Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1903-03-24

Mrs. Alice Hull Burdick told on the
witness stand in Buffalo yesterday how
Arthur r. Pennell had come into her
life and wreck it.
She had known hin, she testified, for
about six years, having met him and his
wife at card party when Mr.. Burdick
was also present. The families became
intimate. and about year later Mrs
Burdick accompanied Mrs. Pennell on
trip to New Haven to attend the Yale
commencement exercises. 1t was on
this trip that Mrs. Burdick's intimacy
with Pennell began.
PennelFs love letters TO Mrs. Burdick,
couched in passionate aud endearlng
terms, were read to her by the district
attorney. She identified all of them as
in the handwriting of Pennell. She
admitted receiving some of them others
she said she could not recall.
She identified as in Pencils hand
writing a letter of November 10, 1900,
in which Pennell wrote that he some
times thought he must kill Mr.. Burd'ck.
II was brought out that Mrs. Burdick
lad kept these letters locked in a strong
box in her home until New Years Day,
1901. when her husband took the box
away from her after violent struggle,
in which he choked her.
She testified that she-was first ordered
by Mr. Burd'ck to leave his house in
Nav. 1901. She went to Atlantic City.
Letters written by her at this time to
Burdick pleading to be forgiven and
taken back were introduced.
Burdick insisted in his letters that
Pennell must leave Buffalo before he
would take Mrs. Burdick back. Mrs.
Burdick wrote that she could not get
Pennell TO consent. Finally, she wrote
that he had promised to leave without
fixing any date. He had prom d
once before and broke his word. Mrs.
Burdick was permitted, neverthe 'ess, to
return to her home, after an absence of
three weeks, SC cmnly promising to be
a good wife and mother to her husband
and children. She testified that she
made this promise in good faith.
PenneIl soon began renewing his ad-
yances to Mrs. Burdick secretly. She
was powerless to resist him. She testi-
fed to list of places where they met
District Attorney Coatsworth has a
witness, servant employed by the
McNeills, who lived next door to the
Burdick house, who is prepared to swear
that, during the time cOveredin question,
she one day saw Pennell sneak hurriedly
out of the side door of Burdick's house
and Jump the fence. Burdick had come
home Unexpectedly, and Pennell, in
his anxiety to get away, almost jumped
upon the servant in scaling the fence
Mrs. Burdick admitted that at the
times she met Pencil she wore ring
he had given her over her wedding ring.
Mrs. Burdick was dressed wholly in
black, except for narrow band of white
about the throat. There were black
pIumes in her hat draped with black
veil, which was drawn upward, reveal
ing sallow, careworn face. She is a
small woman, scarcely more than five
feet in height, and rather trim of figure.
Her age is Al years. Her face is plain
and homely, her nose prom nent, her
eyes large and dark. Her black hair
was brushed back from well-rounded
forehead. Her mouth and chin are her
worst features. The mouth is large, the
lips coarse, and the chin recedes so
abruptly that she seems to have hardly
any chin at all.
During the examination Mrs. Bur
dicks eye brows and mouth were con-
stantly twitching nervously, and her
whole body frembled at times She
seemed almost oblivious of her audience,
addressing her answers to the district
attorney in low tones, that were at times
scarcely audiable a dozen feet from the
witness chair At times she moisteno /
her lips with her tongue and then dried
them with handkerchief she held con-
stantly in her black -glo sed hand.
There was resigned, hopeless ex-
preston on her pale face from the be-
ginning, which even the reading of the
passionate love missives failed to dis
turb. " hen she took the letters from
the district attorney her hand trembled.
At no time was there remorse in her
voice or eyes. The references to her
love for her children and her love for
Pennell alike failed to move her. Her
drawn features showed no evidence of
shame as she confessed her Shortcomings.
1t seemed as if the tragedy in which she
has played so prominent a part bad
completely deadened all her sensibilities.
The courtroom was crowded while the
examination was in progress. There
were many well-dressed women in the
audience, and in one corner of the room
lot of school girls blushed and Uttered
at the revelations. Most of the women
smiled when the love-letters were being
read, and seemed to forg,t the humilia-
tion and suffering they were causing the
witness.
There was no sympathy in any faces
when the district attorney read the
pleading letters of Mrs. Burdick asking
to be taken back to home and children.
Hives are terrible torment to the little folks
and to some Older ones. Easily cured. Doan's