Evening Star Newspaper, November 6, 1926, Page 4

SEGRET PACKAGES STIR TRIAL CROWD Prosecutor Expected to Re- veal Material in Own Time. Defense Aroused. BY FRANCES NOYES HART. Special Dispatch to The Star. COURTHOUSE, SOMERVILLE, N, J., November 6.—The third day of the Hall-Mills murder trial was a tran- quil affair compared to its predeces- sors—a tranquil affair, that is, for all save Jimmie Mills. It was his day, distinctly. Phe other four witnesses divided a scant hour or so between them. Mr, Vanderver, the photographer, recalled from the previous day, con- tinued to identify various landmarks on his collection of photographs made 10 days after the murder—photo- graphs of the mnow-vanished crab- apple tree, of the flelds of goldenrod and asters through which-cut the two lanes to the Philips farm, of the De- Russey lane of those days, hedged close with leafy trees; of the bench ‘which Dr. Hall is said to have shared with Eleanor Mills in Buccleuch Park. Mr. Major, warden of Somerset County Jail in 1922, who appeared more briefly than any one in the case 80 far, testified that he had received certain articles found at the scene of the crime. He enumerated the articles, eyeglasses, pennies, letters, handker- chlefs, cartridges, and testified that he had passed them on to others, and was dismissed in less time .than it takes to tell it. Police Officer on Stand. Capt. John Lamb, officer in the New Jersey police force, then took the stand. A blond, florid, slightly pudgy young man. He identified 15 little packets, supposedly containing the articles enumerated by Major, that he had himsel? handed over to Prosecu- tor Bergen in 1922, The, articles are identified over the outraged protests of the defense, outraged, principaily, it appears, because the contents of the packages remain a .secret between prosecutor and Capt. Lamb, There is mention made of “a handkerchief taken from Mrs. Hall's pocket.” It was thus described in Mr. Major’s list, but pow no one seems to know to what handkerchief it refers. It is not likely, however, that we have heard the last of that handkerchief. The annoyed defense hints broadly at the fact that Capt. Lamb is inter- osted in the activities of the Daily Mirror, activities which certainly have not been inconspicuous, and asks with deep meaning if that is not a Hearst papers. We will have to ac- quire our information on that score from some other source, however, be- cause Capt. Lamb's reply is strangled at birth by some of the prosecutor’s rare objections. The prosecutor, on his feet at a bound, is anxious to know whether this is a trial of the Hall-Mills mur der’ or of Williem Randolph Hearst. The court assures him. that the trial is for the Hall-Mills murder. Capt. Lemb is dismissed. Fourth Witness Is Woman, The fourth witness, a portly lady called Demarest, who appeared briefly but histrionically at the tail end of the afternoon, will be dealt with later by this observer. Suffice it to say that she seemed hovering in some trange borderland between laughter nd tears after she had testified that er cousin, Minna Clark, and Ralph rsline were spying on Dr. Hall and M Mills. She glanced, flounced and bristled under cross-examination, and the defense seemed happier than it has been in a long time. Savye for the hour or so doled out to these four, the day belonged to James Mills, the husband of the murdered woman. He was examined by the prosecutor for an hour in the morn- ing and for over two hours by Mr. Mc- Carter in the afternoon. A portion of the two hours seemed as long to the spectators as it did to Jimmy Mills. Minute after minute went by while defense looked up previous testimony, repeated the self-same questions in the self-same words as well, with minor variations, and at regular in- tervals went into anxious and pro- tracted pow-wows. To some in the courtroom it seemed that Jimmy Mills’ story might have cracked a lit- tle wider under vigorous and relent- less cross-examination. Those who thought thus stirred restlessly in their seats from time to time. One of the real fascinations of a =reat criminal trial is that it gratifies the insatiable curiosity that many of us have as to what other people really do—how they live and breathe and have their being. It is as though sud- denly the side of a house were re- moved and one could watch the in- habitants going about their business, View of Mills’ Home. There's a very real and crude en- chantment about this performance, Let us watch Mr. James Mills take off the side of his house. James Mills, Jimmy, dignified Mr. McCarter a small, ne: colorl as even the alls him, is person, clad Priced at a Sacrifice in a tidy gray suit and a maroon tie. Drab is the word, popularly applied to him. Like most overworked words, it is extremely descriptive; drab, the skin is drawn tight across high cheekbones, the hair is thin and mouse-colored, the sad, monkeyish eyes peer out under blinking lids. He: is also popularly supposed to be un- ! emotional to the point of idiocy and slow-witted and simple to