The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-11-17
STE|NHE|L'S
ACQu|7TAL IS
NO SOLUTION
Has Not Cleared up the Mys-
terry Which Surrounded =.
the Murders
COURT TRIMMED TO SHIELD
OFFICIALS FROM SCANDAL

fuDllc Believes the Government Has
Wilfully Suppressed the Truth and
and That It Connived at the Per.
jury of Leading Witnesses.
Paris, Nov. 1.-THE verdict of
acquittal of Nine. Steinheil has not
cleared up the mystery of the Stein
he'll murders. This is the general
talk in the cafes and On the boule-
wards since the jury rendered it's ver-
dict on last Saturday evening.
The atmosphere of the trial from
first to last has been one of doubt.
confusion, and contradiction. The
words and actions of the Judge and
prosecuting officer reflected these in
fiuences-wholly consistent. indeed,
with the history of the entire case.
The charge is even made now that
the machinery. of justice in France is
no longer to be trusted and that it's
disorganization and weakness are la
mentally patent. OF course, that is
the extreme opinion with certain
degree of animus behind it. Certain
ly one of two things must explain the
extraordinary history of this case;
either shocking incompetence on the
part of the judicial authorities or cor
ruption in the highest places.
Case Of Too Many CIews.
To the unscphisticated it might ap-
pear that justice, ever since that ter
rible morning of May 21, 1908, when
the double tragedy in the Impasse
Ronsin was discovered. had been
merely groping without intelligent di-
rection for any semblance of q clew
that might prove theories which have
been advanced day by day by the
newspapers. anonymous letter writer's,
and others; but, as matter of fact,
clews, such as they were, have been
no less numerous than theories.
The charge that the government
has either persistently neglected
some Of the most promising clues or
deliberately smothered them by dint
of falsely directed inquiries does not
down. The weight of public belief is
strongly on the side of the willful
suppression of the truth, whatever the
form that suppression may have TAX
en-. Yet even If this be admitted, 1t is
not at all clear what would be the
full scope of the consequence il the
truth were not suppressed.
Rum0rs Not Baseless.
What more, the public is asking,
can be told of the story of Felix Faure
than is already known? The number
of persons who really thing that the
president of the republic was mur-
deEed is not very large. What else
Se,k Has han k<
is something is very nearly certain.
AS to its gravity that is another thing.
President de Valles' repeated re-
mark to Nine Steinheil when there
seemed to be some question of her
saying all that was in her thought,
"Oh, go as far as you like" is not
taken at its face value by any one.
In other words, it is generally receiv-
ed as piece of sheer bluff. There was
evidently some kind of an understand
ing that Nine. Steinheil would not go
very far on that particular path.
Implied Threat Understood.
One day, however, she deemed it
necessary to inform the chief Judge
that up to that moment she had been
very discreet in all that she had said.
That did not sound very we'll to the
hundreds Of attorneys assembled in
the court, nor did the judges feeble
rebuke sound any better in the cir
cumstances. Nine. Steinheil's remark
had given the implied quality of a
threat. 1t meant that she might not
continue to be SO discreet.
The most remarkable features of
the second week of the trial have
been not alone the contradictions of
the witnesses one of another, but their
selfcontradictions. These latter chief
ly exist in the testimony given months
ago before the commissaries of police
or the judges d'instruction and in that
given to the court.
1t is utterly impossible to account
for 1.-THE Of these self-contradic-
tions as due to lapses of memory
Some common influence must have
been at work.
Material Facts COntradicted.
Many of the contradictions between
witnesses relate to facts of very great
Significance, such as the expressed in
tenticn of Mariette Wolf, Nine. Stein
heil's servant, to commite suicide, and
her widespread conversation with her
mistress, in which one of them said,
II shall deny everything"
Both Mariette Wolf and Nine Stein
he'll exhibited an astonishing loss of
memory on many points Of great i'm
portance as likely to affect the dispo-
sition of the jury. Mariette Wolf ex-
celled in q point-blank denial of the
recollection, however, while her mis-
tress was stronger in evasion. Yet
this evasion was in no sense clever,
"a.
about something else. Whenever the
Judge questioned her too closely. she
even injected q strong flavor of impu-
dence into it.
Justice; cannot be said to have been
more steadfast than it's witnesses.
5hroughout the eighteen months