Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

the HUST LER OF ROME. THIRD year. GREAT CLEARING OUT SALH LARGEST AND FINEST STOCK OF DIAMONDS, WATCHES. CLOCKS JEWELRY, solid silver, SILVER PLATED wa re NOVELTIES, RAZORS, SCISSORS, POCKET KNI VES, DREGS, ETC IN THE CITY. THIS SALE LASTS M SATURDAY, MI4TH. THIS IS JN.TT OPPORTUNITY ape especialy invited to attenia The sales, Where tlie utmost decorum will be rigidly enforced. Everything will be guaranteed as represented by the auctioneer and sold without reserve. I WE IMZE-A-TT business Come and See for \ ourself. •HAMMACK LUCAS & CO.,**» DRUGGISTS and JEWELERS, 300 Broad Street, Rome Georgia. MfK. V rites a Letter to her dead Husband's Father. SAYS HE WAS FRIGHTENED. But if put on the Stand Again she Would Swear the Truth and that the I ruth Would Break Frank’s i N'«ck. She re-considers and departs. Vsterday afternoon Mi. James A- Sthphena was put on the wit ness stand to testify in the Wil kerson murder, trial. Bul on account of technicalities ne evidence was h“ld not-admis iljle and the truth whi:h should * gwen to the jury was with-held. r -■ is as fine a e p ec i_ e r> of old naar.hood as could be Un m the State; he is hale and J ar ty, and the erect but rather , Iyform -8 yet imbued w. th the ner^ B oflife.His fatherly ap- X anCe> kiudl y and courte _J&ar'ng, would win for him >f e a and consideration h; s h evidence much more so is ®ode ff Wh6U he is fouud a are whtre^he etaC ? BPICU ° U 8 ***“ kißi ™ s i»«»t™r re ' ut oi "° f Watt h" |,hen “ Col • ten him,. i mar ‘’ bad writ * e i-The a etter t 0 COaaß aud Bee *tive and th W6r Waß 1D th9 afflrm ‘ ffhat did shews qUeßtioU WaP \ ent ‘0 Bee he r r^ U Wh<>U y ° U Ejection Jh 18 raised the ite Phen 8 ’ WH Hnd ’ because Mrs. bribed / preßeut 80 that fr ty the ev i g ] roUUdß COuld be iaid, bejury. UCecould notgo to hewed Mr v? l* Rome inter the witness R ? P j 6 ’’ B after ’ he lef t neBB Bta nd and obtained •ROME GEORGIA. TUESDAY EVENING APRIL 10. 1894, I the following letter: Livingston, Ga., Sept - 28th,*1893. I Mr. Janies A. Stephen, Cartersville, Ga. i Mr. Stephens:— If you should come to Livingston at any time soon, I would’like to have acon fereuce with you. as I am prepar ing to leave the South at an early date. The faCts which I desire tv communicate to you, are of such nature as to demand a personal interview, and they are unknown to any one save myself alone, hence, should you decline the op portunity of acquainting yourself with same, I can safely aver that you will regret it; they are of vital importance to you. I have said this much to you, regardless of all the advice to the contrary, believing it to be a con scientious duty. Please give the above lines to your serious consideration before deciding the matter, which is a momentous one. Hoping your decision may be a wise one,l am m haste, Yours Respectfully Jessie B. Stephens. “Well” asked the Hustler, after reading the well written epistle, “you went did you not?” “Yes sir, I went down toLiving ston abcut four weeks after, and went to see Jessie.” “She said that she was glad that I had come and she talked with me a long time about ths case aud told me a great deal tha’ had nev er come out before. She said that Judge Branham and Frank Wilkerson had made her believe from the first that if the facts all came out that she would not only hang, but would te hung before Wilkerson was swung up. She said that she had therefore with-held much of rhe truth when put on the stand at the other trial, but if she was ev er put up again she would make a clean breast of it. She said that Wilkerson had, not only killed Free, but that he had actually snot himself in the left wrist, and more than that, l.bat one night just before the kil ling, that Frank had drawn his revolver and as she and he walked uUI uu the verandah behind her Husband, that Frank leveled the pistol on Free's head—That she could not stand it ard had snatch ed his arm back and saved him. Mr, Stephens says that while he was silting talking to Jessie that Wilkersons brother-in law came in —that he looked surprised tv see mm there aud that he with-drew very hastily, hitched up his horse and came into the city and that in a lew hours, Frank Wilkerson was in Livingston aud was at Mrs. Stephens residence that night. Mr. Stephens says that Mrs’ Jessie A. Stephens made an up poinlment with him, to meet Col. Watt Harns at the residence of Mr. Hargrove in Rome and re duce her statement io the proper form, but afterwards sh? wrote Mr. Harns positively declining to aeep the appointment auu all subsequent efforts to get her to re peat the true facts in the case had proven futne. TWO BOMBS EXPLODE. Rome, Apiil 8. —Two bombs were exploded today before the house of the military governor in Siena, Tus any • No damage was done and no body injured, although the Governor who is critically ill, was startled greatly. The Siena police have ar resti d five men who had explosives in then rooms. Hon. W‘ J, Neel, mayor protein of this city is out