Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-10-31
PLAY ON EMOTIONS
N DICKINSON CASE
Attorneys For Both Sides Ap-
peal to the Prejudices of
the .Jurymen
PROSECUTOR EuLoaIzEs WOMAN
Scores Defendant as a Libertine Who
Preyed Upon Pretty GirIs-McHenry
Pleads for Wife and Children Of
Dickinson-case May Go to Jury To-
night.
to Times-Republican.

Special to Times-Republican.
Des Moines, Oct. 31.-Efforts to play
upon the emotions Of the jury marked
the arguments in the Dickinson trial
today. Assistant County Attorney
Brennan. at the close of the opening
argument for the state, delivered one
of the strongest eulogies of chastity
and honor and an appeal for the purity
of the home, and declared that the
conviction of Dickinson is needed to
prove that Polk county holds Woman's
honor sacred. He branded Dickinson as
a libertine who looked upon every pref
ty girl as his legitimate prey, and for
the first time since the trial began
Mrs. Dickinson, who has stood by her
husband, broke down and cried.
Walter McHenry for the defense, de-
clared he could stand on the court
house tower with a bushel of rocks
and hit fifty houses of i'll fame In the
shadow Of the temple Of justice, and
thought before the law tore the hus-
band Of Mrs. Dickinson and the father
OF her children from their fireside, 1t
could well exert itself In upholding the
honor Of women in that direction. The
usual arguments of the danger of cir
Icumstantial evidence and the reason-
30 u the
defense.
6rennan's Strong Plea.
In one, of the most able arguments
ever made before a jury in criminal
case in Polk county, Attorney Robert
O. Brennan yesterday afternoon point
ed out the links in the chain OF cir
cumstantial evidence which he de-
clared connect H. E. Dickinson with
the death Of Irene Blydenburgh.
Mr.. Brennan reviewed the important
evidence introduced during the trial.
He followed the movements of the III
fated Irene Blydenburgh from the time
she kissed her brother farewell In Ell
dora on September e. 1906, and came
to Des Moinens until she breathed her
last at the home Of Mrs. M. Hillias
two weeks later.
He showed by Dickinson's own test1-
mony that he took the girl to the COOK
home and procured room tor ner
there. He showed that Dickinson vls-
tied her several times and on the sec
ond Sunday took her to the office OF
DR.. e. E. Gadd. He showed that on the
next Wednesday and Thursday Miss
Blydenburgh went down town in re-
sponse to telephone calls from Dick
inson and came home both times sick
and reeling. He told of DR.. Gadd be-
ing called Thursday evening and
showed that he knew the girl before
he saw her at that time and recalled
the, testimony Of Mrs. Cook, who said
that on the same evening Dickinson
said to her: "The baby has come and
she will be all right in few days"
Mr.. Brennan then took up the cir
cumstances surrounding the removal
of the sick girl to the Hillias home and
the operation of Saturday. He passed
to the deathbed scene and eloquently
described the last moments of the dy-
ing girl, who Mrs. Hillias testified
said: 'T am not going to die DR..
Gadd will save me-" He declared that
the testimony Of Miss Metz, the nurse
who testified that the girl when dying
told her she alone was responsible for
her condition, could not be believed. In
this connection he pointed to MISS
Netz's own written statement to the
authorities in which she declared that
the girl made no statement regarding
her condition or the cause Of her ILL
ness.
Mr. Brennan took up the antece-
dent relations Of Dickinson and Miss
Blydenburgh. He declared 1T had been
proven conclusively that Dickinson
registered the girl as, his wife at the
Pilgrim hotel in MarshalltoWn. He
emphasized the fact that three wit
nesses swore they saw Dickinson and
the girl at the Hotel Monroe In Grin
nell on July and that one Of them
testified that he saw them in a room
together late at night.
Mr.. Brennan characterized as an
infamous attempt to defame the dead,
the endeavor of the defense to prove
that Miss Blydenburgh was suffering
from disease, and said the testimony
of Dr. Morse, who made the last post
mortem examination, proved conclu-
sively that there were no germs OF any
disease in the girls body.
He pointed out as preposterous
Dickinson's story as to how he first
met Miss Blydenburgh and insisted
that the first meeting took place at
the Marshalltown dance in the winter
of 1905.
Mr.. Brennan declared that the dying
moments of Irene Blydenburgh should
have been kept out of the case.
$50 far as the state was concerned,
it was enough to prove that the con-
spiracy to perform the criminal oper-
alton ended when the foetus was re-
moved at the Hillias home" he said.
The dying moments of the suffering
girl need not have been exposed to
the public gaze. l say the death bed
scene should be left out of the case
unless the victim under the sense OF