The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-30
DISTRESSING
EPISODES
Wharton Compelled Ills
Wife to Board
Johnson.

Several most affecting scenes oc-
CURED at the trial of Frank Johnson
; for the murder of little Simeon Whar-
Iton. during the continuation of the
grief-stricken mothers evidence in
Judge Robinson's court yesterday
morning
Mrs Wharton broke down repeated
lly. The first time was at point in
her direct examination when Johnson S
temperance after he and the child
had been missed was recalled. Yet it
lalmost seemed, on the next occasion,
somewhat relieved her pent-up feelings
so as to give the poor woman more
control of herself. For the ordeal was
a more severe one while the paroxysm
of emotion was quicker over. This
was when the cut and stained gar
ments of her slaughtered boy We're
offered for her Identification.
Yet none of those scenes of positive
| mental agony were in reality SO pain
| full for the reflections of outsiders as
| the calm narrative Mrs. Wharton gave
/ of the harsh manner in which her hus-
| band had compelled her to receive
Johnson into their home as a boarder
and lodger-their home that the man,
whether in malice or madness, was
fated to blight by a deed of atrocity
too horrible to describe. Viewed in the
| light of the sequel, the stern insistence
of the head of the house that his over
worked wife should receive such an
addition to their already diversified
household can be regarded only as a
piece of weird infatuation.
THE MOTHERS GRIEF.
Mrs. Wharton broke down, weeping
aloud on the stand, in the midst of her
direct examination. Mr.. Prosser's
questions had led her through the
search for her missing boy until she
had sent Johnson away to look for
him. This was after Il o'clock noon
on January 3.
What happened after this?" The
question reopened the loodgates of the
mothers grief SO that she walled aloud |
and failed in utterance of words. At
the suggestion of Mr.. Prosser the court |
ordered a recess
Mrs Wharton had told about John |
sons temperance after he and the |
child We're discovered missing. john |
son appeared exactly when the whistle |
blew at IL o'clock. He came through |
the front gate and witness met him. |
Johnson had on the same clothes as
when she saw him swinging Simeon /
under the mango tree. The sleeves of |
his frock were dirty, so was his vest, |
hi T..
earth dirt.
Johnson was changed, pale. His face
was dirty but not very. The man was
trembling. Where is my |
son, Simeon? You We're the last one
with him. You disappeared and ne
Thus she spoke to him.
Il left Simeon on the swing where |
you saw him, and 1 went away" john
son answered
You have my boy the mother in
sisted on telling him. Il think you
have hidden my child
What could L have done to my
boss's child?" was the evasive answer.
Mrs. Wharton persisted in asking
him where was her child, and Johnson |
replied that he left Simeon playing |
with the other children and he
himself went over to the windmill. The |
mother insisted that he had taken her
child and every time she did SO ''he
trembled all the more
1T was on that account the wit
ness said, that / thought he had my
child and that he had hidden him.
She told her Japanese servant girl
to go after her husband Ichimoto, and
the man came. Johnson, having been
told to go with the Japanese and look
for Simeon, went to his room and put |
on black coat. Then he was dressed
The same as in the morning. He told |
Mrs. Wharton he was going and called {
Ichimoto to go with him.
You go and find my child" the {
mother said to Johnson. II
Yes he answered and then went !
Town to the government road with ;
he Japanese. Johnson was ahead on
starting out, but Mrs Wharton did not l
see the men down the road ii
What happened after this?'' Mr.. I
Prosser asked. Interpreter Hopkins t
lad not the opportunity to interpre, s
what seemed to most others in the Y
courtroom but incoherent wailing as {
he poor woman attempted to answer.
Recess Brought relief to the distress I
ng situation IL
My son Simeon is lost, God help {
met are the words the INTERPRETER {
heard. IL
OTHER SAD EPISODES. IL
Again, when different parts of the
chfld's garments were at separate |
times shown Mrs. Wharton. she burst |
into sobs she identified the exhibits.
Details of the search for Simeon,
when everybody about the place had |
been stirred out. were given by the !
witness infinitely. A Chinaman enlist
I'd in the quest had asked her for n |
quarter to pay fortune-telling coun- {
tryman of his for advice, and it was ,
the necromancer's directions to search
the brush and the cane which resulted $
in the discovery of the first clue. This {
was the child's pants Is
The ar.r.at ion L ho End aSS nx.- L