The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-29
MANY SOUTHERNfRS
 IN FAMOUS CASE Resulting From Death Of Mrs.
 Ocie Snead NEED HELP OF FRIENDS Mrs. Martin and Mrs. snead Are Soon To Be Placed On Trial For
 Causing Death Of
 Ocie Snead
NEED HELP OF FRIENDS

Columbia, S. C., December 2s.-(Spe- cial. )-The State publishes the following The approach of the trial in Newark, N. J., of Mrs. Carolina B. Martin and her sister, Mrs. Mary W. Snead, who are jointly accused of responsibility for the death of Mrs. Ocey Snead, daughter of Mrs Martin and daughter-in-law of Mrs. Snead, is a subject of unusual interest and concern in South Carolina, by reas- on of the prominence of the family Of the two ladies in the south and of their connections in South Carolina. The trial is expected to begin about January 9. From the time that the charges were brought last December interest In the case has been acute. but southern news papers have been sparing in discussing it, from considerations of delicacy to the family of the accused, and because the charges have been looked upon as so inn probable as net to demand a publicity that would cause possible suffering to those chiefly involved and their immedi- ate friends and relations.
 N1ndIcNINcness
 Some time ago The State alluded in an editorial article to the evidences of vindictiveness on the part of the New Jersey prosecuting authorities and the accumulation of these evidences has caused it to institute some inquiries about the case and the results are the basis of this review of a few of it's leading features. Especially difficult to under stand in the south have been the strenu- ousness of the efforts of the prosecution in spite of the absence of proof that any crime had been committed. It will be re- membered that the theory that Mrs. ocey Snead died a violent death rests only upon an intricate fabric of circumstan- tial evidence and 1t remains to be es- tablished that she was done to death be- fore suspicion of guilt may justly point to any person. The proceedings about to result in the trial of Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Snead seem to have been predicated upon an assumed certainty that mur- der was committed, and these proceedings indirectly have already brought about the death, in prison, of Miss Virginia o. Wardlaw their sister. Miss Wardlaw died last August, and there can be no doubt that her death was due to the inability of a sensitive, refined and pious gentle woman to endure the hardships to which she was subjected and more especially the cruel burden of suspicion under which she innocentiy suffered.
 Palpable Absurdities
 The conclusions of the State are made up from a personal knowledge of the family of the accused ladies. and from reading the accounts printed in New York and New Jersey newspa pers. In the days when the first reve ations about the case were published an extraordinary effort at sensational ism was apparent on the part of number of the New York newspapers, and the stories printed were palpably absurd to persons In the south ac quainted with the standing of the ac- cused, their family and it's history.
 While it is difficult to divine a mo- tive for the extreme vindict1veness of the prosecution, an explanation is sug gested by the testimony of MT. Fort, a lawyer employed by the defense, but not now connected with the case, in the proceedings in respect to the san ity of Mrs Martin before Judge Ten Eyck in Newark a month ago. MT. Fort, by the way a son of the governor of New Jersey, swore that he was told by officers of life insurance com panies that the companies would spend as much as $5o.000. or S60,000 to secure conviction. Numerous highly colored and exaggerated stories were printed about policies on the life of the dead girl. some of the newspa- pers having said that they amounted to upward of s5o.000. The facts are that there were only two policies of $l2000 each on the girls life, and these were written about seven years before her death. Upon these STOOD had been borrowed, and interest is due, so that the beneficiaries would have received perhaps s15,000 or s16,- 900 in the event of their payment. The policies have not been paid. Naturally. a fund of s50,00 to be expended by corporations of immense financial power would run prosecuting ma chinery at more than ordinary speed and energy. That great life insurance companies are exhausting every re- source to encourage prosecution Is cer- tain.
 Long Record of liberation
 investigation of the sanity of Mrs. An 4, T,x1rr nxfnlr Aaat dad