The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-10-08

Koten, which will soon be called for |
trial. Within month, it is expected,
the work of securing jury will be
commenced. That it will probably be
a most difficult task is admitted by all |
the attorneys interested in the case.
There is no shadow of doubt that
Sarah Koten, the young Russian nurse
shot and killed DR.. Samuel Auspitz, on
June last-shot him down as she
would a mad dog, which she declares
he was. And the crime was deliberate
and premeditatot d
For hours Sarah Koten sat patiently
in doorway, awaiting the arrival of
the man whom she declares had ruined
her life, with revolver in her hand
and murder in her heart. When an
officer arrived after the tragedy which
ended the life of DR.. Auspitz the girl
stood defiantly over her victim and
declared: 81 killed him. I am ready
to pay the price" If she was insane,
it was a cool and deliberate sort of
madness.
The facts of the killing of DR.. Au-
! spitz and the circumstances surround.
/ ing his death are clear, and yet it
will probably be impossible to secure
jury that WI. Idas tl'a six n"r' Of
death upon the slayer. In a cell of
the grim prison at Blackwell's Island
the stork came recently to Sarah Kot-
en- and left a baby boy, and the tiny
hands of the infant have built up a
barrier OF public sentiment that towers
insurmountably between the mother
and the electric chair. And despite
the fact that her child is fatherless,
the illegitimate offspring of her en-
forced association with Dr. Auspitz.
the young Russian girl loves it with
all the passionate tendencies of her
nature and is now as anxious to live
as few months ago she was anxious
to die. Never before has the gift OF
life seemed so precious, so intensely
beautiful; never has she reached so
passionately for it. And all because
her child has been born. The baby
which she thought would prove the
browning disgrace of her experience
has. with one touch OF its feeble hand,
performed the miracle that has turned
the wretched girl into a happy woman,
proud and eager to live.
Instead of finding herself with her
baby an outcast on the face of the
earth she has found friends whose
hearts are wrung with sympathy for
her, friends who assure her Of 'he!"
protection and aid through life. Mrs.
Rose Pastor Stokes heads the list Of
those who are eager to aid the young
mother and her child, and the Council
of Jewish Women, who have a home
on Staten Island, promise to provide
protection and care for Sarah for the
rest of her life if she is acquitted.
The birth of Sarah Kotens baby fur
nishes a strong note of interest in her
coming trial, wni - VIII probably be-
gin early in November. The child will
undoubtedly play most important
part in the trial of its mother for the
killing of DR.. Auspitz. 1t will be the
basis of the defense as justifying the
frenzied girl for taking vengeance up
on the physician whom she accuses
of having ruined her life.
Immediately after she had killed Dr.
Auspitz the girl made the remarkable
| statements: 1T was not I who killed
him. He killed himself"
There was no one in all the world
to help me, TO defend mel had to de-.
| fend myself. The courts would not
listen to me; the man who wronged
me would not help me; it seemed that
God himself had forsaken me. There
vas nothing for me to do but vindi-
cate myself"
/ Sarah Koten killed DR.. Auspitz in
the hallway of No. 131 West One Hun
dred and Thirty-fifth street after wait
ing for more than twelve hours in the
hallway across the street watching
for him. She had decoyed him by a
fs1e 10. H. H.