Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-04-07
.DUSS[ Trial RESUMED
Public Interest Is Increasing as
the Famous Murder Trial
Progresses.
Policy Of the Defense Being Dis.
cussed and Various Theories
Suggested.
Believed an Attempt Will Be Made
to Show That the Woman
Was Violent.
pecia1 to Times-Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
Waverly, April 1.-THE Busse muir
der trial was resumed this morning
1 The interest in the case grows as 1t
progresses. The court adjourned Sat
urday at noon until this morning and
duced The session was largely taken
up with the Introduction of further
photographs of the premises, including
q photograph of the room where the
body of Lena Busse was found, and
showing the large hole in the floor, as
we'll as the condition of the dinner
table with the dishes yet remaining as
they were left from the monday meal.
Ex- Sheriff Cline, Henry Schneider and
Mr.. Jones, one of the coroner's Jurors,
were again upon the stand for the pur-
pose of supplying certain missing links
in the testimony.
1t is expected that the trial will
last most of this week. Judge Kelley,
on his own motion, directed that the
jury be kept together over Sunday in
charge of bailiff.
The trial has progressed far enough
to show in some degree the policy of
the defense, which is of the utmist i'm
portance in this case. BY the cross
examination of the states leading wit
nesses by Gibson and Dawson, it is
evident that the defense hopes to show
that Mrs. Busse, the deceased, was
subject to fits of temporary alteration
or insanity, that at such times she be-
hat Oft ut
was morose and sullen, and that was
possessed of an unhappy disposition.
It will be claimed that If any trouble
was had between Busse and his wife on
that fatal afternoon, that the woman
started the quarrel, and that Busse did
not kill her, but that in q fit of tenn
porary insanity following her spasm of
anger Mrs. Busse deliberately cut her
throat, maltreated herself and attempt
ed to fire the house. Whether the de-
Tense can make this theory tenable re-
mains to be seen, but the state is build
ing up a remarkably strong case.
Busse himself TO a large extent Is
paying the penalty in suffering these
days, no matter what the extent of his
crime may have been. He has been con-
fined in the Bremen county Jail for sew
eral months past, ever since he was
hurried here by the authorities, who
feared that to leave him in Butler
county subjected him to the danger of
lynching. In the months that have in
tervened Busse, independent farmer
that he was for almost thirty years, has
remained in his prison cell and looked
out over the prairies and had plenty of
time to repent over his crime, if he is
the guilty party. This incarceration
has not broken his body, but it has bent
his spirit and shattered his nervous
force.
Today as he sits In the court room,
with the alternative of halter or per-
petual prison bar staring him in the
face, he sits quietly and unobtrusively
by the side Of his counsel, but world
of suffering is wrapped behind the
mask whcih he preserves. .Busse is
typical German of 81 years Of age, SAN
dy-haired, f1orid complicated. rudy
mustached. blue eyed, with the genuine
Fatherland look in every feature He
is neatly and carefully dressed as he
sits in court these days and wears a
bat-wing tie which is as gaudy as that
Fatherlands flag. But Busse Is not
easy; he sits constantly with his head
and eyes bent on the floor Immediately
before him and hour after hour holds
the fingers of his right hand clutched
tightly in the. palm of the left hand.
Seldom does he raise his eyes from the
floor never does he remove that per-
petual handgrasp and never does he
consult with his attorneys, offer them
a, Hyic ton fr,,. 10
interest in the outcome OF the trial. ex-
cept by a slightened increase in the
tension Of the clasped hands when the
climaxes are reached. Saturday when
the skull and burned bones of his muir
dered wife were thrown on the table
beside him. suddenly, he unconsciously
jerked back for an instant, then re-
sumed his mask Of indifference.
The trial is progressing slowly, and
that for many and various causes, not
the most simple of which is the fact1
that this is dfstinctively German set
Element, and the foreign element dom
mates so that the court officials and at
torneys are having hard time to secure
the testimony. An interpreter is con-
stantly in court and questions have toll
be propounded and explained before
answers are Forthcoming. AS If this
were not enough, the attorneys for the I
defense are showing their intention of
appealing to the supreme court by
making the record complete in every
respect. objecting to almost every
question and demanding separate OBJ
jections so that six to ten witnesses a
day make big days work.