Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, August 09, 1913, Image 3

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

i f T11K ATLANTA (IKOKC.IAN AND NEWS. E’S THE TIME CLOCK PUZZLE IN FRANK TRIAL; CUN YOU FIGURE IT OUT? THE RIDDLE OF THE CLOCK IN THE PHAGAN MYSTERY Jim Conley swears Mary Phagan went up the stairs of the National Pencil factory and was murdered before Monteen Stover arrived. He says he saw Miss Stover go up and leave. Monteen Stover, State’s witness, swears she arrived at 12:05. George Epps, State’s witness, swears he and Mary Phagan arrived at Marietta and Forsyth streets at 12:07. The car crew, defense’s witnesses, swear Mary arrived at Broad and Marietta at 12:07V2 and at Broad and Hunter at 12:10. If Mary Phagan was at Marietta and Forsyth at 12:07, as the State says, or at Broad and Hunter at 12:10, as the defense says, how could she have preceded Monteen Stover, as Jim Conley says, up the factory stairs, when Miss Stover was in the factory at 12:05? What’s the answer? By JAMES B. NEVIN. Tick-fork ! Tick-tock! Hark to the tale of the old hall clock! Tick-toek! Tick-tock! This is the tale of the clock! —Old English Ballad. This is a tale of an office clock and a motorman’s ^Vntch—an office clock In the National Pencil Factory, the first requisite of which, it being a ‘‘time” clock, is accuracy, and a mo torman’s watch. And thisi is the story of a clock that may or may not mean life and liberty rnd a restored good name to Leo Frank, or—a fate infinitely worse ‘h "i mere death itself! I ' n story involving: a vounp: busi- r — man of repute and high stand- li m college graduate and a husband, a 1 rave, womanly little girl, foully murdered, a motorman known to mnnv '‘‘antans. a newsboy not so well i a disinterested working rrir! ’ ”-gro sweeper, a confe?med ac- - ■ - • to murder, the dead girl’s mo’ , r -and an office clock. "" at does the story demonstrate 0 That shall be for the reader to say. Here is the story: What the State Contends. The State of Georgia is contending that Leo Frank murdered on April 26. before the hour of 12:OS In the afternoon, Mary Phagan, a 14-year- old working girl, employed In the Ra tional Pencil Factory, of which Frank was the superintendent. It cites, among others, to bear out its contention. James Conley, a negro sweeper In the factory, and Monteen Stover, an employee of the factory. Miss Stover is a disinterested wit ness—Conley not only is the star witness against Frank, but is inter ested in fixing the murder upon Frank. Here is what the State, by Its own witnesses, asserts: Jim Conley swears that a few min utes before Miss Monteen Stover ci;ne Into the factory—Miss Stover herself Swearing that she entered at 12:05— Mary Phagan entered and passed up stairs and into Leo Frank’s office. Miss Stover, asked how she was positive as to the time she went in and the time she came out, stated that she looked at the time clock both ns she came In and as she went out. That fixes the time of her coming and going definitely and exactly. It was before Miss Stover came in that Conley swears Mary Phagah came in. Therefore, Mary Phagan must have arrived at the factory, ac- rordlng to Conley, at least before 12:05, the moment Miss Stover came in. Before Miss Stover Entered. But after Mary came in, and before Miss Stover came in, the murder, still according to Conley, had been effected. For (a) after Mary went upstairs and before Mins Stover came in, Con ley (b) heard pattering footsteps toward the rear of the building, where (c) he says the body was found by him later, and after that (d) a scream, and then (e) a period of silence. All of this, according to Conley, be fore Monteen Stover entered the fac tory—that is, before 12:05 certainly— and, considering the things Conley swears happened, several minutes be fore 12:05, necessarily. Mrs. Coleman, Mary’s mother, swears that Mary left home “about 11:45” in the morning, and George Epps swears he joined her on the car at 11:50, for he looked at a clock at home Just before boarding the car. and that he and Marv arrived at Marietta and Forsyth streets at 12:07, the latter hour not definitely fixed in his mind. Motorman Remembers Time. The motorman on that car. how'- ever, who swears he knew Mary Pha gan, and had seen her board his car frequently, and remembers seeing her board that particular car on that par ticular day, says that the car arrived at Marietta and Forsyth at 12: 7^. as that is the time it is scheduled to ar rive there, and he was running on time that day. The motorman swears Mary and a companion got off at Hunter and Broad about 12:10, that being a few minutes’ farther run than Marietta and Forsyth. The conductor corrob orates