The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-26
Unexpected Dramatic Scene
in Newark Jail.
ANNA HILDEBRAND'S CASE
Rather Live in Cell Than Face
Cold World.

ate appeal ever made by prisoner IN
courtroom was that of Anna Hildebrand
1t occurred the other day in Newark
at the end of a trial which, although not
devoid of sensational incidents, had not
been especially notable. Anna Hide
brand is quite attractive, buL she is not
beautiful. There was nothing in her
case TO excite more than the ordinary
public sympathy which as a matter Of
habit attaches itself TO a woman who
has been deceived and deserted. The
courtroom had not been Overcrowded
during the progress of the case. Her
lawyers had used no imprisoned plea
TO win for her the sympathy of the jury
The newspapers had not made much of
the story.
The jury had been out all night and
when it came in with the verdict only
the judge, two or three attorneys, few
newspaper reporters, the baliff and a
score of idlers were in the room.
THE verdict" said the foreman, lis
guilty-with a recommendation to mer-
cy."
At that Anna Hildebrand, the woman
who had shot her sweetheart, arose and
staggered toward the Judge. The balif
started to pull her back, but suddenly
gave up the idea and settled down in
his chair
She clasped her hands and stood before
the man who was to fix her sentence.
She was not melo-dramic. She had no
thought of creating a scene. In her
tense excitement she was beyond all care
for any effect that she might produce.
In a strained. low voice she made her
strange appeal.
"Oh. give me prison for life" she said.
'I know I've got to go to Jail Don't
let me come out l can't face the world
again. There is nothing left for me but
disgrace. I can't work. l can't earn a
living. The man ] cared for cannot care
for me again. My mother will always
be ashamed of me. There is no place for
me"
Then she stood, pale and quiet. waiting.
The Judge waited. too. It was some
time before he could collect his thoughts,
and it took him even longer TO steady
his voice Finally. with a reference to
utI appear. ne StNlcICtu HeE 10 SIX
months in prison.
Hopeless and dazed she looked at him
for moment and then fell fainting to
the floor.
The girl had admitted in her testimony
that she shot her sweetheart, Bernard J.
McCallum. who. she said. won her affec
lions and then cast them aside. but
she declared that ii was in an effort to
consider worthless since his repeated re-
fusals to marry her.
Opposing her testimony was that of Nc
Callum. who. weak and pallid from the
wound he had received declared that
Miss Hildebrand had asked him to get
her a glass of water. and as he started
down stairs to comply. had shot him with
a revolver which had been concealed in
her gown. The story of the shooting was
corroborated by that of his boarding mis-
tress. Mrs. c. D. Philpott an eye wit
ness TO the tragedy, and the jury brought
in a verdict of guilty with n recommen-
dation to mercy.
IL was when she was arraigned before
Judge Skinner that Miss Hildebrand made
her remarkable plea for life punishment
4 year before she had met the man
who had wrecked her life she had been
n happy. Hght-hearted girl wholly wrap
ped up in her profession that of train
ed nurse. The tragic interval had been
filed by brief period of love and a
longer one Of Respondent brooding. which
sine was called upon TO answer for at the
bar Of justice.
Following the shooting she had spent
long, agonized weeks in the Newark jail
waiting her trial. In the slow days and
anguished nights OF her imprisonment
she had faced the narrowing vista of a
life behind prison bars and she had made
up her mind that while they might shut
out the world they would also protect her
from its coutumely.
For she knew that when she went back
t. the little home in East Orange. where
she had lived with her mother her old
friends would turn from her as from a
murderess and strangers even would shun
her when they learned her story.
Miss Hildebrand felt that she could not
return 10 a world which. in it's most
charitable mood would offer her only an
ignominous pity. Better the peace Of the
prison corridors. the soothing sameness Of
prison occupations. the narcotic influence
Of routine
But there were motives which had led
20 the commission of the crime which
ihelined the Judge 20 leniency And the
jury had recommended mercy. These
We're the considerations which outweigh
cd the Illegal utterly irrelevant plea of
the white faced prisoner NJ the bar
Later her lawyer obtained writ n
error and she was released on bail AMI
50 far as the public is concerned he
story viii soon h. merged with many
other similar tragedies Of the past Per
haps she viii obtain new trial Per-
haps she viii never have 70 serve tha
six months q the judges sentence. but
WIZ bc permitted 10 live out her shas-
tered life as she wills
IN july. 1901. when Anna Hndebrand
FIRST met Bernard McCalum. she iivei
with her mother IN a pretty little apart-
ICent at q Sterling street. East Orange.
Ais. Hldebrand is a widow and cap
able trained nurse. Anna herself was d
graduate of the New York Post-crssu-
ate Hospital Training School and had
adopted her mothers profession as her
life work She was born IN Germany
and her face has the blond beauty Of the
lyrical ma chen. She knew few men. and
unin she met McCanum had never been
the recipient 81 masculine attentions. She
pursued her peaceful and diSnided CALI
ing Of trained nurse with little though,
or the gayeties 10 which most young We
men give their whole attention.
Then one day McCallun. who was en-
ployea as . clerk by the Essex and Hud-