the point of distraction. Well, possibly. A few of us find him enigmatic. In a low, flat voice that he is re- peatedly told to raise, he shows us his life. In 1922, he had been married for 17 years to a girl much younger than himself; a pretty, foolish, emo- tional and highstrung girl; a girl who sang, and laughed, and fainted, and read novels, and wrote nonsense, and was irritited when he was late for supper; a girl who, when she started off to meet her death that night in a gay little blue velvet toque and a blue polka-dotted dress trimmed with the holly red ribbon that Dr. Hall had given her for Christmas, called back deflantly over her shoulder to ask him why he didn’t follow her and find out where she was going? He didn’t fol- low her, Jimmie tells, because he didn’t care. Sexton at Hall's Church. He was sexton of Dr. Hall's church and janitor of the school next door to his home on Carmen street. That home. was the second floor of the shabblest kind of a frame building. It consisted of four rooms, in one of which he slept with his son Dan, then 12 years old. Charlotte, aged 16, had for two years shared the room with her mother. He made between $32 and $38 a week. He tells us, lucidly and circum- tantially, exactly what he was doing he 12 hours from 6 in the evening to i in the morning during that fateful night. At a little after 6 he finished learing up some shavings on the church porch and went home, a lit- le late for supper. There were a few sharp words with his wife, but no quar- rel. After dinner he started to work on a window box, riveting it. Char- lotte and Danny went off somewhere; Eleanor Mills went, too, at about half past 7, flinging that taunt back over her shoulder. At 9 o'clock he spoke to a neighbor, Mrs. Kelly, who was in her yard. At 9:45 he finished the window box and started tinkering with a gas pipe at the back of the house; shortly after that the children returned and went to bed, and Jimmy Mills sat out in the mild Autumn air on the front stoop. At 5 minutes after 11 he went to the church to close the windows, as was his habit, stopping at a drug store to get a soda-water. He went to bed at 11:20, leaving the light burning in the kitchen for his wife, who had not returned. Found Wife Still Absent. At 2 o'clock he woke to find it still burning, and, rising, put on his over- alls and called to Charlotte to ask if her mother was with her. He couldn’t understand Charlotte’s sleepy mumble, looked in at the door and saw the empty bed. He remembered then, he tells us, that she had had fainting attacks, and thought she might have fainted in the church. There, at any rate, he goes, flooding the church with all its lights and remaining about 20 minutes, He does not see Mrs. Hall, who ac- cording to her story comes there at about the same time to look for her missing husband. He goes home and sleeps until a quarter to 6, when he rises, prepares breakfast for his children, and sets about his duties for the day. That is his story. To it he adds the account of three encounters with Mrs. Hall, of which he gives a verbatim account. “She said: ‘Have you had any ill- ness in your house?’ “I said 0, but my wife has not come home, ‘“‘She said: ‘My husband has mnot come home, either.’ “I said: ‘Do you think that they could have eloped?” “She said: ‘No, they must be dead, or they would have come home.’ " Forgets Some Statements. Jimmy Mills, who could so distinctly remember that four-year-old conversa. tion, could not remember one of the many statements that Mr. McCarter claims that he made at a later date in the presence of his children, Ellis Parker, a detective; a State trooper and a stenographer. Mr. McCarter read him literally pages of those state- ments, damaging statements, about quarrels and jealousy, and discovered clippings and letters and telephone calls and to each he replied, toneless- 1y, “I can’t recall it.” One thing he did recall, he had been a shoemaker for 22 years, and at the time of the murder he still had in his possession a shoemaker’'s knife and stone, with which he repaired the family’s shoes. When Mr. McCarter sald triumphantly, “Ah, so you had a_knife,” a little shiver ran around the warm, still courtroom. It is perfectly obvious that the de- fense is trying to pin the Hall-Mills murder on Eleanor Mills' small, meek, shabby husband. Senator Simpson commented on it bitterly several times today, and it was not denied. It is also perfectly obvious that so far they have not done it. And it is also even more obvious that the drab Mr. Mills is being neither as candid nor ex- pansive as the defense could desire. At the end of Jimmy Mills’ day some of us find him far from colorless, pubsasmsr e, Although orie of the strongest mammals, the hyena will often run from a small dog. New Semi-Detached Home Residentially Refined Neighborhood. High Elevation. Spacious Landscaped Lawn. Exceptionally Well-Constructed Home. Built-in Garage. 