the motorman in an additional statement that the car was not run ning ahead of schedule, the conduc tors being particularly required by the company not to run ahead of time. Mary Phagan left the street car at 12:10, still a block and a half from the pencil factory. If she walked directly to the fac tory, she could not have reached there before 12:12, in any event. If the little victim of this tragedy, Mary Phagan. therefore, DID NOT REACH THE FACTORY UNTIL MANY MINUTES AFTER CONLEY SWEARS SHE DID GET THERE. AND UNTIL AT LEAST TWO MIN UTES AFTER MONTEEN STOVER HAD DEPARTED, AND UNTIL AFTER CONLEY SWEARS HE HAD HEARD THE FOOTSTEPS AND THE SCREAM. HOW CAN CON LEY’S STORY BE TRUE? Slain Before She Arrived? In other words, how could Mary Phagan have been murdered before she arrived at the factory? Remember, too, that when Frank was asked at the Coroner’s inquest as to the time of Mary Phagan’s arrival, he said that it was after 12, because the noon whistle had blown some time before—that she might have arrived at 12:10 or. maybe later, perhaps as late as 12:20 or 12:25. Conley, also, in fixing the time of Mary Phagan’s arrival at the factory, said it was soon after the noon whis tle blew, therefore, a little after 12 —thus placing Mary's arrival between 12 and the time of Monteen Stover’s arrival, which was 12:05. Now then, take your pencil and paper, and figure this problem out for yourself. Can you reconcile Conley’s story with the other things proved, in the main, by the State’s own witnesses? Poteat Suggests Jail For Slit Skirt Girls NEW HAVEN. CONN., Aug. 9.— President Edwin Poteat, of Furman College, Greenville, 6. C., says young women who are parading in New Ha ven with slit skirts should be put in ia.il. “Women who indulge in such de praved dress are a menace morally to the commonwealth,” said Poteat. 65,000,000 Pounds Of Butter On Ice CHICAGO. Aug. 9.—Although Chi cago housewives have been paying mid-Vinter prices for butter and a further advance is expected, there are more than 65.000,000 pounds in cold storage, according to the Warehouse men's Association. This is 10,000,000 more than the reserve a year ago. Two Girls to Accuse Diggs and Caminetti SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 9.—Marsha Warrington and Ida Norris, the Sac ramento high school girls alleged to have been taken to Reno in November by Maury I. Diggs and Drew Caminetti for immoral purposes, will take the stand against Diggs when his trial i3 resumed Tuesday. No session of the Diggs trial was held to-day. Diggs and Caminetti will take the stand be fore the trial is concluded. Judge Van Fleet dealt the defense another hard biow yesterday when he announced that the jury would not con sider the willingness or unwillingness of ** two girls to accompany Diggs and Caminetti. HOW TIME HAS BECOME THE CRUCIAL POINT IN THE TRIAL OF LEO M. FRANK > Mary leaves car at 12:07 by State’s testimony and 12:10 by I witnesses for the defense. Mary boards the Coop er street car at 11:50, according to wit nesses for both State and de fense. Monteen Stover enters factory at 12:05 and SPOILS ME OF GOOD DAY FOR THE DEFENSE Mary Phagan leaves her home at 11:45, according to her mother Absence of Alienists and The Hypothetical Question Distinguishes Frank Trial By O. B. KEELER. HAZELHURST HOME BURNS. HAZELHTTRST.—The residence of R. T. Williams burned this morning at 2 o’clock, the family barely escap ing. The loss is $3,800 with $1,500 insurance. Tne fire originated about the kitchen, There are tw*o things about the Frank trial that entitle It to dis tinguished consideration. Thus far not a single alienist has been called to bat, and only the com mon or domesticated type of the dread Hypothetical Question has ap peared. In most of our great murder trials, the alienist is th e last resort, or one of the latest resorts. Usually he is in troduced by the defense; anywhere from four to eight of him. The prosecution promptly counters with an equal number of wheel in spectors. The defense (vide Thaw case) gen erally proves to its own satisfaction that the defendant was crazy when he did it, but since has recovered his equilibrium, his alibi and all the rest of his scattered personal effects. The four to eight experts for the State differ slightly with this find ing. They All Agree. They report that to the best of their several and collective knowl edge and belief, which is consider able, the defendant is the happy pos sessor of one of the sanest little noo dles they ever had the pleasure of sitting on. They say there is prac tically no chance that any such care fully-geared aggregation of mental sprockets ever slipped a cog. But they add that, if the defense insists on the