Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-12-31
AWAITING HER TRIAL
The Holidays Pass Cheerlessly fol
Lizzie Borden in Her Prison.
A NOTED CRIME RECALLED.
Tracing the Family Back to william the
Observation-Disclosures to Allow the Pris-
oner Every LoophoIe for Escape-Strong
Case Against Her-Fatal Thursday.

LIZZIE BORDEN.

| Correspondence Of The Evening Star
FALL RIVER. Mass. Dec. 81, 1892.
| Lizzie Borden spent a cherries Christmas at
Taunton Jail. She received no callers either on
Sunday or on the holiday, Monday, and there
was nothing in the prison regime to indicate to
the unfortunate girl that the season of peace
and good will to men was passing.
The continued illness Of Attorney General
Pillsbury, who is down with pneumonia at
Northampton has deferred the arraignment of
Miss Borden many weeks, and it is doubtful if
January sees the day out for her trial. The
suspense and delay is having marked effect on
the prisoner, and there are some who say that
IL her mind is not already affected it will be-
come So She does not talk much, but seems to
| dwell upon the train Of events that has brought
her to the prison doors.
| A DAY TO BE FEARED.
There is one day in the week that Lizzie
| Borden has become nervous about That day
is Thursday. The prospect Of a trial for MUIR
der is never reassuring, but the ordeal will have
| added terrors for her il it proves TO begin on
this particular day. Thursday has been marked
oy such startling i'll omens in connection with
her case that she may well dread its weekly re-
| currence in the calendar. Such consistency in
portentious happenings seems like something
| more than mere condolences; it smacks of
fatality, and may we'll awaken the apprehen-
| slons OF young woman quite as resolute and
devoid OF ordinary superstition Mas Lizzie
| Borden.
| Thursday, August T. was the day that An
drew j. Borden and Abby Borden we're muir
dered-a day that must live as one OF horror
In the mind of the daughter, whether she be
innocent Of the crime not.
Thursday. August IL, one week after the
| crime and at the conclusion of long examina-
| ton by District Attorney Knowlton, Lizzie was
| called into the dim corridor Of the court room
and there, alone with the city marshal faced
the awful charge of having murdered her
father and her mother This, the second
Thursday, was the day Of her arrest and incar-
ceration.
Thursday, September 1, just four weeks after
| the murder. the long preliminary hearing be-
fore Judge Blaisdell ended, and though many
theories OF the state fell with the failure to find
blood on the Ratchet, the unfortunate defend
ant was adjudged probably guilty, and was
bound over to await the action Of the Noyem-
Der grand jury.
| Thursday. December l. seventeen weeks to a
day after the tragedy, the grand jury finished
| their long consideration of the Borden case and
voted to indict this youngest daughter Of the
house for the murder Of both her parents
| In brief, every decisive event in the develop
ment Of the Borden has occurred upon
Thursday. tho same day of the week as the
|
against the accusedgir Having been arrested.
bound over and indicted on Thursday it is not
strange that this day, already stained with her
parents blood, seems to Lizzie Borden freighted
with fearful portends Of disaster Small won
! der that she hopes her trial NAV begin under n
different and possibly happier augury.
| NEW PHASES OF INTEREST
The Borden case is one of the few tragedies
that continually develop new phases Of inter-
| Tha loo Oh 20 Al.
markable it appears. The tendency of all
strange occurrences to resolve themselves upou
| closer scrutiny into the familiar elements of
the commonplace is quite absent here.
| The more closely the exact facts are followed
| the better the ''story." in a newspaper sense
The prominence Of the family gives the coming
trial an interest in this part of the state sur
passing anything in the annals of the old
colony.
| ANTIQUITY OF THE FAMILY.
| The Bordens are to Fall River what the Car
rolls or the Bonapartes are to Baltimore. The
| family traces its ancestry back without break
to William the Conqueror. Andrew ]. Borden
| could boast both simple faith and Norman
| blood" The name is derived from Bourbon
nay, an ancient village of Normandy, where a
thousand years ago Lizzie's ancestors resided
After the battle of Hastings they were as
signed estates in the county of Kent in Eng
land The earliest American representative of
the name was Richard Borden, who came to
Plymouth colony in 1886. and from him by a
long line Of Richards, Andrew j. Borden was
| descended.
LIZZIE NAMED AFTER THE VIRGIN QUEEN
The name of the first Richard slaughter,
Elizabeth. taken from the virgin queen, under
whose splendid reign he was born, reappears
today in the Lizzie of the accused girl. The
only family in Fall River that rivals the Bor-
dens in its wealth, social position and extensive
| mill interests are the Durfees and these two
| families have been lntermarrying for 200
years.
| Three Borden sisters, contemporaries of
| Andrew. became respectively, Mrs. DIR. Nathan
Durfee, Mrs. Joseph Durfee and Mrs. Nat. C..
| Durfee.
INDUCEMENTS NOT TO PROSECUTE
When the hand of the law reaches out and ar
rests daughter Of these houses, and one who
by the very tragedy becomes an heiress, it as
! sumes q grave responsibility-one that neither
the city, county nor state officials would court.
| There Is this to be said for the ch-abused
and accused authorities in this case: There is
every inducement for them not to pursue Liz
zie Borden if they saw any alternative.
Take Judge Blaisdell. who presided at the in
quest and held Lizzie for the grand jury. His
son married the daughter Of Cook Borden and
cousin Of Lizzie Borden, and he himself was
| personal friend of all the parties concerned
Take District Attorney Knowlton. friend of
Mr.. Borden and moro intimate with Mr.. Jen-
| nings, Lizzie's counsel, than with any other
member OF the Bristol county bar. Mr. Jen-
nings 10 as certain Of Miss Borden's innocence
| as OF his own existence, and he threw the whole
weight OF his personal influence and profess
| sional judgment against her arrest. but Mr.,
Knowiton felt compelled to override both.
| Take Attorney General Pllsbury. He has an
| ambition to be governor of Massachusetts,
With the feeling SO divided as to the girls
guilt he cannot fail to suffer politically whether
| he convicts her not.
Take the grand jury. There is hardly man
| on the panel whose wife does not believe Liz
| zie is innocent-and what fate they invited
by declaring that they think she may be
guilty!
STRONG CASE AGAINST LIZZIE.
The fact that the case has como to the point
Of trial, despite all these deterrent considera-
tons. cannot but press home the unwelcome
| CONCLUSION that the ssxte's prims facis case is
much stroSSer than has generally been sup-
posed. 1t must be tried on its merits now. If
| wealth, position, influential friends or her own
hitherto spotless character were to save her
| they would have suficed to arrest proceedings,
when the presumption Of innocence was stronger
than it can ever be after an indictment has
been found.
| Lizzie Borden must now meet facts with facts,
| evidence with evidence, law with Law. argument
with argument, lust like any other accused