Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 35, Number 168, 24 April 1910 — Page 6

By RIcbcrd Le Qallicnne.

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SYNOPSIS VPPART1-Tweh mmVsrs b w; night was th.s startling announcement the New Yor newspapers mads to their millions of reader on momma of September 13, 10- The ortmes haa been committed almost simultaneously.. The twelve victims, cams from as many walks of hfs, ranging front m wealthy English visitor to a strestmcor conductor. B fore the public had recovered from the first shock, tamo the afternoon papers wish Jh also startlmg news thai ths murderous, twtbs in all, had given themsehts up to ths folks and that oil of them were gentlemen of, wealth and prominence. - "..

snv N tb moraine of September thirteenth,. New York had been; startled and mystified, it wis iK positive)? fascinated, when oivthe morning -of -September fourteenth the pacers, came, out with a full lilt o the name of the murderers. The name of the murdered- Gamnd Union gatoman, "r f conductor,, a chauffeur, an English visitor, a hotel clerk, a theatrical manager, a poKeenia an Italian, a financier, a manufacture a German bead-waiter , and a Harlem Jew mew nothing.; bat any New Yorker will understand the thrill produced all over the city by the publication of iuh names aMhesc: - - f Jean de Foreit. Robert Coleoua Whitney. Allen F. Taylor, Murray M. Casdiner, Theodore Richardson, Richard Qgden-Dodgt, JL Qlfeer Tovsen V F. D. Chadwick, George Van Benson, Dudley Mills, Chester Montague, Edwin Mattean. a . , Why had tuck rich youae; en eotanutted murder And why had they so chceaf ally surrendered themsebm to the law? Naturally, these wese questions that prof easily agitated the public mind. For tjhesc tyouag mea were not onfar rich, but their mere names stood for accepted breeding and gcJmciucot; and that such men should have committed; such brutal crimes was a sensational riddle -for which every "extra offered houriy solutions & mean editions. . At the time there was In office a young district-attorney of great and varied powers, a man of many gifts, and,. naturally, a tnan of .manjr enemie. HoweverT hit enemies. evenT not deny him the gifts of courage and energy., and the bjbooU loved him for the pcrttaaaious foroa and irroMstabdity with which he had fought the battle of sac mk against the rich. Even the most tgnowmU put-2 man knew htm for his friend. No sooner had he heard of the murders than he hurried with relay f automobiles to tho various spots on which they had been committed. He made up his mind at once. This was evidently a conspiracy against the People. He had, of course, been shown the scraps of paper bearing the letters S. S. A. N, and he had devoted all the ttme possible to a ... much-harried man, notoriously enthusiastic : to do the right, in examining such evidence as remained. immediate decision, after long delibera tion, was to iadict the twelve gentlemen aioresaid for conspiracy to murder. This decision not only revealed a knowledge of law, but also a financial intuition by no means unwelcome to resi-f dents of New York, a stateas. no" one needs to be told which, though non-murdering and law-abiding, is very heavily taxed for the mere trials of criminals it never invited into . its boundaries. Who needs to be told the cost of a murder trial in Manhattan; and who wants to pay for it? Therefore, think of the cost of prosecuting not one but twelve murderers, and these murderers twelve men with unlimited bank accounts wherewith to appeal I . However, these murderers were gentlemen, and gentlemen do not do murder without some good reason, or for some good purpose I ;c It is easy to Imagine the state of mind into which the public was thrown by these conflicting opinions; also, the nerves of Broadway were further excited by sky-signs bearing the letters S. S. A. N. : Was it really a conspiracy of the rich against the poor? Surely, it looked so. And yet, there were circumstances about the murders which; to acute minds, pointed a different, though necessarily enigmatic moral Why, for example, should twelve rich men tak th trouble to murder, with their own hands. twelve poor men whom they could have had mur- , dercd, say at the east ead of Fourteenth Street, for little more .than, well, twenty-five dollars apiece? At all events, the trial was scheduled for November 3. In the interval, the public ferment, like a risingtide, almost amounted to a suspension of public business. . And, curiously, It was the papers that professed to care least for wealth and aristocracy, paper that were the friends of ths people, that thus wallowed in these plutocratic glories. Perhaps, after all, they kaew their public: perhaps they even knew their business. The discerning readcsuxould. however, hardly avoid noticing how little photographic attention was paid in these papers to the victim'' town-houses, their wives and families. And, somehow or ether, the public to which they catered did not seem much to mind that There seemed. Indeed, no very general interest in the personalities or possessions of the murdered; whereas, that class from which the majority of the victims had been selected, stood, day after day. in dense throngs, looking up, with wistful curiosity, at the Bridge of Sighs, though the trial was still far off. Were there not Twelve American Gentlemen somewhere inside that somber building I Thus the morning of November third dawned. There is no necessity to burden American readers with a laborious description of the scene outside the Tombs, or outside Court-room No. 3 on the morning of November third. Such scenes have been so vividly described by the men of genius who write for the American newspapers that America knows them by heart Multiply one of the.most dramatic accounts f such scenes by twelve and you win get some idea. The entrance of the prisoners into court humbly guarded by various officers of the law, created a sensation. The prisoners were unmistakably gentlemen, unmistakably American, tall, a strong, healthy, clean, well-groomed young men, with cold eyes and fashionable straight hair, but all curiously uniform, all as impersonally distinguished in appearance as though they had gone to the same college or the same tailor, or fought in the same regiment There was no one of the prisoners that was not in a sense, a public figure, and easily recognized by the fortunate occupants of the court room. Apart from wealth and position, each, in the slang of the moment was known as a sportsman or society man. There was Dudley ' Mills, whose well-known hobby was to drive a four-in-hand from New York to Riverview, carrying any passengers that offered an ordinary stage-coach fare, and priding himself on schedule timet There was young Oliver Townsend, the most graceful leader of a cotillon in America! There was Chester Montague, perhaps the best amateur boxer in the world. O. the stories everyone knew of Chester Montague, with his nimble fists, and his good heart and looking as if he couldn't say pie, and as though he had never seen a pair of gloves in his life I There was young Orden-Dodge, the Yale full-back, about whom all the New York girls were so crazy that the New Haven road had to put on twelve special trains to hold them at the last great match between the Blue and Crimson. There was young Robert Coleman Whitney, who on his way to a ' polo match had had three of his ribs broken in an automobile accident and yet had got into his things and played and won for his side all the same. Jean de Forest tall and scholarly-looking, had a mys-. terioua reputation for his - gallantry and his skill on the violin. There was also a whispered legend of his having fought a duel with swords, one famous

