The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-17
MOTHER ON STAND.
Mrs. Lambert Calm Under
Questioning of Lawyers.
Marion Was Always Happy,
Said the Witness.
NEVER READ ORPET LETTERS
Mother Knew Daughter COrre-
sponded With the Student.
Girls High School Class Sends
Graduation Flowers.
ny DOROTHY DIX.

Waukegan, ILL.,, June 17.-Thursday
night was graduation night down at
Deerfield high school at Highland
Park, and if Marion Lambert had lived
she would have been one of the bevy
of pretty girls in white, carrying big
punches of white carnations. tied with
bows of gauzy white ribbon. who grad
uated.
Poor little Marion is dead. but her
schoolmates did not forget her. They
sent to her mother the great punches
of fragrant carnations tied with the
perky bow Of girlish ribbon that would
have been hers, and yesterday Mrs.
Lambert took it to the cemetery and
placed it on her daughters grave.
From the cemetery Mrs. Lambert went
on to Waukegan, where she had been
summoned as a witness in the trial of
Orpet for the murder of her little girl,
and she waited patiently in ante
room almost all day before she was
called to the witness stand.
Mother on the Stand.
She came at last, a tall, gaunt wo-
man, dressed in black and with a black
veil draping her hat. She has a soft,
kindly English face and a soft Eng
lish voice and as she answered the
questions put to her, she folded and
unfolded her glove with the motion
of a woman who pleats fold in her
apron in the stress of an emotion that
seems to express itself more in the
nervous working of her fingers than
is anything she says.
People whose lives have been hard
and stern learn a sort of sturdy cour-
age. They learn from necessity an
and howl aloud their sorrow because
they must go on with their work, they
must go on serving people who have
scant sympathy for the grief of 9TH
ers Mrs. Lambert belongs to this
sort. She made no outcry, no parade
OF her grief
She did not once break down and
burst into sobs. There was even a
sort of smile on her face, that brave
smile of those who suffer, which is so
infinitely much sadder than any tears
can be.
Testimony Was Brief.
Mr.. Joslyn did not question her to
any great length, and she really didn t
have very much to tell. They asked
her mainly whether Marion had been
happy and you wanted to cry yourself
when her poor patient face, lit up as
she answered, "Oh, yes, Marion had
always been very happy. She was
such a happy girl"
Did you know William Orpet?"
asked Mr.. Joslyn, and Mrs. Lambert
replied, Yes"
When did you see him last?''
He was never at our house after
the Friday evening after Thanksgiv-
ing" was the reply.
Mr.. Joslyn then asked Mrs. Lam bert
to identify two or three letters in
daughters handwriting and that ended
the states examination of her. The
cross examination of the defense was
still briefer and more merciful. The
mother of the dead girl being asked
only the single question:
Had she ever read the bundle of
letters written her by Will Orpet that
were found in Marian'S desk after she
was dead?"
Mrs. Lambert replied: mo" that
she knew that Marian correspondent
with Orpet- She had often seen her
get some letters, but had never read
any of them.
Hunted for the Bottle.
| Three of four witnesses of small i'm
portance who told of raking the snow
about the trees where the girl was
found dead in their search for a bot
tie in which cyanide might have beer
contained and finding nothing. and
one of Marion's teachers who admit
ted that she had never had a persona
conversation with the girl on any sub
Ieot more heartfelt than going to col.
let5e, but who had always though
Marion a happy girl, added their lit
tie to the structure of circumsta ntia
evidence that the state is trying Il
bui.d up, but, on the whole, the da,
seemed to the onIooker barren of re
suits viewed from either side.
but some cheering news had evi
oently come to the Orpets, for the pal
or gloom that has enveloped then
raised a little. Will Orpet's wan fac
got back little color and light ant
life in it and for the first time since tn,
trial began he and his mother md ia
ther smiled and whispered together