The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-03-06
THE TRIAL OF DR.. MATTHEW'S
Standing Room at a Premium
When Case was Called
Disappointing Delay i'm Getting Start
ed - The Jury Secured - Great
Change in the Defendant-State's
Principal Witness. Captain Ginam.
Ill i'm Philadelphia.

After drawing fifty-nine names out
Of the box the jury which will try the
Matthews case was completed last
evening at about half past six O'Clock.
All day long the court room had
been fhronged- Even the morning ses-
sion was attended by a large and eager
crowd, but these left when it was an
nounced by Judge Ferguson b the
noted case would not come up for at
least two hours, and the court house
bell would be rung in time to call the
special venire men into the court.
When the court room doors opened
at 2:3O O'Clock in the afternoon the
crowd was even larger than i'm the
morning and it was an eager pushing
jam Of people who worked their way
u the court room, drawn thither by
the morbid attraction of murder, by
tales of dope fiend'' and wrecked and
I hopeless man, by hints of black mo-
tives and blacker conduct brought to
light For the honor Of the women
of Greensboro be it said that there
were few women present, contrary to
the advance rumor that they would
throng the court.
By the time the prisoner had been
brought into court interest had be-
come tense, and there was not a per-
son in the room who had not his eyes
riveted on him.
PRISONER A CHANGED MAN.
But those who had hoped to see the
haggard and hopeless morphine slave,
who had his hearing in December, the
man whose soul had been lured from
him by the subtle fiend of the poppy
and wrung dry of it's very humanity,
the man who had lain in his cell ask
ing weakly for the wife with whose
murder he was charged, were disap-
pointed. In place of the vision which
had appealed to the morbid minded,
there entered the court room a man
looking troubled, it is true, and pos
sibly disipated, but aside from that
and the fact that his eyes were suf-
fused with tears there was nothing to
diferentiate him from the rest of his
fellow beings.
Innocent or guilty his stay in Jail
has benefited DR.. Matthews. He who
tottered weakly on the edge Of the
grave for weeks has beer brought
back to health by the gradual reduc-
ing Of his dope" And though he re-
belled against it and beseeched who
ever came lear to end his life and
stop his sufferings, though he lOnged
only to be permitted to become again
the slave of the baleful power that
had been his undoing body and soul,
and brought an educated man to a fell
on's dock, the thing he rebelled
against has brought back real life to
him in place of the evil dream that
Once was all his life.
1t is doubtful if many who saw DR..
Matthews at his preliminary hearing
would recognize him now. The hollow
cheeks have filled out. the dead eyes
have some life in them, the lips no
longer hang willessly, and the I'M
healthy greenish hue of the skin has
become mere prison pallor.. Besides
this the man has gained many pounds
of flesh, and the healthy round Of his
cheeks in place of the Swallowed cav
erns they once were, helps to put still
farther away the man about whom it
was said that Death was h only
mercy that could come to aim.
The list of lawyers for the prosecu-
ton has been increased by the addi-
ton of Senator II. A. Foushee, Of
Durham. The prosecution, complete,
consists of: Mr.. FOushee, Ex-Judge W.
P. Bynum, Jr., and Solicitor Brooks.
The defense is made up of Major c.
W. Stedman, A. W. Cooke, and Guth-
RE & Guthrie, OF Durham.
There was some conjecture at first
as to what judge would try b case,
bnt it has been pretty we'll understood
for some time that it would come up
before Judge Ferguson and no sur
prise was manifested when this was
found to be so.-Inrustrial News.