accused having been non compos at the time he did it, he most assuredly is in the same condi tion at present, or more so. In short, the State contends that the defendant either should be hang ed or remanded to the solitary uphol stery for the rest of his life, accord ing to which is most highly objec tionable to the defense. Vide Thaw case ad lib. One Notable Exception. Ther© Is only one case on record where a corps of alienists employed by one side agreed with those hired by the opposition. It seems that the accused person, j without any advice or suggestion from his lawyers, broke out all over with shockingly acute symptoms of demen tia soon after he was arrested. The defense ordered out the alien ists. They reported that the accused un questionably was insane—remarkably insane. Then the prosecution recruited its experts to the full war strength ani ordered them to advance with cau tion. To the intense surprise of everyone, includins the defense, they reported that the prisoner was crazy beyond the shadow of a peradventure. They said he couldn’t be any crazier with out coming apart. Well, that just about settled it. What prosecution could hold out against the rombined forces of two sets of alienists? It was the first time on record that the w'arring ex perts had agreed. And this time they were both wrong. Inside of a year the record-holder for craziness—sprints, middle dU- j tanc* and Marathon—had got himself out of the bat factory and war en joying life in a more congenial ime that had no extradition provisions in the treaty, if any. The Hypothetical Question. The hypothetical question is used rather more frequently than the alien ist. because it is less expensive and embarrarssing, while offering no more than an even break to the other side and confusing the jury fully as muon as the most complicated alienist!** j explosions. When the h. q. is sprung bv the defense, an expert of considerable pedigree is propped up in the wit ness chair and compelled to listen, with the jury and such of the auditors as can stay awake, to a detailed rela tion of incidents beginning some time before the birth of the accused and extending to the date of the crim \ with provisions and qualifications to fill out four hours and a half and eleven columns of “six point.” Then the expert says: "No.” After which an expert for the other side listens to the same recital, re peated. And he says: “Yes.” What the Jury says never gets into print. DIXIE COLLEGES Report of Miss Elizabeth Avery Coulton Shows 160 With High Entrance Requirements. French Tars Flee in Panic. L’ORIENT, FRANCE, Aug. 9.— Twenty sailors on board the French battleship Courbet were scalded and otherwise injured to-day when a tank exploded on the ship. Thinking that the magazine had let go the crew rushed on the decks in a panic and many leaped overboard. WASHINGTON, Aug. 9.—A record of great improvement in Southern colleges is contained in a report by Miss Elizabeth Avery Coulton, sec retary of the Southern Association of College Women, which is being dis tributed by the United States Bureau of Education. In 1900 only three Southern col leges had standard requirements for entrance; this year year 160 an nounced standard admission require ments. The improvement is found also in libraries, laboratories, build ings and equipment of all kinds. In 1904 the A. B. of only tw r o Southern colleges represented four full years of college work, while by 1914 grad uates of at least 25 colleges will have completed four years of standard col lege work. Miss Coulton attributes the ad vance chiefly to two agencies—the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad vancement of Teaching and the Gen eral Education Board. Much still remains to be done, however, according to Miss Coulton. “There remains the hope,” she says, "that many sham colleges may wdth in the next ten or twelve years be in duced to stop conferring degrees and become good preparatory or indus trial schools; that others may die from lack of patronage, and tn*t the ‘right eous remnant’ may thus be encour aged to continue to strive after ever enlarging ideals of standard and of service.” Brand Whitlock May Get Diplomatic Post WASHINGTON. Aug. 9.