The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-05-09
Get Right With God
And Noise Won't Dis
turb You" Mrs. Aitken
From Saturdays Daily.

| From Saturdays Daily.
/ Mrs. Clara Aitken began her hear
| ing in the municipal court yesterday
afternoon in the same manner in
which she opened court at her ar
fragment two hours before, by
singing the hymn, Jesus, Lover of
My Soul" The judge kindly per-
mitted her to finish her song before
he called the court to order and then
the trial commenced Mrs. Aitken
had no counsel, and depended, as
she said, upon God as her only
councillor, and trusted in Him to
show her the way to proceed. All
through the trial she maintained a
devoutly austere and serene counte-
nance and punctuated the testimony
of the witnesses in the manner of
the old darky camp meetings, by
expressions such as Praise the
Lord" amen" GLORY Hallelujah,' -
and others. Her demeanor suggest
ed that she had no comprehension
of anything material and was in
body and soul entirely spiritual. She
interrupted testimony several times,
and also the explanations of the case
! by the Judge. In her testimony she
practically admitted the charge
against her in that she had been
making loud noise, but in the face
of the admission that she was talk
| ing as loud as God would allow her,
she maintained that she was not dis
turbing the peace This statement
she explained by saying that if all
people were right with God" her
religious utterances would not dis.
turb them.
Hotel Guests Were Disturbed.
! H. F. Hildenbrand proprietor of
the Saulpaugh hotel, was the first
witness called by the plaintiff and
he testified that on Wednesday even
ing he had seen and heard Mrs. Ait
kin shouting, singing, talking and
hallooing on the street corner In
front of the Saulpaugh and that she
had been there until nearly ten
O'Clock. He said that several of his
guests had called the hotel office on
the telephone and asked how long
they were to be kept awake by the
noise on the corner. When he came
to the police station to make a com.
plant about the unseemly disturb
.ance, he claimed that her voice was
plainly audible in the police station
"a block away. In compliance with
his request, Night Sergeant Thomas
Foley had sent Officer Alfred John
son to ask Mrs. Aitken to desist.
Officer Johnson testified that he
had first noticed the disturbance
when two blocks away, and that
when he went to talk with her she
did not notice him but knelt in
prayer. He said that he had gone
/ to her a second time and tried to
call her attention by tapping her Oh
the shoulder, but still she did not
listen. He then left her.
j. E. Reynolds, newspaper man
was called to the stand. He related
that on Wednesday night he heard
Mrs. Aitken talking when more thar
a block away from her. He was
attracted to the corner of Front an,
Main streets by her loud talking.
| did you hear her sing?" asked
City Attorney Schaub
"Yes, Sir"
| Was that loud, too?''
Kind of soothing like" replied
he witness, and Tony Thompson
The city hall janitor smiled.
Frank Franciscus, city editor o.
The Daily Review, testified that he
had heard Mrs. Aitken on the night
in question. and that he judged that
the noise she was making was un.
seemly and that it tended to disturb
the peace of the city. He claimed
that. while reporting a meeting in
the city hall block away, her ex,
postulations were plainly audible.
All testified that the crowd gath
cred around Mrs. Aitken had ten.
lency to block traffic on that cor
uer.
| Was Her Own Attorney.
| Mrs. Aitken acted as her own
| COUNSEL and testified in her own be
half She denied that her sermon
had anything boisterous about it an.
said that she was merely calling
upon the people to accept God and
be cleansed of their sins as the
Bible had instructed her. She sale
that she had talked as loud as she
could, because God had given her 2
powerful voice for this purpose
When asked why she held thes1
| meetings ON the street she said that
she was called by God when little
child to preach Christ, and that shf
vent out upon the street and did SC
whenever God called her. She pro
fessed to belong to a church know,
rs the church of the First Born, bu
| hat she had been converted to it's
creed by the literature sent to her
| She did not know where the head
1uarters of the church were, nor
where the paper she had read was
published. She maintained stoutly
that this church had no creed but
the Bible and that it's methods were
entirely in keeping with the Scrip
lures. Her testimony was full of Bi.
Bile quotations and she substantiate,
statements with passages from the
Bible To preach on the street. she
claimed was exactly what Cod caIlad