night; on a certain moonlit lawn in Westchester County. Each . of the distrnguuhed prisoners had some such romantic record, individualizing and apotheosizing him for the American public, and particularly for that floral four-filths, which, if it sometimes forgets to rock the cradle, continues to rule the world. - - To begin with, though, as I said, the prisoners were tmeclipsed by a cloud of attorneys, they had but, one attorney to answer for then an; - a young lawyer from Illinois, who odd as it may sound, combined a shrewd knowledge of law with ready wit and a notorious love of the people. His victories for labor " unions were famous, and the personal risks he had run in fighting for the poor man against lawless capital at least attested his courage. Why, then, should he be fighting for twelve rich men? No one dared say that he had been bought not even the rainbow press 1 And this deepened the mystery. Here was a tribune of the people, well known for his fearless fights on their behalf, for his carelessness of his own life, for his utter indifference to money, fighting on , the side . of twelve rich murderers 1 it was, inqeed, a paradox. The next surprise, atter tne usual routine of swear- . ing and charging the murderers,- and their registering the official plea of not guilty, was the fact that there was no argument about the jury. Neither the counsel for the defense nor any of his clients made any objection to any member of that august body which was to decide the fate of that other august twelve. Here, again, of course, was material for the rain- -bow press. The jury, evidently, was bought I . However, those in the court-room were relieved that the selection of jurymen had thus been cut short Seeing that there were twelve murderers, they might well have expected it to go on for at least twelve weeks. Thus, to the satisfaction of everyone, the hearing began at once. Of the many surprises to develop from this trial, one in particular was to have a far-reaching influence upon the future of American court procedure, even upon American jurisprudence. Looking back upon it another surprising feature was its brevity. There was something- tragic in the simplicity of its businesslike rapidity. Even those who were disappointed at being robbed of a prolongation of excitement could not help feeling the awa -inspiring touch of a new era, the fateful thrill of a new wa of doing things. Of course, merely as a matter of law, in the old sense, the trial could hardly be a long one; for the prisoners, though making the formal plea of not guilty, had voluntarily given themselves up for murder at the various station houses in the immediate vicinity of their crimes. It was hardly worth putting men on the stand who were self-confessed murderers, though formally not guilty. However, the district attorney made one of the few mistakes of an impulsive career in cross-examining two of the culprits thus illogicaBy forgetting that the charge against the twelve was one of conspiracy, and not of personal motive. "Why," said he, addressing Jean de Forest, he of the violins, the longish hair, and the books under his arms "why did you, a man of standing in this community, wantonly attack and murder a car conductor, who, as you must know, works a hard fourteen hours a day to get a living?" "Because no one else had, murdered htm," was the quiet answer. "No levity in your answers, if yon please, sir. Levity is contempt of court and I . shall appeal to his Honor to have you committed If you continue to answer; in this way." : Jean de Forest bowed to the judge: "I mean no discourtesy, your Honor, to yourself, I need hardly say ; no discourtesy towards this august tribunal, no discourtesy even towards my old friend, the districtattorney. All I beg to ten ,fc the truth. I killed the man OShea. It is quite true. I have never denied it Indeed, I was the - first to acknowledge it. The district-attorney has asked me why? I gladly answer him: I think he deserved it, and for this reason Have I your Honor's permission to proceed?" The permission was granted, Jean de Forest proceeded: "One afternoon, at the beginning of August yes, it was August fourth, about four o'clock, I boarded an up-town Broadway ear at Twenty-third Street and stood on the platform. Af Thirty-ninth Street a , tired and distracted Hungarian woman, carrying a baby and leading two small children, and also encumbered with baggage, attempted to board the car. Every human thing that saw her was sorry for her but the conductor was not human. He used words to her that cannot be repeated in this honorable court and. finally, thrust her from the step of the ear and rang his bell. She fell at the side of the track, with two of the children, and the car went on. You might I think, reasonably ask me why I did not kill him then. But I was bound by a .vow a vow of selfcontrol, which I must keep tfll September twelfth. X

