Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1913-04-25

TOR the Comp anton8nip OF rsI oSTV-
anita.
- ALL RIVER, MASS. = Twenty
q years ago Lizzie Borden, accused
of the murder of her father and
her stepmother, stood up In the
court room at New Bedford and heard
jury of her peers pronounce the YER
dict OF acquittal-heard them declare
to all the world that she was mot
guilty" of two of the most brutal and
atrocious murders that even shocked
the country
lives recluse, as damned by public
opinion and as ostracized by former
friends and enemies alike as IL that
same jury had pronounced the one
word Guilty"
Lizzie Borden still lives In Fall
River, but as far as Fall River Is
concerned, Lizzie Borden is an out
cast an Ishmael, social pariah. Her
name liz uttered with contempt. and
ever her friends and relatives who
comforted her during the months of
her Imprisonment and througout the
ordeal of her trial have long since
ceased their visits Today her nearest
neighbors pass her by without nod
or sign of recognition, writes Ger
trude Stevenson in the Boston Her
aid
Twelve jurymen found Lizzie Bor-
den guiltless. Nevertheless, she has
been punished and prosecuted as no
other innocent woman In history. She
has lived to know the tragedy of a
verdict of acQuittal. She has come
to realize that Andrew j. Jennings,
her counsel and friend, was true
prophet when, in addressing Judge
Blaisdell at her preliminary trial he
declared:
Don't, your honor, don't put the
stigma of guilt upon this woman,
reared as she has been and with a
cast character beyond reproach. Don't
let 1t go out in the world as the de-
cision of a just Judge that she Is
probably guilty"
Murder still unavenged.
| After 20 years, when the deaths Of
| Andrew J.. Borden and hts wife are
still unayenged-when the double
| tragedy still heads the list OF New
Englapd's unsolved murder mysteries
with Lizzie Borden banished from
society. summed by all who we're once
near and dear to her. the words Of
Andrew J. Jennings may well be re-
membered as an example OF mastery
and farsighted prophecy.
After 90 years, Lizzie Borden lives
as shut OF from the world as IL she
were behind prison bars-condemned
to solitude by barriers stronger than
any prison wall could be-less tangi-
BILE but hundred, times more effec-
tive than any bars OF iron--the silent,
| tnexorable censure of her fellow men
and women,
This woman. who for two decades
has maintained the silence of q
! Sphinx, who has never asked for
mercy. never pleaded to be under
stood, never by any word or sign ex-
pressed indignation at the treatment
accorded her by the people of Fall
River. lives in the great silent home
she purchased with her share of her
murdered fathers half million, know
ing no human companionship save
that which she can hire-no friend
ships except those OF occasional
| strangers who turn cold shoulder
upon her advances when they find
| that she is the Lizzie Borden once
tried for murder-no affection save
that Of the dumb beasts with which
she has surrounded herself now that
human attachments are denied her.
When Lizzie Borden was acquitted
It was commonly believed that she
would soon shake the dust of Fall
River from her feet. and that under
an assumed name she would try to
live down the accusation that had
been made against her-that in new
places and among new people she
would attempt to find new interests
and new pleasures.
Bought House In Home City.
But Lizzie Borden apparently never
contemplated such procedure AS
soon as the affairs of her fathers
estate were adjusted, she proceeded
to purchase handsome mansion In
the exclusive hill section" of Fall
River-the very neighborhood she
had long and futilely tried to induce
her father to enter.
To all intents and purposes the
woman planned to live among her
friends and acquaintances, just as she
had always lived, continuing to at
tend the same fashionable Congrega-
tional church. entertaining and being
entertained. only now she had the adj
ded advantage Of several hundred
thousands Of dollars In her own right.
She had her horses and carriages, the
beautiful clothes she had always