—President Wilson is seriously considering the nomination of another distinguished author to an Important diplomatic post, according to information at the Capitol. Mayor Brand Whitlock of Toledo, Ohio, is the latest prospective candidate for diplomatic honors, ani if McCombs declines the French am-' bassadorship, he may get that, or he may go to Belgium. He had expressed a desire for the Switzerland mission, but that whs promised before he got into the fight. heard her scream BEFORE Monteen Sto ver came. ATLANTA GIRL IS Ethel Edmondson Overwhelmed by Wrightsville Breakers—At tempted Rescue Fails. Miss Ethel Edmondson, 24, daugh ter of Mrs. S. P. Fincher, of No. 343 North Jackson street, was drowned at Wrightsville Beach Friday afternoon. She had been at the beach but a few hours* when she decided to enter the surf. Scarcely had she reached the water when a huge wave raced in and knocked her down. Roy Walraven, of Atlanta, who was wtth Miss Edmondson, was stunned for a moment by the force of the wave, but recovered quickly and went to her rescue. He had a terrific strug gle and but for the timely arrival of Life Saver W. E. Watson he prob ably would have lost his life. Miss Edmondson left Atlanta on Thumlay night with a party of seven for a ten-day stay at the beach. She was a member of Grace Meth odist Church and was employed as a stenographer by the Wester Music Company. News of her daughter’s sudden death almost prostrated Mrs. Fincher. The body is expected to arrive in At- ltnata to-day. Funeral arrangements will he announced later. Slezak Is Rescued; Sturmfeld Drowns. Special Cable to The Atlanta Georgian. TEGERNSEE, BAVARIA, Aug. 9.— A yacht in which Fritz Sturmfeld and Leo Slezak, the operatic tenors, were sailing on the lake here, overturned and Sturmfeld was drowned. Slezak clung to the boat and was rescued. Sturmfeld was a member of the Royal Opera at Liepzic. He made a concert tour in the United States in 1911. Slezak is well known in the United States, having sung at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Titanic Lookout Who Missed Iceberg Dies Special Cable to The Atlanta Georgian. LONDON, Aug. 9.—Reginald Lee. one of the sailors In the lookout when the White Star Liner Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, last year, died at Southampton, What promised to he a v.ery favor able day for the defense in the trial of Loo M Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan, was partly sp >iled at its close Friday by the'be wilderment of E. F. Holloway, day watchman at the pencil factory, in a maze of conflicting statements. Holloway’s confusion under the fire of the Solicitor General was more than offset by the Importance of the testimony which had gone before, two of the witnesses* giving testimony which was intended to establish that Mary Phagan did not enter the Na tional Pencil Factory on the day of her death until after Monteen Stover had come and gone. Besides giving the He direct to Jim Conley’s tale, this testimony, if it stands as the truth in the minds of the Jurors, upsets the State’s theory that Monteen Stover visited the office of Leo Frank while the superintend ent was in the metal room with the Phagan girl. Conley said on the stand that ho saw Lemmie Quinn, then Mary Pha gan and then Mon teen Stover go up to the second floor. The Stover girl said that she entered the factory at 12:05 o’clock. It was 12:10 when she left, she testified. She looked at the time clock both times. Street Car Men Testify. W. M. Matthews arid W. T. Hollis, the motorman and conductor on the car which brought Mary into town the day that she met her death, testified that she did not leave the car befor? 12:10 o’clock, the Inference from this testimony being that she could not have entered the factory before Mon- teen Stover and entered and left. If the testimony of George Epps the State’s witness, is accepted, the defense declares Mary Phagan could not have entered the plant before Monteen Stover. Matthews said that he knew' the girl by sight and frequently spoke to her when she boarded his car. He said that he was relieved at Broad and Marietta streets at 12:07 o’clock the day of the crime and that h* 3 went inside the car and sat back of Mary Phagan and a girl compan ion while they were riding to Broad and Hunter streets. He said they got off at about 12:10 and walked to ward the pencil factory. Matthew’s’ story contradicts that of George Epps, who testified on the stand that he rode to town with Mary, got ofT the car with her at Forsyth and Marietta streets and walked as far ns the viaduct with her on her way to the pencil factory. Matthews and Hollis’ both said that they had no recollection of Epps be ing on the car. Hollis said that Mary was sitting alone when he took her fare just after the car got onto Eng lish avenue. Matthews said another young girl was sitting with her when the center of town was reached. Attacks Conley's Story. The significance of the story of the two street car men !