The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-25
GOES TO The JURY
VOllstedt Assault Trial Has a
Sensational Finish.
Capt. Waters Speech in Defense
of Woman Startling.
HE ARRAIGNS THE MAN
BIames Daniels for Condition of
the Woman.
County Attorney Schenck Re-
plies in Bitter Speech.

| Tense and County Attorney John j.
! Schenck for the state, both regarded as
great trial lawyers, engaged in fierce
war of argument embittered by per-
sonaities. Mr.. Schenck, with his clear
cut logical statements, the courts in
structiOns and the admitted shooting of
Conductor Lee Daniels. left the jury
| with the cold light Of attempted muir
der Iige a spotlight on the woman's
face. Captain Waters, with his fire
of eloquence pleading the unbalanced
condition of the girls mind, her physi-
| cal weakness and moral helplessness set
| up a magnificent Scorn for the cold
| blooded moral reprobate,'' Daniels,
who sought only her ruin and the de-
| graduation of her home. Excitedly he
pleaded with the jurors to save her
from the walls Of the penitentiary and
send her to the care of medical atten-
! ton at the asylum.
The court room and the gallery were
crowded with the curious, attracted
particularly today for the final contest
| between Waters and Schenck. Never
| large a crowd in the court room,' said
| Bailiff Anderson who has watched every
trial
The argument of the case was opened
by w. E. Atchison, assistant to Mr..
| Schenck. He recited the history of the
case for the jury and wove together the
threads of evidence upon which the
state would rest for conviction. He
called attention to the courts instruc-
tons and told them that they need look
no further than to the fact that the
evidence proved Mrs. Mary Vollstedt
knew right from wrong in shooting
Daniels. He covered the case briefly
and left it open for the conclusion to
be made by John Schenck.
Captain Waters Address.
Captain ]. G. Waters in taking up his
defense of insanity first attacked the
conduct of Lee Daniels, the street car
conductor whom his client shot in a
fit of love sickness.
when Daniels received these love
missives from this little girl, why
want to ask you jurors did he not show
them to his motorman, Kinney. He has
| testified here that Kinney was his chum
and companion. Why, when he receiV-
| ed these letters from a strange woman,
| did he not go to his chum and tell him
| of that strange occurrence. That would
| have been the natural thing for a man
to do. But why did he keep it a Sc
cret? I will tell you why. He didn't
want Kinney to get a spoon and dip
into his baked beans. That's the rea-
| son.
Here is one of those designing men,
a moral reprobate whose prey is weak
women and the young girls They
! pounce upon the unprotected and the
| weak and drag them into ruin. This
| little girl was as soft as putty in the
| hands of this designing man. 1t is not
a husbands power to protect unless an
, honest man is on the other end. An
| honest man in Daniels place would
| have gone at once to the husband with
his knowledge of love of that mans
wife. Instead he sought to despoil the
sanctity Of that home and bring ruin
! to that wife, a supplemented little girl
who suffered the delusion that her hus-
! band was inattentive to her.
| Bitterly Arratgns Daniels.
L. ;oIe IL
of the deepest dye when for the first
| time he bent over this little girl and
called her sweetheart He should
have been jerked off his car right then
and, if the state of Kansas had the
law, been punished there. Every man
who has a weakling child or a daugh-
ter should have protection from that
sort of scoundrel. If such men were
the rule, no good looking girl would
be safe to escape from the asylum out
here and come down town. Her fate
would be the embrace of a big, husky
man like Daniels with the brute domi-
nant.
THE perfection of humanity is the
sound mind and the sound body COM
bined. When one is unsound then the
other is affected. The ravages of ty-
phoid fever often paralyze. If it is
severe it leaves its victim speeches
or stops locomotion. If worse, it at
tacks the mind and checks the reason
|
the mental capacity. That is just what
was done in the case of Mary Voll-
stedt.
"She became morose, sullen, sought
solitude and became addicted to thai
habit which for nine years has made
her the downcast, melancholy and i'm
becilic woman you see here today
There was not mind and fibre enough
there to resist anything on earth
Daniels saw the condition of the pool
little GIRL she hiQ
you saw her sit here through the
rapid fire of Mr.. Schenck as he piled
her with questions from which any
woman would shrink and fee If posi-
tempted killing of a man and if found
guilty would be locked behind stone
wall for a period of years. Did she
know what was going on? Her liz
never quivered in an answer, her eye
never wavered and her lids never
tremb1ed. Her cheek was never man
tied with a sign of blood or the sense
of modesty. There is not a Juror or E
spectator who could discern the
slightest difference in her demeanor
placid as a summer lake famed by E
southern breeze.
Or. Lindsay told you here of dis
closures made to him and two other
doctors which could not have beer
wrung from any woman on earth. She
told it all to them without the slight.
est tremble of lip or lowering of gaze
There was no trepidation in any mo-
ment of her Incarceration. Can Johr
Schenck say because she knew how Il
make a bed that she was in full pos
session of her mind and knew thC
quality of her every act?
''AIr. Schenck would send her behind
bars and CRATES where grim gendarmei
and wardenS kept her secure, where Nc
doctor or friends could see her, where
no Samaritan could take care of hel
and return her to noble womanhood
What would be her condition should
she live through her term, when sht
was returned to the world? Plac,
against that the treatm ent and car,
she would receive at the hospital 70