Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-04

came to eat his meal a1ter tne fanny
had dined. he was warned by Eliza
Fenning not to touch any of the dump
lings, for they were cold ana neavy'
and would do him no good" Mrs; Tur-
ner laid great stress on the fact ina .
the prisoner had asked to be allowed
to make these dumplings several times
before permission had been given ana
the dish prepared.
The summary of the evidence given
by the recorder who presided at the
trial was entirely against the prisoner
and contained. among others. the fol-
lowing glaring fallacy: Gentlemen, II
poison had been given, even to dog,
one would suppose that common hu-
manity would have prompted assist
ance; here is a case Of master and
in.stress DO n poisoned, and no assist
ance was offered
Poor Eliza Fenning was tried at a
time when prisoners accused of felony
could not testify in their own behalf,
nor have counsel address the jury on
the facts; so there was no one to point
out the fact that she herself had been
the one most seriously affected by the
poisoned food, and was entirely unable
for that reason to offer assistance TO
her master and mistress; none to turn
to the ridicule 1t deserves Mrs. Tur-
ner's testimony concerning the request
of the girl to be allowed to make the
dumplings, by observing that the
poison might have been administered
in any kind of food and that the ask
ing and granting of the permission
was an absurdly meaningless clrcum-
stance; none to explain that her warn
ing to the apprentice boy might easily
have been as innocent as 1T sounded,
for the dumping would, indeed. have
been most unwholesOme when cold.
In view of the disadvantage under
which a prisoner was necessarily plac-
ed, the conduct of the recorder In
emitting from his summing up every
reference to facts which might have
told in the girls favor. is justly
described as savage"
Eliza Fenning stanchly maintained
her innocence, but she could do no
more, and was convicted. Although no
one had died as the result of the crime
for which she was tried, an attempt to
poison, along with about sixty other
offenses, was at that time punishable
by death.
When sentence was passed, the girl was
carried swooning from the courtroom and
lodged in a cell at Newgate. The execu-
ton was set for July %, and on the rainy
morning of that day great crowd as
sembled to see the girlish figure. clad IN
a muslin dress and cap, emerge from the
dark passages of the prison and mount
the platform of death. Still Hrm IN ner
assertion of innocence. Eliza Fenning
died, in company with two notorious
criminals.
x
Public opinion was intensely in her
favor. Ten thousand people followed her
funeral, and the great men Of her day
and long afterward discussed her case
and expressed beliefs which were gener-
ally in her innocence. Curran and Phil
lips, the two fiery Irish operators, agreed
that her execution was an outrage. The
latter said of her:
poor Eliza Tanning! So young, so
fair. SO innocent, SO sacrificed! Cut down
even in the morning with all life in
brightness only in its dawn. Little did it
profit thee that city mourned over thy
early grave, and that the most eloquent
of men did justice to thy memory
In one of Charles Dickens letters, writ
ten fifty years later, there is the follow
ing reference to the case:
Il told you some time ago that I be-
ieved the arsenic in Eliza fleming 8
case to have been administered by the
apprentice. l never was more convinced