New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-25
Edith St. Clair Says
AffdaVitS to Jerome
Were False.
ACCUSATIONS MADE
TO GET STAGE WORK
Two Doctors Attend Woman as
, She Asserts Truth of Charges
Against Granger.

The hearing before Referee George
C. Holt on the charges OF unprofes-
sional conduct against Max ID. Steuer
took a sensational turn yesterday,
when Edith St. Clair, the actress, whose
repudiation Of her testimony at the
trial of her case against Abraham l.:
ErlanRer, of the theatrical firm OF
Klaw & Erlanger, formed the basis OF
q charge of subornation OF perjury
against Steuer, appeared as witness
and swore that she had told the truth
at the trial, and that her subsequent
affidavits admitting perjury and accus-
ing her counsel (Steuer) with having
COACHED" her in her testimony were
all false.
Miss St. Clair made q dramatic APP
pearance at the hearing. She was
brought to the Woolworth Building,
where the hearings are being held IN
Judge Hollis office, in q private amDu-
lance, and taken away in the same We.
hicle after the hearing in state OF
nervous collapse. Two physicisns-Dr.
Austin Flint, the alienist, who was APP
pointed by the referee to attend MISS
st. Clair, and her own physician, Or.
Iouis Lichtschein, Of 1245 Madison ay.
-boyered over her chair while she was
testifying. 1t was said they had IRE,
ouentIv To offer her restoratives and
in other ways quiet her hysterical out
bursts.
The hearings are held in secret. by
order of the referee, but some OF the
circumstances were told atterWaro.
The turn in the actresses testimony
came as a surprise to both SIDES ~
practically disposes of the most serl-
Gus charge against Steuer. The ac-
cused lawyer conducted the cross-ex-
animation of the witness. There are
however, other specific charges OF I'M
professional conduct against him.
William Travers Jerome, former DIS
trict Attorney, who is counsel tor MT
Erlanger, and to whom Miss st. Clair
made the afidavits last June repudi-
ating her testimony at the Granger
trial, was conducting the direct eX-
animation of the witness when she
contradicted herself for the second
time. While surprised at her change
Of attitude, Mr.. Jerome declared that
she had given him a "clean bill OF
health" relative to obtaining the al
fidavits, as we'll as she had Steuer con-
corning his alleged coaching oil ner
as a witness at the trial.
al acted in absolutely good laltn IN
taking Miss St. Clair's afidavits last
summer" said Mr.. Jerome, land all
the circumstances surrounding that IN
,cident were fully explained by NE to
the court in affidavit FORM"
Mr.. Jerome said that he had been
very careful at that time to investl-
gate the circumstances and motive OF
her coming TO him with her story, and
had assured himself that no one IN
the firm Of Klaw & Erlanger had tried
to induce her to make the afidavits.
Miss St. Clair was on the witness
stand during both sessions yesterday.
Early in her examination she unhesi-
tatingly testified that all she had told
Mr.. Jerome, and which was incorpo-
rated in her affidavits, had been false.
and that her testimony at the trial in
regard 10 her relations with Erlanger
and the life contract for SIS week
for support, which he had made with
her, and which he agreed to settle for
$4,000, in ten annual payments Of
$500 vas absolutely true. She de-
clared that Mr.. Steuer had always
acted in good faith with her, as well
as Mr.. Jerome.
She testified that she had made the
afidavits after the trial because she
feared that she would never again be
able to obtain employment on the
stage. She also told Of rebuffs by
theatrical agents.