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Stenographers wars Completely Demoralised. could not take his life just then 4 could only take his number, , ' r , This declaration of Jean de Forest was made with-v out any swagger, any bravado. It was the truth as . , well as he could teu If In fact, ia addressing the judge he . addressed ' the ' whole world, which was listening to him through every unproved, form of hear-: tag telephone, telegraph,- and wireless. i But the district-attorney was not to be warned by the applause which greeted the close -of this remarkable statement applause., which provoked an announcement from the bench that if any more demonstrations were made, the court-room would be cleared. Therefore, F. D. Chadwick was called to the stand Chadwick, the' well-known Fifth Avenue clubman, .who had acknowledged the mysterious murder of Ilklev Travers, in Cramercy Park. After the usual questions of evidence, the answers to which were simple admissions of guilt needing no collaboration from the patrolman of the precinct, the district-attorney addressed the prisoner with threat-, ening forefinger, and asked him what possible reason he could have had for murdering so representative an English visitor. -i - "Your Honor," began Mr. Chadwick, bowing to the judge, "if I may be allowed free instead of legalspeech, I would beg your Honor's permission to an-. swer the learned district-attorney as best I can. . If, in doing so, I trangress the rules of the court I shall not do it wSh intent and I shall rely upon your Honor to correct me." The judge nodded that Mr. Chadwick might proceed. --.. : "Mr. Ilkley Travers," proceeded the prisoner, "was of course, a distinguished Englishman, but he was of Th N

