Connecticut western news., 1906-11-22
DEAD GIRLS LETTERS
Messages From Grace Brown to Her Alleged Murderer Are
 Read In Court.
PLEADED WITH HER LOVER

Believed She Was Rpout 10 Oio.
 Movements of Couple In the Adiron-
 dacks Traced.
 Herkimer, N. Y, Nov. 21.-The pitt full letters in which Grace Brown ap- pealed to Chester Gillette to keep his promise to marry her caused such sensation when they were read at Gil lette's trial on the charge of murder ing the girl that the sheriff had to fur nish a strong escort of deputies for the prisoner when he was taken back to jail.
 District Attorney Ward took up the thread of his story at the home of the Brown family in South Otsel where Grace spent the three weeks preceding her clandestine departure with Gillette for the Adirondacks.
 Part of a court session was devoted to a display In court of the wedding garments for Grace Brown, but never worn, because she died without becom- ing a bride. Interest was, intense as the sad story of the wedding trous seau was told by Grace Browns sister, Frances.
 Miss Benedict Testifies.
 But this was not the only pathetic incident in the court proceedings. Har- riet Benedict of Cortland, the society girl whom, it Is alleged, Gillette court ed while still keeping company with Grace Brown, was put on the witness stand. As was expected, she denied emphatically that there was anything more than a casual friendship existing between Gillette and herself.
 There was nothing sensational about the appearance of Miss Benedict on the witness stand. The eyes of the vast throng that wedged into every possible place in the courtroom were too dim med by tears when Miss Benedict took the stand seven for this handsome wit ness to awaken great interest.
 Love Letters Produced.
 There was a reason for the tear dim- med eyes. The district attorney had just finished reading the letters that passed between Grace Brown and Chester Gillette during the past year, and more pathetic recital was never given in a courtroom. The letters were love letters, but they were more than that. In them Grace Brown set down all her fears, dread and anguish, and. there was scarcely a dry eye in the courtroom when the letters, that seem- ed to come from the grave, had been finished by the prosecutor.
 Day after day the little country girl .ol IoI s,. k1,. 1Nk@ PA,. HkA kr stand by her in her trouble, and when his replies seemed cold and unassuring she would appeal to his manhood, chid ing him, only to ask his pardon in the next sentence.
 Probably the following sentences from the letters caused the greatest emotion in those who heard them read:
 Pleaded With Her Lover.
 I do not know what I could do if you were not there or did not come. I am about crazy now. I have been bidding goodby to some places today. There are so many hooks, and all of them so dear to me. have lived here all my life.
 First I said goodby to the spring house, with its great masses of green moss; then the apple tree, where we had our play house; then the beehive" a cute little
  the neighbors that have mended my dress es from a little tot up to save me a thrashing I really deserved.
 Oh, dear, don't you realize what all this Is to me? I know I shall never see any of them again And mamma-great heaven-how I do love mamma! I don't know what will do without her. She is never cross, and she always helps me so much.
 It makes me rather blue to hear the other girls planning for the Fourth and know I must stay here in my room all day. I will try, dear, and make the week as short as possible, but I am afraid 1t will be dreadful long. I shall never go away again like this, but you promised me I wouldn't have to, didn't you dear?
 If I had strength, dear. I do believe l should walk to the river and throw my self in. It would be rather cowardly, and I despise a coward. but would not be a bother to you any longer. Oh, Chester, the thought that I am in your way just drives me crazy! How I want to die TO one but myself knows.
 It was through these letters that Gil lette and Miss Brown planned their Adirondack trip. ''Take me away from herev' was her cry in every letter, and in some of them she hinted that she would trouble him but little more be- cause she was going to die.
 Sought a Quiet Place.
 The district attorney followed the travels of Grace Brown and Gillette into the Adirondacks. He traced their movements through Utica, swore many witnesses who testified to little details of the trip, and closed with a long ex- animation of Tupper Lake hotel pro- prietor, who said that Gillette asked him where he could find a quiet place in the woods, that his wife was tired.
 The attorneys at this point engaged in a vigorous dispute, the district at torney repeating the witness statement like this, He wanted quiet lake,"
 ''The witness did not say that. He said q quiet place." retorted Senator Mills, Gillette's senior counsel.
 Well, he found a quiet lake, any way" observed the district attorney.
 Josephine Patrick of Cortland testi- fled that she met Gillette on the train at De Ruyter on July 9 and that he ,,1n ,t