The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-11

saking her. No repentant Magdalenc
here. She seeks the head of DIR. Baker
that she may hand it TO her husband as
kind of atonement. Her letters, in.
stead OF coDvicting tho prisoner, make
clear OF his innocence. This relentless
prostitute would bring him down to
death and shame and disgrace to his
modest, pure and motherless daughters.
THE PRISONER wEEPS.
Here DR.. Baker dropped his forehead
upon his ivory handle cane he has car
ried during his trial. When he raised
1T tears stood in his eyes and upon his
checks. 1t was the fret exhibition of
feeling since his trial began fourteen
days ago.
At 1880 tho court adjourned to .
o'clock.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
AT 2:05 General Blair resumed his
argument with ungloved hands and
sharpened wit and sarcasm. He spoke
with greater deliberation than before
dinner, but mono the less denunciatory
OF Mrs. Gllmer, whom he charged with
lying about the time her intimacy with
DIR. Baker commenced. There is still
greater depth to which she descended.
She has Sister to whom the breath of
suspicion has mover attached itself, who
IS as pure as tho air of heaven; yet when
charged with having spent the night at
Hotel Paramount with DR.. Baker she
said, Its damned lie; it was my Sis
ter Tho very angels of heaven cried
shame when she thus sought to blaclen
tho character OF her spotless sister and
DOW the heads OF her old father and
mother in shame.
The motive for tho commission OF the
crime had not been proved, for DR..
Baker had mono. He lived with his
vito in harmony and there was naught
but kindness and tender solicitudc in
his conduct toward her. The idea that
he would commit this crime for such a
woman is too nonscnical and ridiculously
absurd to merit tho most trivial consid-
GRAFTON. Whore are Bakers lettcrsr IS
1T not strange, passing strange that she
could not produce one? In, perhaps,
the last letter she wrote him she Sd rs,
VI have just read over bundle OF your
letters and kissed your photographs"
Where arc they? Gone. And why? Be-
cause they would oXculpate Baker, and
nix upon her alono tho desire for Gil
mors death. These letters OF the ad-
Venturess, although exposed to winters
rain and summers sun,arc as spotless as
II written yesterday upon bleached
paper. Perhaps they wero written but
little while ago and long since the
date they bear.
General Blair read authorities on
circumstantial evidence and then dis
| cussed the circumstances by which it
was sought to connect DR.. Baker in a
criminal way with tho death of Mrs.
Bakor. DR.. Taylor, tho chemist, had
multiplied the doubts of his guilt and
had refused to say that she died Of
arsenical poisoning, but did say he
found arsenic in the EN- lining fluid,
and that the arsenic he found in her
liver was, perhaps, q portion Of the
amount the fluid used contained
Circumstances did not convict him
and those against him wero hedged
about by so many reasonable doubts
that no could not be convicted. Mrs.
Gilmer was n self-confcssed accompl:cc.
and the courts had held that it was OK
| ceedingly dangerous to convict an &C.
cuscd of even larceny upon the evidence
Of an accomplicc.
| Mrs. Baker died without any of the
prominent and Indispensable symptoms
of arsonical poisoning, and her pathetic
appeal 10 Mrs. Clysc, proclaimed to the
world that sho died from natural causes
her face as sweet and placid in death as
her lifc had been sweet and god.
Inc general concluded his able argu.
mcnt by n brief allusion to the unworth-
mess OF Mrs. Gilmer of belief, having
| spoken two hours and q half and devoted
at least two hours to her.
Col. John c. Summers, prosecuting at
torney at the time OF the commission OF
the alleged crime, next spoke for the
State.