The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-13
GIRL SAYS SHE
HATES HIM NOW
tContinued from Page One.I
since she had lied against him. in
short, to contradict her original story.
Monday Afternoon.

Continued from Page One.l
since she had lied against him. in
short, to contradict her original story.
Monday Afternoon.
Alma Stephenson recited her story
before the jury in the first divi
sion of the Shawnee county district
court if she had learned it by heart
and in very much the same language
as her deposition taken before County
Attorney Atchison at the time of Van
Syckle'S arrest
She related the narrative of their
mutual infatuation beginning when
she was a child of IL or 8 and Van
Syckls a man of mature years who
already had a daughter nearly her
own age. Her own childish admira-
ton of the big man who took her rid
ing in his automobile, she said, was
met by advances from him in the form
of kisses and careSseS before she was
fourteen years of age. She declared
that a clandestine correspondence had
been continued for three or four years
before she finally left home, but there
priety between them until the gossip
of the little country town determined
her to permanently leave home.
There was a crowd in the court
room throughout the day and the
idlers listened with breathlesS interest
while the girl was on the witness stand
for nearly two hours under eXamina-
ton by Robert Carver, attorney for
the state, and cross-eXamination by
Owen Samuels of Emporia, counsel
for the defense. She was the second
witness called, T. Reid, u hotel keeper
of Usage City, being the first put on
the stand. Reid identified Van
SICKLE and the girl as the persons who
had registered at his hotel on Janu-
airy 20. A page from his hotel regis
ter showed the names of L. L. Wilson
and Janet Wilson written, he said,
by Van SICKLE. AT Usage City, &C
resented the girl to be his niece,
and had paid for a weeks board and
room for her there, leaving immedi-
ately after engaging a room and not
returning until week later. He
stopped then only a few hours, ac-
cording to the hotel proprietor, but
came back a week later and the couple
left together. The girl had paid for
the second weeks lodging.
She Was Discouraged.
This. according to Alma Stephen
sons story was the beginning of her
excursion with Mayor Van SICKLE. She
said that ten days, prior to going to
Usage City she had left home to work
at Madison, Kan, few miles from
Olpe. 1t was while there that word
came to her that gossip was circulat-
ing in her nome town linking her
name with that of her old friend.
Il was blue and discouraged" said
she yesterday. and / quit my place
ut Madison. I got on a train to go
home. and then 1 decided to go on to
Emporia, and paid my fare to con-
ductor from Olpe on. When the train
stopped at Olpe Mr.. Van SICKLE was |
at the depot and saw me. | told him |
I was going 10 Emporia. He told me |
that he would meet me the next day |
at the National hotel. L met him at
the train the next morning. He
bought my ticket and we went right |
on to Usage City
MI
Usage City and the length of her stay |
there Tailed with that of the hotel |
keeper. She said that on their first |
day in Usage that Van SICKLE had re- |
plenished her wardrobe. buying her |
several dresses and pretty coat. She |
exhibited the coat she wore in the |
court room as the gift of her lover. |
Van SICKLE had fastened back home, |
she said, returning to visit her once |
before their final departure, and writ
ing to her daily while she waited pa
Iiently for him a the hotel.
Promise of Marriage.
His letters, she said, as we'll as his |
when they were together !
were full of assurances of his love as /
we'll as promises that he would marry !
her as soon as he could obtain his |
freedom.
He said he thought we could get
married by next fall and he always
told me that his wife did not care for |
him. said she.
With startling frankness. the girl told |
her story of their relations in Usage |
City rs we'll as at Ottawa, where they |
next went, and at Kansas City, where
they passed one night before coming |
to Topeka early in March.
During the almost two months be- |
tween the time she went to Usage City /
and the date of her discovery in To-
peka by County Attorney Lon Nc
Carthy of Emporia. on March 1 3, Alma |
stephenson said that she had seen the |!
Olpe mayor but perhaps a half dozen |
times. He had visited her on flying /
trips from his home. taking her from |
place to place and leaving her with |
money for her expenses and keeping
up continuous correspondence. At I
Ottawa and subsequently they had al /
ways passed man and wife and she |
received his letters addressed to her
as Mrs. L. l. Wilson. None of these
letters has ever fallen into the pos
session of the states attorneys save |
one or two which came to Topeka
He always asked me for his letters |
and took them away with him." said |
she, land the letters I got before |
lett home when we passed notes back |
ND