The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-09-02

her three-ouarters of an hour to wash
the other four? The point is this, if Liz
zie don't explain everything as she goes
along, if she trips in her testimony then
she must be the guilty party, thinks the
government. If Lizzie had an opportu-
nity to commit this murder, Bridget Sui
liyan had an opportunity. Bridget SAYS
she was outdoors, but who else saw her
out there but Mrs. Churchill? Counsel
did not desire to show that Bridget was
guilty, but was only trying to show the
extraordinary course Of the government
towards Lizzie.
Now If Lizzie Did This,
when did she do it? The government
have put in evidence to show that
from the appearance of the digestion
these persons had been dead SO long, but
that is very uncertain thing to build
on. 1t is only approximate, for digestion
varies. Following Mr.. Borden from
his house at $50 the counsel brought him
back at the time testified to and said that
if Lizzie killed her mother she must
have done it while her father was out of
the house, but she has told her story
about her movements at that time and
the telling of that story, Mr. Jennings
said, was in the line of an outrage. AS
he had told the district attorney at the
time, the inquest was taken for no other
purpose but to put Lizzie on the rack
and there is no person who heard the
testimony read the other day, but said
so. Over and over again she was asked
the same questions to see if she couldn't
be made to change her story. She had
been subjected to the most severe strain;
condemned simply because she couldn't
remember some of the slightest details in
connection with her movements that
morning. 1t was stated that Lizzie
laughed at Bridget when she made that
exclamation at the door, but it is beyond
the bounds of human belief that any per-
son could stand there and laugh over
simple thing like that when she had
just
Come From Killing Her Mother.
Only an insane person could do that, and
Lizzie Borden ism It insane. There wasn't
anything inconsistent in the fact
that Lizzie, although she had been
sick, was eating pears that morn
ing. Her father and mother had been
doing the same thing, and the govern
ment's own witness said so, for they
were found in their stomachs. When
Mrs. Churchill first saw Lizzie she
was agitated because she had just found
her father. If she had seen her mother
before that, wouldn't she have been like
ly to have shown some excitement and
agitation then? Bridget says she was
calm, and it has gone over this land that
she showed no agitation. Bridget and
Lizzie do not agree in other things.
Bridget doesn't know when Mr.. Borden
went out of the house, but why should
her word be taken rather than Lizzie's
now?
No crime is ever committed without a
motive. The government is bound to,
show that Lizzie had a motive, and with
out that they have got to fail 1t has
been published that this girl was on
the most
Bitter Terms with Her Father
and mother, and that s,gas the motive
given by the government, but the evi-
dence does not back that up. There is
only one little item, that five years ago
Lizzie ceased to call her stepmother
mother" but Lizzie says her relations
were friendly with her in every way, and
that her parents were on good terms. In
regard to the prussic acid, counsel said
it was clearly case of mistaken identi-
ty, cases of which are on record in great
numbers. Lizzie Borden was part of
the time in her room sick and part of the
time at Miss RusselPs.
Continuing. he referred to the unruf-
fled appearance of Lizzie's clothes and
hair at the time of the discovery of the
bodies, and to the absence of blood and
hairs on the hatchet axes and clothes