* that it seems to add another falsehood to the many that Jim Conley already has told and freely admitted telling. He did not see Mary Phagan go up stairs to Frank’s office, hear the sounds of footsteps going to the metal room, then a girl’s scream, and after this witness the entrance and depar ture of Monteen Stover. On the con trary, the Stover girl was in the fac tory and gone before Mary Phagan came inside the doors. Holloway, the day w-atchman, was called back to the stand by the de fense to testify in rebuttal of Con ley’s testimony in regard to the al leged visits of women to Frank’s of fice. Hollow'ay said that no Incidents of this sort ever took place. Coni §y would have had no opportunity of watching at the door without his (Holloway’s) knowing it. he declared. He denied »hat Daisy Hopkins ever visited the factory with a man while he was on duty or that immorality of any sort was practiced in the build ing to his knowledge. He said that Herbert Schiff and Frank were gener ally In the office together on Satur days and that neither of them ever had women in the office. Solicitor Dorsey began cross-exam ining Holloway in savage fashion and soon had the watchman badly rattled. At one time Holloway refused to com mit himself as to whst*he had testi fied only a moment before. “Was that negro drayman there Saturday—you said so awhile ago. didn’t you?” asked the Solicitor. Holloway floundered w’hile Dorsey was insisting on an answer. He could not remember w hat he had tes tified. Finally he blurted out: “If I said be was there, he w’as. If I said he wasn’t there, he wasn’t,” Refers to Reward Claim. "But what is the truth?” persisted Dorsey. Holloway continued to return the same answer until Judge Roan forced him to make a definite reply. Then he took refuge in the old reliable an swer: “I don’t remember.” The Solicitor called Holloway's at tention to a remark that the watchman w as said to have made- about Conley being “my nigger” when a reference was made to the rewards offered. Ho also showed an affidavit signed by Holloway saying that Dnriev had left the factory the Saturday of the killing at 10:45 in the forenoon. Darley had testified that he left at about 9:30 and Hollow’ay had said only a few minutes before that Darley left about 9:20 or 9:30. “What did you say 10:46 for in the affidavit you signed for me shortly after th e murder?" shouted the So licitor. “That was mostly guesswork,” ex plained the witness. “Did you tell Mr. Arnold that you left the factory every day about 5:30 o’clock?” "Yes.” Said 3, but Meant 4 o*Clook. “Didn’t you tell me that you left sometimes at 3 o’clock?” ‘‘If 1 said 3. I meant 4." "What did you mean by 4:30 just now ?" “That just slipped out.” N. V. Darley, general manager of the factory; H. J. Hinchey, of No. 391 Peachtree street; Harry Scott, “Rbots” Rogers, I U. Kauffman, T. H. Willett and J. Q. Adams were the other witnesses of the day. Kauffman identified blueprints and drawings he had made of the Selig home and of the pencil factory. Wil lett explained the pasteboard model of the factory that he had made from the blueprints. Adams identified photographs he had made at the Se- lig home and the factory. Hinchey told of seeing Frank com ing from home on a Washington street car the afternoon of the crime. This was intended to discredit Al bert McKnight, one of the State’s witnesses, who said that he saw' Frank board a Georgia avenue oar when he left home. Dftrley was recalled largely to tes tify to the possibility of various methods which Conley might have employed In disposing of the girl’s body in the event he was the mur derer of the girl. New Theory Is Suggested. The most startling sugestion came from Dnrley's testimony that a door leading from the entryway on tha first floor into the rear of the build ing was found broken open right after the crime. Two trap doors open into the basement from this rear room. One of them is over a chute. Reuben Arnold, bv his line of ques tioning, showed that the defense se riously hnd considered the theiry that the girl’s murderer had dragged her through this door on the first floor and had dropped her body down ihe chute. The Solicitor brought out that the door might have been opened by the detectives in their search of the building and that if the body ever had been dropped down the chute it most probably would have been left there, as it would have been perfectly hidden. Do You Know Where io Buy These Things Magnifying Glasses, Linen Testers, Microscopes, Goggles, Stereoscopes, Compasses, Telescopes, Field Glasses, Binoculars, Pedometers, Eye Shades, Opera Glasses, Automatic Eyeglass Hold ers, Shell Library Frames, Thermometers, Barometers. We carry a complete line of the above, including special shapes | and tinted goggles and other j new and novel optical sundries. Step in and look them over. A. K. HAWKES CO. OPTICIANS 14 WHITEHALL ETROIT 2 TRAINS DAILY Lvi/;l2AM,54flm