once more, after a painful illness of three or fou days. WITH HIE.JURY. The Evidence Closed and the Speaking Under Way WITNESSES TAMPERED WITH Airs. Stephens Alter the Killing Ask- ed Mi. Joe Morton Which Side She Should Swear for. Who the Speak ers are. Today at noon, one week ago, the Wilkerson murder trial was begun and as we go to press, while the evidence has been closed, the speakers by neither the state or the defense have closed. Wilkerson, the defendant is present and has watched every phaze of the case with the keenest interest, His father, and uncle R T. Wilkerson, have continued with him almost throughout. the trial. One thing a little remarkable for .a murder trial, noted in this case is the abscence in the court room of mother, sisters or lady relatives of the defendant. ' After The Hustler or Rome, went to press yesterday afternoon Mr. Joe West finished his testi mony, Mr. Wes t had been calhd by the.state. He swore that Mr. Tom Mathias had sent word to Marian Uhastian that he could get the gray horse if he would change his testimony to help Wilkerson. Crossed, he said that this mes sige from Mathias was sent to Chas tain on Sunday during the former trial. That if he (Chastain) would re turn to the stand at the Court house monday morning aud change his tes timony’, that the gray horse or SIOO might be comeatable. He said that Chastain was his son in-law. Taylor Cooper was put on the stand and swore that he saw Stephen on July 4th two and a half miles this side of Livingston. Swore that be knew Win. Pyle, and that after the former trial he had heard Pyle say t.iat ‘ there is money in this thing aud the next side that gets me to swear lor it will have to pay me for it “ He had asked Pyle how much he intended to have before he would swear and that Pyle replied ‘*s2o,” J . A. Stephens, fattier of the de ceased, was put on the stand and stated that last Fall Mrs Jessie B. Stephen wrote him a letter asking him to come and see her, that about our weeks a't er war If, .he did go, but here the lawyers for the defense raised an objection to what Mrs. Stephens had told witness on that o« casion . His Honor sustained the ob jection because the state had not laid properly prescribed grounds. Tue slate admitted this and show ed that they could not do so, because of the absence of Mrs. Stephens. The evidence was thus withheld horn the Jury. M F; ank Stephens, tlsoof C irters ville, and brother of ttie deceased, was put on the stand ami swore that he had ueier cn any occasion, asked Chastain or any one eke to withhold one iota of evidence—on the other band he had told Chastain he would not have the defendant convicted ex cept upon the truth. Will Ann Foster, col. was called She had testified in the case on the former trial, and repeated that evi dence yesterday. She said that the defendan , ’’’rank Wilkerson had gone to her home one night about 9 o’clock and had tried to get her to change her evidence from the former trial. Ou eross, she swore that Wilker son and a Mr Webb had gone to her house at night and read a paper to her and told her if she signed it she should not be hurt for it she could not read but she was going to swear the truth every time. Alonzo Shipley testified that he saw Mrs. Stephens after the murder and talked with her and that she 10 CENTS A WEEK did not believe that Free intended to kill Frank but just to frighten him oft and make him leav . Capt L. B. Wragg, was put on the stand and swore at the prelimi nary trial at Livingston that Airs Stephens had firmly admitted that the handwriting on the back of th the envelope was that of her husbam C >urt took a recess until this forenoon, when by consent the testi mony of Air. C. C. Bass was read Solicitor W. J. Nunnally wasswoin and said on the day of the commit ment trial he was al Livingston and was in the Stephens residence. That the cast .iron hasp into which the catch of the doer, between Mrs Stephens room and the nursery, fitted was loose at the bottom. That M the bottom screw had been torn from the door facing and with the fresh wood still in the groves it was hanging in the hasp. Here the state closed. Major Z. B. Hargrove, uncle of Mrs, Step hens was put back on the stand ana swore that he had at tended the committal trial aud that he did not hear Mrs. Stephens swear that the handwrit ing on that envelope was that ot tne deceased. At 9 o’clock the defense was an nounced closed aud at 9 10 Solici tor General Joe Nunnally opened for the state in a powerful argu ment lasting for just two hours. Mr. Nunualy stated the line of prosecution, he read the wonderful decision of ihe supreme court* handed down on this particular case and then he went into some of the evidence. i'he claims that by no tes timony has it been shown that Stephens ' ’knew” actually knew of the criminal intimacy of the wife and Wilkerson, nor had any trust worthy witness testified that Steph eus had ever intimated an inten tion to kill Wilkerson. Air. Nunnally said that “the Continued on 3rd column 2nd page.