3414 Porter St. N.W. Drive out Connecticut Avenue to Porter Street. West to 34th Four bright bedrooms. Tiled. Bath with niche-fitted fixtures. Breakfast Room. Lavatory. ing Room with open fireplace. Kitchen. Large Liv- Enclosed Fully equipped basement. Hardwood floors throughout. Ele- gant electric fixtures. Very low priced Moderate terms INSPECT SUNDAY Exclusive Agents REALTY COMPANY Oxford Bldg. 14th & N. Y. Ave. The T ville courtroom. | Snake Cuts Uffer Power. Special Dispatch to The Star. BELOIT, Kans., November 6.—For a snake to make an aerial attack isa rare occurrence, yet a 380-inch reptile little New Jersey Senator and trial, fddmdnx the pecial prosecutor of the the 8] members of Jury in the Somer- was found recently lying across two electric light wires near Beloit, baked to a turn. The lights of three towns for a time were shut off by the un- usual incident, and the “juice” had to be rerouted over another line. MILLS GIVES N0 AID IN SOLVING CRIME Choir Singer’s Husband Pa- thetic Figure on Stand. Memory Proves Faulty. BY DOROTHY DIX. Special Dispatch to The Star. SOMERSET COURTHOUSE, SOM- ERVILLE, N. J.,, November 6.—Once upon a time I saw a cornered rabbit with its back against a wall, feebly and futilely fighting a pack of dogs that had set upon it. The eyes of that rabbit were the eyes of James Mills on the witness stand, as he faced the lawyers who cross-examined him and tore from him all the secrets of his poor, pitiful life, after he had given hlsr testimony about the death of his wife, The story that he told was as u-ulcl as could be woven of the woof and warp of sorrow and horror, but he told it dry-eyed in a voice as toneless and expressionless as if he had been reciting a grocery list. His was the stolidity of the poor, who cannot af- ford to even have emotions, who have not time in which to consider whether they are happy or miserable, whether they are loved or unloved, appreciated and understood or not, but who must go on with the daily grind that means bread and butter, no matter what hap- pens. Somehow I find this little man in- finitely pathetic. And not the least pathetic thing about him is that in all the welter of speculation and suspi- cion and surmise about who could have slain the couple who were found murdered under the crabapple tree on the Phillips farm, no one has ever ac- cused him of committing the crims. Bowed to Hard Fate. He is so litle, so drab, so ineffectual, that it is unthinkable that he ever had the spirit to resent a wrong, or the red blood to slay in a frenzy of jealousy. Life whipped him long ago, so he took (Continued on Page 5, Column 2.) MWomdhmard & Wothiop _10th, 11th, F and G Streets Schedule of Last Days for Mailing From Washington Government Post Office Argentina Australis Phone Main 9394 © Gifts- that q0 to Jhorey f It is none too soon to make your selection of Christmas gifts that are to go abroad—for there is disappointment so great as receive a Christmas gift late— unless it is to receive none at all. foreign. be no to Woodward & Lothrop is ready with everything new and de- lightful, that will charm your friends—not only because they come from you, but because their own intrinsic beauty. Gifts will be attractively wrapped and prepared for mailing, We ship FREE to port of embarkation. Issued by the United States Peru .Dec. 7 Philippine Islands.Nov. 23 Dec. 9 . I I:l‘.lms;hsld of Tondwerd & Lothrop Just 7 More i)ays to Place Orders for Christmas November 15 Is the Last Day Monogrammed Handkerchiefs make appropriate and appreciated Christmas gifts—and as time is an important element if the work is to be beautifully done—we urge you to place your orders at once. We sketch but a few of the many different styles of monograms and fine white French and Irish linen handkerchiefs, with interesting new borders and hand-rolled hems—offered for your selection. Prices begin as low as 9c to embroider a single letter, to $3.50 for embroidering a monogram. Women’s Linen Handkerchiefs, 50c to $5 each Men’s Linen Handkerchiefs, 75¢ to $3.50 cach Handkerchiet Section, First floor. Engraved Personal Greeting Cards Should Be Ordered Now The Christmas spirit is beautifully expressed by the almost universal custom of sending a personal engraved greeting card, with one’s name engraved on it. Make your selections now while stocks are fresh and complete—besides there are many exclusive designs without duplication —and fine engraving, done in our own shop—requires time. 100 Engraved Cards, $7.50 A popularly priced group, including many attrac- tive designs, in various colors, sizes and shapes. ‘For less than 100, prices are: 25, $2.75—50, $4—75, $6.25 25, $4; 50, $6.50; 75, $10; 100, $12.50. 25, $6.50; 50, $11.50; 75, $17.50; 100, $22.50. Other Groups Interestingly Priced : 25, $5.25; 50, $9; 75, $13.75; 100, $17.50. 25, $10.25; 50, $19; 75, $28.75; 100, $37.50. b 25, $7.25; 50, $14; 75, $21.25; 100, $27.50. CARD SKETCHED ABOVE—One of our exclusive cards that expresses the Christmas spirit in the candle-lit Christ- mas tree and beautiful coloring. 25, $10.25; 50, $19; 75, $28.75; 100, $37.50. . Ctationery Section, First fioor.