank, would appear worthless.
Six Deduction* Seen.
But when it develops that Frank,
knowing Conley could write, and
knowing the police were trying to
find the author of the murder notes—
when Frank, well aware of these
things, did not inform the police that
Conley was lying when he said he
could n6t write, the following deduc
tions appear:
(1) That Frank did not want to
connect Conley with the murder notes,
which (2) would have been the
natural and prompt Inclination of a
suspected man who knew' nothing of
the crime himself, so that (3) it ap
peared Frank knew something of the
murder and (4) knew that Conley
knew he knew something of the mur
der, which (5) justified the conclusion |
on the part of the State that Frank
feared to implicate Conley, lest (6) i
Conley, In turn, tell something that
would implicate him.
Of course, this strand may be |
broken entirely by the defense, show
ing Frank never knew the police were
ignorant of Conley’s ability to write
before the police learned it them
selves.
But there is one pretty substantial
strand of evidence, as the State secs
it—and all having its genesis in the
simple fact that Conley knew how to
write, and at first denied it.
But that strand of itself surely
would fail to carry the burden of the I
case. There must be others.
Even Conley’s story is strong only
by reason of many strands that sur
round and support it. Presented to
a Jury, round and unvarnished—
tainted by the reek of false affidavits
and weakened by the dry-rot of self- |
interest, Conley’s story never would
win a verdict against Leo Frank.
But there is the shred of the mur
der notes—Conley’s story draws sup
port from that. There is the time
factor brought out by the expert tes
timony—Conley’s story twines itself
about the prop of science. There is
the agitation of Frank noticed bv |
Newt Lee in the middle of the after
noon—Conley’s story provides for
that. There Is the visit of Monteen
Stover, a tiny circumstance of itself
—but of vast importance just so far
as it strengthens Conley's recollec
tion of exact time.
And it is by reason of the rope
already well along in the twisting
that a hundred other little circum
stances become significant that of
themselves would be lighter than the
air-drawn dagger that troubled the
dreams of Macbeth.
They fit in with the twisting of the
rope.
Will the Rope Hold?
There is Frank’s agitation at home
and at the factory. There is the ugly
story of habitual “chats” at the fac
tory, guarded by Conley as watch
man. And the sending away of New*
Lee that afternoon. And the seeing
Df Conley by Mrs. White, “loitering"
At-the place he fixes for himself as
watchman, and at the time. And the
alleged reluctance of Frank to con
front Conley at the Jail.
And all the rest of it.
So many little incidents, and most
of them small to triviality in them
selves.
The point is. each strengthens the
other, until the fragile threads be
come a rope.
Will it hold after Frank’s lawyers
have presented their side of the case?
The Jury must decide.
S^.95
3
Summer Dresses at One-Third
We have just received another shipment of fine
dresses. In the lot are Embroidered Voiles, all-over Lace
dresses and some all-over Net dresses. Most all colors,
including pink and light blue. Choice
t
All-Wool Skirts
300 Ladies’ and Misses’
all-wool Skirts, in black,
navy, cream and striped
serges. Values up to $8.00.
Choice
$2.98
$7.50 Dresses $1.98
Handsome white all-over
embroidery Dresses, not a
one in the lot worth less than
$5. But to close, take your
choice
$1.98
W ashable Skirts
500 white corduroy, P K
and plain white Skirts. These
are the same kind you pay
$2 for elsewhere. Choice
98c
Ratine Hats, Milan Shapes, Etc.
Beautiful Ratine Hats in plain white and
combination colors. Number one white Milan,
black, tan and white chips; not a one worth less
than $3. Choice
69
Other Ready-to-Wear Specials
Silk Shirt Waists at
$1.98
Beautiful Silk Waists in rich
black and colored messaline;
also heavy black and white
China Silk Waists and Shirts.
Worth $5. Saturday
Sale of New Blouses at
Saturday we offer the gen
uine Balkan Middy Blouses,
made of best quality white
Galatea, and neatly trimmed in
red and blue. Special
S'
Ladies’ long Crepe Kimonos,
in all colors, and worth up
to $2.00, QQ/n
choice SOu
Ladies’ New House Dresses,
well made and neatly trim
med, all colors, worth up
ras 50c
Ladies’ Corset Covers and
Drawers, good quality
muslin, and neatly trim
med, worth up to 4 Q.
50c, Saturday I DC
300 Children’s Parasols, in
most all colors, C _
Saturday wv
98c
1,000 Garments, Ladies’
Gowns, Petticoats and
Princess Slips. Cheap ut
$2.00.
Saturday
Sale of Ladies’ Long
Lawn Kimonos, in new
colors, rn.
