The herald., 1895-09-07
FIRST THRILL Of HORROR
Blanche LamOnt's Clothes
on a Dummy
STOOD LIKE. IN ACCUSING PRESENCE
Durrant Alone UnmOved by the
CHASTITY Spectacle
PITIFUL SEMBLANCE OF LIFE
Distress Apparent Among the Female
Spectators
'Doll to Represent Blanche Lamont in the
lower
Distress Apparent Among the Female
Spectators
eOoll to Represent Blanche Lamont in the
over
The Only Evidence OF Violence Thus Far
Revealed Is the Finding OF Two
Knobs Knocked From beIfry
Doors and Hid
Associa red Press specinl wire.


Associa red Press Special Wire.
SAN FRANCISCO. Sept. GA fresh
stage IN the Durrant murder case was
reached today-a stage that was thrilling
in its horror and kept the crowded court
room alomsti gasping with interest.
The story of the finding of Blanche La
mont's clothes that were hidden away
among the ra fters of Emanuel church
belEry was told on the witness stand by
the man who found them, and as each
torn. ragged bit of cloth was shown the
crowd swayed with excitement. There
was just one m an in all that crowd who
seemed to feel no interest in the gar
ments. This was the man who of all
others might have oeen expected to shud-
der and cover his eyes when the clothes
were exposed-the man accused of the
murder of the girl who wore those gar
ments when she was last seen alive.
The introduction of the girls clothes
was rather startling. almost theatrical.
1t happened soon after the noon recess.
A man bearing burden pushed through
the crowd into the court room. No one
could see exactly what he held in his
arms, but it appeared to be.a woman's s
form.
The women in the court room. and there
were many of them. were particularly dis
tuIbed.
What the bailfff brought into court was
really harmless enough, simply a dress
makers dummy, over which had been
draped Blanche Lamont's basque and
ever. the dummy was as near as could be
the dead girls height and figure-a tail,
slight, girlish tignre, undeveloped, but
still not lacking in grace.
The basque AMI skirt were torn and
wrinkled, but the tears were pinned up
| in part and the gown draped SO as to
| show much as it must have been when
| its wearer was alive.
They stood the dressmaker's dummy
| beside the witness stand and there it
remained all afternoon land to the excited
| Imagintion of the attendants ON the Dur
| rant trial-and ii is trial that sets the
| dullest nerves on edge-the poor figure
seemed like an accusing presence. Men
aud women shuddered as they looked at
| it. 1t made Blanche Lamont, who under
| the fuss and technicalities of the trial has
| seemed more like an abstraction, one Of
the conditions of game, the stakes OF
which are Theodore Durrant's life, ap-
pear as a young girl who really lived and
whose bright young life had been cut
short by fiend.
Probably nothing in the trial has done
SO much to revive the thrill of horror
that swept over the country when it was
first known that two young girls had been
outraged and murdered in the church.
Durrant. like everybody else in the
court room. watched the stiff, pathetic
girish figure by the witness chair, but
his gaze did not rest on it long. 1t must
have reminded him very strongly of the
girl he was with on the Sd of April. She
wore that dress when, according to his
own story, he escorted het to school in
the morning, and she wore it, according
to the testimony of the prosecutors wit
nesses, when she walked with him again
in the afternoon to her death. 1t did
not hold his attention long. Some ladies,
friends Of his mother, had come into
court and sat beside the prisoner and his
parents. His polite duty to pay them
the ordinary courtesies, as if this had
Dttu Il EcCcptloh uI MS lilOtutl uOuSo
instead OF trial for his life, took his at
tention from the figure on the platform.
He chatted amicably with his mother and
with Mrs. Rose M. French, vino is one of
the religious ladies who have faith in
Dufrant's Innocence.
The women laughed and chatted with
him, apparently very much pleased that
the gruesome surroundings have not
made their favoiite gloomy. The little
family party remained while the MUIR
dered girls undergarments and other
wearing apparel were being held up for
tie ins pection OF the jury and identified
by the man who had dragged them out
from among the dusty rafters of the bel
fry.
The frame on which is draped the
school dress OF Blanche Lamont answers
more purposes than one. For instance
the defense has bent its energies for two
days in showing the extreme height of
the Emanuel church belfry, The steepness
of the stars and generally suggesting to
the jury by inference that it was almost
impossible that small man like Dur
rant could have carried the body of tall
girl like Blanche Lamont up all those
stairs.
Autopsy Physician Barrett's testimony
that, in his opinion, the girl weighed 14O
pounds. helped this contention of the
defense. AS matter OF fact the girl
weighed under 20, and the dressmaker' S
, figure bears this out. The bust is that of
an undeveloped girl, the waist so slender
! that mans two hands can span it. The
hips anc shoulders are very narrow, so
EXHIBIT G in this case is quite an argu-
ment for the prosecutions theory. Dr.
Barrett's mistake is accounted for by the
fact that when he saw the girl she had
been ten days dead and naturally ap-
peared very different from the slender
girl she really was.
Scenes In the Courtroom
SAN FRNACISCO, ,Sept.6.-The taking
of testimony in the trial of Theodore
Durrant is proceeding slowly. During
| the three davs in which wituassoa have