St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-14
Clara BlatZ Tells of Her Court
ship and Ruin by a
Colonel
Young Doherty's Love Let
ters to His Mistress Cause
q Sensation.
Judge Egan and a Rural Vi
rago Have a Lively
Time.
The Court Room Air Turned
Blue by Phosphoreseent
Profanity.

The third day of the Blatz murder
trial was by far The most offensive in de-
tails. and drew larger crowd to the
court than ever. The trial opened with
the effort of Miss Blatz's attorney to in
troduce the batch of disgusting letters
which were written by DOherty to his
mistress. the prisoner, during the years
1856, 1857 and 1888. 10 this Attorney
Egan objected, having come to the
conclusion from reading them that they
had not the remotest relation to the
case. The defense said the day before
that it desired to put the missives in
evidence to show the relation of man
and wife existing between the deceased
and the prisoner. Judge Kelly finally
consented to allow the reading-the
states attorney. waving any pressure
upon his objection. Here was good
opportunity to clear the court room of
the tinted women who have attended
the trial each day. Upon Attorney
Egan's suggestion the court ordered
that all women be dismissed from the
court room during the reading of the
nauseating matter contained in the fif-
teen or more letters. The court was
then sickened with the public recital
of DOherty's vulgar sentiments to the
woman Blatz. He generally addressed
her in the most silly and affectionate
manner. and after speaking of the
most vile and lOathsOme subjects he
concluded his billetdoux with the sig
nature ''Dot' or 'Papa." Two hours
were occupied by Attorney Warner in
reading these letters, and the qualm
that the sensitive and half moral en-
dured can be better imagined than de-
scribed To the town men and morbid
Oglers it was great meat, and the court
room was several times called to order.
Occasionally the. demonstration over
some really nasty or funny quotation
set the spectators on the litter, and it
was not until court and counsel
had implored the defense to
quit that its attorney saw the
folly of reading the repugnant
and profane stuff. To give in detail
what some of the letters contained
would be to presume upon public de-
pravity and lust, and the imagination
cannot be too elastic in its scope to pic
ture the morbid illiteracy of the in
dividual who is said to have composed
them. His last letters were written to
her while she was at Waco, Tex, in
May. 1883. In one of these he asked
about the prisoners head, whether it
was annoying her as much as usual, and
if she suffered much. to think of one
awful night when he inflicted the
her the continual pain and troubles
of the head In one letter he says he
feels like hanging himself for beating
her so on that night. This is the night
upon which he is charged by Miss Blatz
with having broken her jaw in drunk
en- row, at Their rooms on East Seventh
street. The reading of the letters
seemed to agitate the prisoner to per-
ceptible degree. She managed to evade
the glare of the multitude by keeping
her handkerchief over her face, nerv-
Ously wiping her mouth which cOntainee
one of those horrible cuds of snuff.
When all the letters had been read, the
court relieved the distressed and anx-
iOus, by ba adjOurning to 2 O'Clock in
the afternoon.
Long berore o'clock the court room
filled with all kinds of curious people.
Old women, evidently the
MOTHERS OF LARGE FAMILIES,
and suggestively ignorant of the En-
glish language, were seated in the back
rows gaping at the proceedings. When
Judge Kelly mounted the bench shortly
after o'clock, the prisoner was called
to the witness stand and sworn. That
she was awkwardly affecting to appear
daZed and abDerated, no one doubts, and
durall the long and tiresome afternoon
she sat in the witness box as expression
less as dummy, giving her testimony in
the most indistinct and inaudible tones.
At first she cried and then gazed at
the jury, but by repeated promptings of
her attorney, she soon settled down.
and still mincing her words, talked
more cheerfnlly and Oh some occasions
decidedly boldly. She testified that she
was twenty-five years old, born at Leb-
anon, KY, and that her right name was
Lizzie Hart. Her father died when she
was, about eleven years old, but her
mother still lives. Her attorney urged
from her birth to the present and to do
this she seemed to struggle to tax her
mind and memory. She made several
attempts to recite her history, but
little that was ineligible could be
heard beyond the stenOgrapher's desk.
While her father was living. she says
he was in the habit of cruelty beating
her, and abusing her to such an extent
and so repeatedly that she was almost
continually sick, sore and lame. Her
illness soon merged into hysterlcal fits
from which she constantly suffered.
When her father died in 1874 she en-
tered the employ of family in Louis
vile. Here. and at other places, she
worked until she was eighteen years
old. The last two years of this part of
her career she kept company with a
young man by the name of Blatz. He
seems to have been the fine feathered
william, and trammelling upon the
chastity of his fiancee. prom
ise ised d.. to marty marry her, H. but failed. lied
to the prisoner child which lived but
a short time. Since that unfortunate
incident, which diverted Clara Blatz
from her former simple and honest |
path, she has led life of shame. From
that time to this, she told the jury, she |
had been an inmate of any number of |
bagnios in Louisville, Cincinnati, Hot |
Springs, Minneapolis and st. Paul. In |
May, 1884, she was thrown from hOr |
she was riding at a summer resort, sus- |
tanning severe bruises of the head and |
face, some of the marks of which she |
still bears. BY reason of this acci-
dent, she was confined to her bed |
for two months, unconscious three days |
of the time. and frequently bleeding at |
the nose, mouth and ears. When her |
asked her If she was still suf-
fering from that fall she replied that
she thought she had not recovered from |
the dizzy fits which followed it. ''Up |
to that time did you indulge in the use |
Of any drugs, such as opium. morphine.
etc.w asked her attorney. mo, sir;
never used them then. When get out
into into the air very often get dizzy s; a.9s and
nocc SsCn IN onh Ctofo fO tho il,ru how L