The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-06-10
A Gentleman from The North.
Whose Home is i'm CHICAGO.
Writes About the Frank
Case.

Case.
n letter to the editor of The Jeffersonian
Mr. Paul Clendening, who was, for many
years, newspaper man, writes that he wa,
called from his Chicago home into the South
by the death of a relative, three weeks ago
and that he finds himself in Atlanta again
while Leo Frank, after having been sentenced
to death four times, is still fighting off tn,
penalty.
Mr.. Clendening was in Atlanta when Mary
Phagan was murdered, and he attended tn,
trial of Leo Frank; therefore, his lettel
will be peculiarly interesting in view of tn,
fact that Atlanta was invaded a few day.
ago by a Pullman Palace Car delegation
which came all the way from Illinois to tel
the people of Georgia how the law shall b.
administered, when a little Georgia girl i
assaulted and murdered.
Three nights ago I heard the old-time
neighbors Of Mary Phagan protest in big
mass-meeting against the Communication of
the death sentence of Leo NJ Frank for the
murder OF his pretty employee in his own
factory.
1t was quiet meeting. There was no ex-
element but in a dignifed manner each man
who spoke urged-not the violation of law
but the enforcement of the law, as it re-
live in the North, but know 1nore about
the Frank case, probably, than do all tho
several millions of my neighbors there who
have asked the Governor of Georgia to COM
mute his sentence. I attended the trial in
Atlanta two years ago. I saw the jury i'm
pannelled, and heard practically all of the
important testimony in the case.
An Illinois newspaper man for two de-
cades, l have been engaged in reviewing sit
uations, analyzng conditions, studying, edi-
torally various phases of human conduct
applied my editorial sense to study of the
Frank case. I analysed the testimony, I
weighed the apparent credibility of wit
nesses, and when the story was in l pro-
nounced the prisoner guilty beyond reason
sonable doubt.
A sad errand brought me. back to Dixie a
few days ago. Memorial Day found me in
the pretty little city Of Marietta, Ga, where
Mary Phagan lived before she changed her
home to Atlanta.
In that historic town, which nestles at the
foot of Kennesaw mountain, 10000 Union
soldiers are buried in beautiful National
cemetery lettering veterans of nearby
Grand Army posts were there to again pay
tributes to the glorious dead and it was
my privilege to strew daisies on the graves
of hundreds of those men of the Blue VINO
knew "But to do and de- in Freedoms
cause But on each tombstone [ could read
story. And it was of the tragedy OF war.
Then visited another cemetery and stood
by the tomb of Mary Phagan. And on her
headstone that was raised by the gifts of
sympathetic, saddened townsfolk l read, in
letters of blood it seemed, the story of an
awful tragedy of peace!
I placed white rose upon her grave and
turned away.
I never saw Mary Phagan; she was artless
and beautiful, the neighbors say But | have
seen her mother, who looks like Mary's pict-
ure only a little older I her on the
witness stand, a pathetic figure, as she told
of her daughters farewell word when she
left home that Hateful day to get her wage
envelope at the factory Of which Frank was
superintendent.
And that, too, a Memorial Day-that
day of Mary's tragedy. It was April 26, a hol-
iday in this great city of the Southland for
Southern veterans anG Southern sons and
daughters Of the who wore the Grey
were placing love-wreaths on 5000 Con-