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a somewhat antique type, a type of which the American people are crowing a little tired. I do not deny that there are gentlemen in England, as there are ia America. But there is a new type of English gentlemen, a type that comprehends and shakes hands, so to speak, with American gentlemen. Mr. Ilkley Travers, however, belonged to that old school, which, in its remaining survivors, all too many, sail look patronizingly upon America as our "American colonies " Here there was an interruption occasioned by loud applause which could only be checked by - the police and several ejections from the court-room. When the applause and ejections had ended, Mr. Chadwick resumed: "Mr. Travers. came over here, you may know, as the representative of the Royal Strathmore Golf Club, the accredited promoter of an international match between England and 1 America. He was entertained by the best families of New York, and made a member of every New York club worth mentioning. ' There was no courtesy or kindness America could think of . that was not shown the late Mr. Travers. . Nothing, however, seemed to satisfy him. He was always saying that there was nothing to eat in America, not a decent hotel to stay in, and, as for American gentlemen and lad well " Mr. Chadwick pausedand then added: "Well, your Honor, when he said that I made up my mind." This was all that Mr. Chadwick could be prevailed upon to say, and the conclusion of his speech was followed by more ejections from the court-room. No one with a hart could fail to sympathize with the district-attorney at the conclusion of these speeches -not merely for their effect upon the cause he was pleading, but because the men who made them were well known to be his personal friends. In factthere was only One of the twelve with whom he had not played golf. ; T It was certainly an awkward position- to be in. but even his enemies had always admitted that be was a plucky fighter, and, aa with all fighters, the more v be was cornered the better he fought His plea for the prosecution, which followed, was acknowledged to be one of the most striking examples of bis forensic eloquence, an eloquence all the more powerful because it was entirely free from those rhetorical flowers with which certain American lawyers embroider their addresses. Anyone interested can read it at length in the newspapara of the day. Here it is only necessary to outline its general argument which was. of necessity, as simple as it was forcible. There was no need to prove the charges against the prisoners, as they were self-confessed murderers. In fact, they seemed to glory in their crimes, relying, no doubt, on their wealth and position to protect them. This growing insolence and defiance of rich men towards the law was becoming one of the most serious menaces to American liberty. Unhappily, certain famous trial had given the rich man too good reason to think that he could murder with impunity, and rely upon his bank account for hfs acquittal. Such a condition had no parallel since the day of decadent Rome, with its depraved and reckless nobles. And here was a case not merely of one rich man, but twelve rich men conspiring together to murder; their victims, with one or two exceptions, being poor men. That here was a conspiracy no reasonable men bearing the evidence could doubt Why in every case had the murdered man been found with the mysterious letters. S. S. A. N, somewhere beside him? As to what those letters meant he, the district-attorney, must confess ignorance. Their precise meaning could be of no importance. Their general practical meaning was all that need concern the court and that meaning was ? plainly murder murder systematized and carried oat with diabolical punctuality. Murder is always murder. There could be no excuse for it no possible good motive so long as the law existed. Mr. Jean de Forest and Mr. Chadwick had made melodramatic declarations of what they seemed to consider justifiable motive but if such pleas were to be taken seriously, no men would be safe One might teel justified in murdering a man for the bad fit of his coat or for a disagreeable voice, or for a thousand peculiarities. Law was law. It had been evolved through the laboring ages by the agony and bloody sweat of mankind. As a great poet had written of ft. Thon dost preserve the stars from wrong And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong. Ir had taken centuries of human travail te write the law. The law was at last written on tables of imperishable stone. Let America beware lest it rashly break in pieces those sacred tables of the law one commandment of which is Thorn shots do no murder: Perhaps the law was imperfect. It was still being written in the slow handwriting of Time. iBot written it was. however imperfectly, and let those who talk of an unwritten law remember that that was the law that prevailed when the primeval dragons tore ends other ia their aSata and aboriginal man wooed his bride wffli a tone-axe. This diifreat. with tie wafferted solemnity of ft

agpea! to the tragic tense of the seriousness of 1ST implanted in the most frivolous human heart, made af distinct impression. It sounded as though the august I voice of eternal Justice had spoken; and for a few' moments the sordid court-room seemed filled with die' silence of the great invisible presences. But human nature is human nature, after alL par ticularly in a court-room; and the district-attorney I had disappointed his audience in one particular. He had been obliged to confess ignorance as to the pre- ? , cite meaning of the letters S. S. A. N It was ally very well for him to say that the precise meaningwas of no importance. It was just that meaning about which their curiosity, and, in fact that of all j New York, had advanced to the extreme border of! hysteria. S. S- A. N. what, did those mysterious letters mean? -The solution was unexpectedly near at' hand. As the district-attorney concluded, the counsel for' the defense arose, and, bowing to the judge and jury,' began to speak. "No one," he said, "in this court-room can have heard the argument of the prosecution with a more complete endorsement than myself. There is not one word in it that would fail to appeal, not only to the hearts, but to the common sense of all true Americans. I am sure that my clients themselves, standing, as they do under the shadow of its condemnation, believe as deeply in the words of the district-attorney as he does himself. I am not here to defend lawlessness. I am here, as much in the in- . terests of right and justice as the district-attorney is himself. My clients, also, when the truth becomes known about them, are here not only to defend the -right but voluntarily, to die for it They ask no clemency. They will - make no appeal though rick men, as the district-attorney has accused them of being, they but await their inevitable sentence; yet before the gentlemen of the jury decide and your Honor pronounces it there are some very few words I would beg leave to say on behalf of my clients, not in any hope of their acquittal, but in explanation of their self-confessed crimes. "Much mystery has naturally surrounded those famous letters S. S. A. N. The district-attorney has confessed that he ia fanorant af their liraMimiM. I

