Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1914-12-27

u Nv 'lA lllt lhAt VI lllt hbAtN NllNlllr
selves, because no negro would write
did this he would have said done
tlis'-he would have written mig
ger" The old-time, uneducatel,
ante-bollum negro was often given
70 saying II done it," and among the
first inaccuracies Of speech to he cor
reCted by teachers in the south is
this use of done" The same is true
OF negro" The negro doesn't like the
word niger But we don't have to
rely ON theories Conley in his testi-
mony on the trial used the word did"
IN the same sense nearly hundred
times For instance, u did az he
said" They would keep at me until
| did" "He walked faster than | did,
and when l saw mot seem he was
walking faster than ] did then !
walked faster too" But clearer
proof is at hand in the several love"
, letters Conley wrote TO his COlored
sweetheart with whom he became aC-
quainted while both We're in Jail. In
these letters the words did" and me
gro" occur frequently, and these let
ters are frightfully obscene.
There is another strong piece of ev-
dence inherent in the notes them
selves. Conley makes Mary Phagan
say that the long tall, sleam, black
negro" would "play'-that is, make
II appear-''like the night witch did
IT," but that he did It buy his slef."
Again, turn TO Conley's expressions on
the witness stand: 1T seemed like he
was too far back" you just come |
back to work Monday like you have /
never known anything Going like /
they were coming down the steps"
The term might witch" has been used |
by negroes to designate an imaginary |
evil spirit that crawls through key |
holes and suffocates little children or /
Turks in dark places at night and way I
lays grOwn-ups. 1t Is inconceivable |
that Frank, Cornell graduate and a |
northern man, unused all his life to as
sociation with negroes until his ad-
vent in Atlanta, and then only In the |
remotest business association, would /
know Of this negro superstition con |
cerning the might witch" The whole |
idea Of the writing of the notes is so /
diotic that no white man of intelli- 4,
gence, much less a Cornell graduate, /
would have conceived 1t. He could /
not have conceived either the |
language, the ideas or the purpose Of |
the notes.
Conley's Negro Logic.
Would Frank not know that these |
notes in Conleys handwriting would |
llIlIlthlhAtly ldSAtl SUSPICION on AOU- :
ley, and that Conley, TO protect him
self, would Immediately expose
Frank? The fact that Conley claimed !
before the trial that he wrote one note .
and Frank the other, shows that In his |
dense ignorance he did not know that /
handwriting is individual and would /
reveal the author; and that argues
that when he left the notes alongside
the body his cunning deceived him.
The notes repeat three times the
words "a long, tall. black negro"
Conley, on the witness stand, described 1
a stout black negro" behind the bar.
He described n woman as "a tall,
hoavy-built lady" He claimed Frank
had good long, wide piece OF cord
in his hands" He described another
as "a little bitta chunky man wears
big eyeglasses" Another he describes
as "a tall. slim-built. heavy man"
What white man would conceive
the preposterous idea that a girl in
her dying agony could or would write?
What white man would believe that
such pretense would deceive anybody
Of intelligence? The purpose of the
notes, no matter who wrote them, was
to divert suspicion, which would be
Immediately defeated by the hand
writing Itself, which was not Mary
Phagans, and by tracing the author
ship. Frank would have known that
instantly, but Conley was capable OF
no such logic. He placed the pencil
and the notes and the pad by the body
to make people believe Mary Phagan
had written the notes in the cellar He
thought that the police would recog-
nize II as negro's crime, and so he
makes the notes describe a negro. He
know that the crime occurred in the
basement, and so he picks on the man
who was employed down there. He
never dreamed of the storm OF preju-
dice that would swirl around Frank
and make II so easy for him to say
and TO be believed, that Frank had
dictated the notes.
Tell-1'ale Cndcrs.
The state contended that Frank
murdered Mary Phagan on the sec
ond floor Of the pencil factory. There
was found four cOrpuscles of blood"
"a mere iota-on the second floor.
The girl was brutally handled and
bled freely. not only from the wound
in her head, but from other parts Of
her body Her physical condition
when found is utterly inconsistent