The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-24
SHOOTING is A BLANK.

room only the heavy breathing of the
witness was heard.
She said he told her he might At
least be given credit for picking out
something more than a scrawney old
maid" Miss Lush desumed. Then
she talked about my friends ana rid
iculed them. She then said I would
have to set out of town and that she
would go to the school board.
Threatened Expose.
My friends viii put you out of
town, they will tar and feather you
Mrs Roberts said. Then she told ms
about another affair DR.. Roberts had
with certain girl who had died.
II then told Mrs Roberts 1 had
some letters which would show
me. She said. I want to see them ;"
Did you intend to shoot Mrs.
Roberts" she was asked.
Never, never. never" she cried.
''Did you intend to take Mrs.
Roberts's life ?'
In telling of meeting Doctor Rob-
erts on the evening of the tragedy.
I on June 20. 1917, Miss Lusk said that
she told him that If he did not care
! for her that would end it all. The
witness said that he replied that he
that he must tell Mrs. Roberts and
ask her for his freedom. He promised
to do so that night, she testified.
Asked what were the last words she
remembered Mrs. Roberts saying. the
| witness said that the Doctors wife
lcompared her to dog-a person Of no
Shortly before noon Walter D. Cor
rigan began the cross examination for
the prosecution.
Thru Valley <of Shadow.
Waukesha, Wis, May 24.-The soul
of Grace Lusk, psychologist school
teacher on trial for the Staying of
Mrs Mary Newman Roberts, wife of
DR.. David Roberts, the man she loved.
Thursday walked thru the valley of
the shadow that is darker than death.
White faced, frail, broken, the wo-
man to whom love did not come until
she had crossed the meridian of life
and whose gift of joy was followed
swiftly by the bitter bread of disillu-
sion. laid bare to the world the secret
places of her heart.
The woman who all her life has
been considered by her closest friends
as a reticent recluse insofar as her af-
her fight for freedom to delineate de-
tails of intimacies.
The testimony which seemed to ter
rify the witness herself ranged from
the first kisses that passed between
the defendant and DIR. Robert until
crossed to the point where they &C.
cupied the same rooms in Chicago no.
ttels.
/, When her story had reached that
point in her relations with DIR. Rob-
| erts and when she was telling under
Questioning, of a visit they had made
| together to Milwaukee hotel, Miss
I.usk said. in voice choked with emo
ton:
Time For Decision.
| ct had decided that the situation
| had to be Strengthened out. If DR..
Roberts did not care for me-did not
| care to be fair and straight toward
life.
| 'T told him the thing had gotten
beyond all control
IT had been compromised. Oh!
| My life was a nightmare, because I
| had been straightforward before and 1
| my friends. And I thought Mrs.
Roberts was being wronged SO hope
| lessly. 1 said this had been a game
on his part. and as I had been so sinlr
pie as not to understand himA would
face the consequence ~
"Then-then he took me in his
arms. He assured me that from the
first he had cared for me, but that
now he cared forsme 10000 times as
much.
II put the gun down on the bed. I
went over to where he was standing
and put my arms about his neck and
said to him, you needn't tell Mrs.
Roberts unless you want to. L T."
She Broke Down.
The defendants, voice trailed off
into a whisper, she swayed in her
chair and her head fell forward.
Court was Immediately adjourned for
the day and Miss Lusk was assisted
from the court room in state Of
collapse.
related the history OF her relations
with Doctor Roberts up to the day of
the killing. Not once during her testi-
mony did she reveal bitterness against
the man who last week sought to shift
the blame for their illicit love ana its
consequences upon her shoulders.
The defendant startled court and
hearers when she frankly admitted
that she still loved Doctor Roberts.
Miss Luak was also positive in her tes-
she had paid transportation on their
numerous trips to Chicago, Milwaukee
and other cities.
Love Delayed Too Long.
Miss Lusk's story furnished another
interesting angle. Psychologists find
it fascinating in that it reveals the
! dreadful holocaust that sometimes fol-
lows in the wake OF love delayed toe
long, a love lit in the bosom of one
who did not realize that she was a
linea1 daughter of Eve until life had
lapsed long.
The defendant was asked about the
purchase of her tickets on one of hsy
| trips with Doctor Roberts.
Q-Who bought your ticket for Mil
waukee?
| Ale did.
Q-Who paid the railroad fares or
the trips you made to Chicago in
1917?
J A-On the occasion mentioned
paid my own way. We registered to-
gether. Doctor Roberts did the regis
| tering.
/ He Gave Her Money.
Il Odd he reimburse you; did he
give you the money that you had ex-
pended for transportation In going tc
Chicaso?