Saturday DUC
Ladies’ Lisle Finish Under
vests, the 19c kind, to
close out jC a
Saturday 36
Ladies’ Short Kimonos, in
all colors, worth 19c, Q a
Saturday ©C
1,000 Ladies’ Fancy Para
sols, in all colors, on good
frames and neat
handles. Saturday. I DC
About 100 Ladies’ Shirt
waists, slightly soiled,
worth up to $2,
Saturday £36
Children’s Dresses, well
made, good material. All
sizes. Good values 4 Q.
at 50c. Saturday.. 1 SPG
One lot Black Petticoats;
would be a bargain at
$1.00;
Saturday
li
49c
GREAT BARGAINS ON MAIN
FLOOR SATURDAY
50 Pieces Silk Poplins, Rat
ines, Cords and Silk Voiles.
Very special. 4 P A
Yard I DC
10 Pieces 50-ineh Silk Rat
ine, in all colors and worth
$1 yard.
Saturday
39c
Big table Flaxons, Voiles,
Lawns, Organdies, etc. Near
ly all 25c values.
Special DC
500 yards 36-inch wide Rat
ine. The $1 kind.
Very special. Yard.fcDC
Rippletts, French Ginghams
and All-Linen Ginghams, the
Great Clean-Up Sale, 4
vard I UC
2,000 yards fine 36-ineh
French Percales, in neat
stripes and figures,
vard
5c
Pink
49c
10 bolts of the new
Ratine, which is so
scarce and good, yard
50 pieces Dress Linen, in all
colors, and worth 50o 4 Q ~
yard, Saturday I DC
Good quality 36-inch-wide
Curtain Scrim, in white and
ecru. Worth
19c. Yard
5c
1,000 yards 36-ineh bleached
Cambric, like .
Lonsdale. Yard....
5c
1,600 yards good
36-inch Sea Island.
In this sale
quality
5c
Full double-bed size hemmed
rcady-for-use bleach
ed Sheets. Special..
29c
100 full double-bed size
Counterpanes. In
this sale
59c
Full size Pillow
hemmed, ready for
use. Saturday ....
Cases;
9c
1,000 Ladies’ and Men’s fine
Umbrellas, with detachable
handles.
Saturday
98c
Children’s strietly
rain-
proof Umbrellas. In
this sale only
29c
Scarfs, Shams, Table Cov
ers and round Centerpieces;
embroidered, sea
Hoped
edges, hemstitched,
etc. Choice
25c
Ladies’ White Kid Belts,
worth 50c, QC,,
Saturday kQv
Ladies’ 50c Black, White and
Tan Silk Ilose, 3QC
long
25c
19c
special
1,000 pairs, Ladies’
Black Silk Gloves,
in this sale only...
Ladies’ fine Silk Hose, in
black, white and tan
big bargain at
Toadies’ All-Linen Injtial
Handkerchiefs. Very spe-
cial.
Saturday.
Ladies’ Shetland Silk Hat
Drapery Veils, fJC**
only... C JC
Children’s and Babies’
Socks. All odds and ends.
Regular 25c kind.
Special >...
Men’s Negligee Shirts, w
and sell for $1.00
everywhere,
Saturday...
Men’s Porous Knit and Bal-
briggan Underwear. Regu
lar 50c garments. 4 Q —
Saturday 8 D**
Specials in Furniture Dept, for Saturday
$9 WRIGHTSVILLE
BEACH
6x9 Jap Matting Art Squares in Flo
ral and Oriental 1 OC
designs, Saturday 1«£iD
100 6-foot Bamboo Porch Screens,
worth $2.5 0,
special
Climax Mosquito Bars, ready to hang,
complete,
only
5,000 yards extra heavy (Tina Mat
ting in new designs, and Ol
worth up to 50c yard, only... “ ^ L
$1.39
o hang,
98c
Good size, fine Feather Pillows in
this sale OQ«
only
Good Linen Opaque Window Shades,
on good Spring Rollers, 1
only
4-foot polished Brass Extension Rods,
worth and sell for a C „
dime, only t '' -
Odds and ends, samples, etc., in fine
Lace Curtains. Some slightly A _
soiled. Pair
Runs Through Open Switch
Shepherd Device insures safety in railway travel.
Demonstration by train at Oakland City, 3 p. m., Saturday. Take
East Point car.
Mission < >ak Cos
tumer. made ex
tra strong’, and
worth $2; QQp
only
IASS DRY GOODS CO.
Solid Oak Din
ing and Bedroom
Chairs; worth
51.25, Sat- CQ p
urday u »w