Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-03-07
THE HOME OF LIZZIE BORDEN.
Memories Forgotten in Change of At
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If Lizzie Borden ever tried TO live SO
as to satisfy her critics she has given
it up as q hopeless task. They found
no end of fault with her as long as
she lived in the old house on Second
street, Fall River, where the murders
were committed, and now that she
has moved into another dwelling IN
better part of the city, they say that
she has come into the money of her
murdered parents and is making it
fly Among the sensa tional stuff that
has been published about her
recently is the news that she
refuses to wear mourning and goes
tearing through the streets in a
buggy beside her sister Emma in a
very light dress, while Emma dresses
in deep mourning. According to the
New York Sun, the fact is that she has
on two occasions hired a livery team
and gone out for a ride, her own and
only horse being busted by the work
on the farm, beyond the city limits.
She has, indeed, worn g GgEt gown
one of her old ones that the detectives
pulled over as they hung in the girls
closet in the old house after the muir
der. But Emma has not accompanied
her in deep or any other kind of
mourning, for the simple reason that
neither of these original and interest
ing women believes in wearing mourn
ing.
They never have worn mourning
They did not go to the burial of the
elder Bordens in that attire. They
did not wear mourning in court when
Lizzie was tried for the murders.
Lizzie wore crepe dress part of the
time, but had a purple feather in her
hat. The rest of the time she wore
her black lace dress, with the same
hat-but, according to the rulings of
fashion, lace would not have been con-
sidered mourning. even had the hat
been different. Miss Emma Borden
has recently had new dress made, the
first notable purchase of the kind made
by either of the women since the muir
ders. Their neighbOrs watch them
pretty closely. and know all that they
do. This new gown is decidedly not
mourning. Feminine readers will
know what sort of a dress it is when
they are told that the name of it's stuff
sounds like "shalle de lane" 1t is
black with a green figure in it. The
light gown that Lizzie is criticised for
wearing is light drab with blue
threads in it.
The ghbors-both the friendly
and the unfriendly-say that the tes
timony at the murder trial created
false impression as to the way the
made any show, but always dressed
very well indeed, in clothes
of good material and plenty
of them. They had their
own means, in money and mill stocks,
and they made good use of them.
There is equal misconception, not as
to how they lived, but as to the style
of their home. The parlor was newly
and stylishly furnished for the use of
the young women, and the rest of the
house was set with substantial but
not new furniture. There will not be
much to call the stepmother to mind
in the new house, as Miss Emma gave
all Mrs Bordens things to that lady's
sister, Mrs. Fish of Hartford. This is
the elder sister. Mrs. Whitehead, the
younger one, who lives in Fall River
is yet almost girl and would have
found less use for them.
In the new house in the select resi-
dence part of the town the young
women will live as they never were
able to live in their old home, because
their former home had practically
none of the modern improvements.
The old couple were satisfied without
them and the girls were far more
anxious to leave that neighborhood of
stores and tenements than to have the
old house modernized. AS soon as
they moved into their new home work
men took possession of their old home
and began to make it fit for rental
1t would scarcely be thought that
any one would be found who would
wish to live in that house of horrors,
but the women have already had APP
plicants for it and can easily keep it
rented. They will only rent to per-
sons suitable to the neighborhood,
that is to say, satisfactory to their old
neighbors with whom they lived
twenty years. There is never day
that sightseers do not linger around
the old house, staring at it as il, by
watching, they may be able to solve
the mystery it once enveloped.
easily picking It out because Of the
barn behind it, but once in a while a
man or woman will stand for half
day studying the wrong house
out of it. When Lizzie was
discharged by the court and came
back here to live she seemed to bear
no grudges against those who had
been obliged to testify during the
trial. With the exception of Miss
Russell, her old companion, all the old
friends were taken up again. Miss
Russell is the girl who told about the
burning of the Bedford cord dress.
She is much to be pitied, for she was
rudely dealt with in the Massa chusetts
press at the time, although she only
II u n
the old house was the visit of Bridget
Sullivan, who was the family servant
at the time of the murders. She called
on the day that Lizzie reached home.
1t was a short call, and has never been
repeated.
Very much that is utter nonsense
has been published about the fortunes