am able to enlighten bun, and I have here in my hand the sworn testimony - of these twelve defendants, which I now deliver into the keeping of the court te justify .the statement I wish to make. "These twelve men on trial for their fives are anything but the enemies of the people they have beea represented. Some day they will be regarded as the friends of the people, regarded not so much as murderers, but as martyrs. For a long time they had, each and all, been oppressed by certain evils in American life which have made America ashamed of itself and a by-word among the nations. Owing to certain obnoxious types, America is supposed to be the land of bad manners, brutality and robbery. Anyone who really knows America knows that these things are only on the surface, and are due to what I mieht ' call the Jack-in-Officialdom of various nndctiraUo . representatives of the American people. Anyone who has followed this case, must of course, have noted that most of the murderers cried out at the utouient : of execution-yes, I repeat execution 'In the name of the American people I That phrase to anyone with cars to hear, or brains to understand. shoc!J have explained the whole matter. These various persons had been put out of existence an ths nam of, the American people I Why? For one reason otdy for the good of the American people, Why for the good of the American people? Who could seriously ask that question who had read the list and knew fdae types of the murdered men? ; - "These men on trial may have taken a fantasfie and wrong way of doing what they conceived to be right but what they did from a stem sense of the need that seme drastic lesson should be administered to these various types that seriously impair the ltvabJe- : ness of life in America. They decided that the only way was the way they took to remove some choice example of each inconvenient and, obnoxious type. Realizing, of course, the penalty they must pay. they, none the less, decided to sacrifice themselves- in the name of the American people. For this purpose they .. met together at intervals ia a certain deserted mansion in Westchester County. ; There they discuss el the best method of carrying- out their plans, the ex lemples to be selected for execution, and the way best l calculated to flash home the dread lesson they had determined to teach. When the list of types had finally been decided upon, each man chose the type with which , he preferred to deal A date, three months ahead, was fixed for the execution, and meanwhile each man was to be on the look-out for some particularly flagrant example of the type he had rrn. The executions were to take place as early as possible at the same hour; each man, if possible, was to escape, and then give himself op thus to tssmhssism the moral ; and further to emphasize ft, each man was to leave bjr the body of the man he had executed a paper bearing the initials of the association responsible for his death, the letters S. S. A. N. The meaning of those letters is very simple" The speaker paused for a moment and the wheSa court-room seemed in danger of collapsing from sus- ... pense - "The letters, as I said,. stood merely for the 3e these twelve men decided to give to their association Again the attorney caused, then added: "THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUP ON OJt AMERICAN NUISANCES." It is hardly accessary to describe the scene that followed. One feature of ft, of course, was the whirlwind exit of messenger boys flying for their lives and various newspapers, to the nearest telephones; and, once more, order was not restored without various ejections.When agtm he could be heard, the attorney for the defense ' finished his address with almost startHcj brevity. - . ;, ' - , "This." he said, "is the whole story of the snsvders to which these twelve - men j have cnnfeesedL There -is no more to be said. These men ask no mercy. Their lives are forfeit They appeal to no unwritten law. They ask only for one thing? tho understanding of the American people." ?. As the speaker took his seat amid a great hush, the district-attorney smiled sardonically to himself, inwardly congratulating his- opponent on the ditWfirsf cleverness behind all that apparent simplicity. After the customary impartial charge, the Jury retired at once, the prisoners were taken to their ceSs, and the judge left the bench; but though it was late in the afternoon, no one else left - the court-room. The jury, was out for nearly four hours. Within half an hour of the close of Che speech for. defe?cT ,7!.wkl1 Previously blazoned the letters S. S. A. N Baitlralj Cashed forth the explanation of those letters, and the oullen November evening was illumined with SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF AMERICAN NUISANCES At this a great cry went up: but when ftiasm beam mar This roar was heard bv a little lunmu W holding out against the other eleven, and it aaSy decided him. There was no mistaking the 3mA of the public and so. take a arise man, Che Cttle Jry. man bowed to the trill of the American peojU. ie ww uw , oavmsj ' ueea our ea and fifty-six minutes, the )ai iiusa returned a verdict of Hot Guilty.

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