Delaware City press. (Delaware City, Del.) 1913-19??, 1913-04-25

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 ever shocked
the country.
Today that same Lizzie Borden
lives a regluse, as damned by public
opinion and as ostraclzed by former
friends and enemies alike as II 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 is 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 Dor
den guiltless. Nevertheless, she has
been punished and prosecuted as no
I 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 pus the
stigma of guilt upon this woman,
reared as she has been and with a
past character beyond reproach. Don't
let it 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 oil
Andrew j. Borden and his wife are
still unavenged-when the double
tragedy still heads the list of New
England's unsolved murder mysteries
with Lizzie Borden banished from
society Stunned by all who were once
near and dear to her, the words OF
Andrew ]. Jennings may well be re
membered as an example of mastery
and farsighted prophecy.
After 20 years, Lizzie Borden lives
as shut off from the world as If she
were behind prison bars-condemned
to solitude by barriers stronger thar
any prison wall could be-less tangi
BILE but hundred times more effec
tive than any bars of iron-the silent
inexorablN censure of her fellow meI
and women.
This woman, who for two decades
has maintained the silence OF 8
Sphinx, who has never. asked fol
mercy, never pleaded to be under
, stood, never by any word or sign ex
pressed indignation at the treatmen
accorded her by the people of Fal
River, lives in the great silent hom'
, she purchased with her share of he
! murdered fathers half million, know
ing no human companionship saw
2 that which she can hire-no friend
{ ships except those of occaslona
strangers who turn cold shoulde
upon her advances when they fin
I that she is the Lizzie Borden ono
V tried for murder-no affection saw
that of the dumb beasts with whic
she has surrounded herself now tina
o human attachments are denied her.
= When Lizzie Borden was acquitte
v it was commonly believed that sh
would soon shake the dust of Fa
River from her feet and that undo
an assumed name she would try
live down the accusation that ha
y been made against her-that in ne
If places and among new people 81
would attempt to find new interes
and new pleasures.
10 Bought House in Home City.
But Lizzie Borden apparently new
1t contemplated such a procedure.
la soon as the affairs of her father
estate were adjusted, she proceed,
II to purchase handsome mansion
h. the exclusive hill section" of Fl
lv Riyer-the very neighborhood 8
= had long and futilely tried to indu
nc her father to enter.
DIS To all intents and purposes t
ng woman planned to live among b
. friends and acquaintance, just as s
er had always lived. continuing to
tend the same fashionable CongreI
To- tional church, entertaining and bel
entertained. only now she had the
re ded advantage of several hundI
le- thousands of dollars in her own rig
She had her horses and carriages, I
beautiful clothes she had alwf
longed for and which the thrift of !
ed father and his second wife had I
viously denied her. Apparently, as
, from the shadow of the tragic dea
-eu of her father and stepmother o
'ho her life, everything that heart
nd mind could desire was Lizzie Z
: den's.
nu It was while revealing in the lux