Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-04-13
One for the Honor of Her
Dead Daughters the Other
for the Life of Her Son
Accused of Murder
BY T. d. TALBOT.
Ueased Wire Service to The Journal.)
DOWNRIGHT 1922

Two mothers have met here in the
shadow of that ineEorable higher law
which skaters the human triangle
wherever it's unstable links may be
welded together.
One, desperate over the death of
her murdered daughter, is fighting
bravely to save the dead line from
the charge OF bigamy, or a second
welded life without benefit of clergy.
The other weeps with broken heart
over the tragedy which has brought
her beloved son to a secluded cell
in "murderers' row. of the county
jail. Naturally this mother blames
the girl. The other mother exclaims:
Punish the man, but spare my
daughters honor"
In the overwhelming tragedy
which stalked into this little COM
munity of 5000 souls there seems
to be crowded every human emo
ton. Filial love, illicit love, ro-
nance, the glamor of the stage, the
mysterious motive of a shell-shocked
brain, the mingled feelings of a
scorned husband whose wife has
been done to death at the hands of
the man with whom she eloped, and
last, but perhaps not least of all,
the call of the great white lights
Of Broadway which undoubtedly i'm
PEELED the new husband" to shoot
the dancing girl who had been his
wife" for the last eighteen months,
rather than lose her in that mad
maelstrom of New York for which
she yearned.
Pitiful Figures
The pitiful figures in this grim
tragedy are:
DR.. Herbert j. Bryson, major and
medical officer in the famous Rain
bow Division, gassed, wounded and
Charged %itn TIT murder urd a Of Mrs
Eryson," he remains sullenly silent
in his cell.
Helen Irene Kirby, the. claimed
wife of Bruce E. Haines, a chauf-
feur, of Washington, D. c., but liv-
ing recently as the wife of DR.. Bry-
son, who in a dying statement &C.
cused the world war veteran with
having broken down her door and
shot her.
Mrs. Kathleen Kirby, of New York
city, mother of the murdered girl
who vows that her daughter "marA
jried" DR.. Bryson in September, 1920,
although in August of that year she
was still the wife of Haines, and
living in Washington.
Mrs. John Bryson, Of Washington,
D. c., mother Of the man accused
of murder, says her son was never
wed. Frustrated by the tragedy, Bit
ter against the girl whom she 'ac-
cuses of having led her son to ruin,
she will fight for the life of her
boy on the ground that he was not
mentally responsible for the crime.
Bruce E. Haines, chauffeur and
automobile mechanic, of Washing
ton, who says he could not hold his
wife because she longed for the
things his limited income could not
give her. Unwittingly Haines di-
rected his wife to BrysOn's house in
Washington in the summer of 1920.
She was a "War worker" at the
time in the war risk bureau-Worlz-
ing to help out the family income
and to buy the pretty clothes OF
which she was SO passionately fond.
She wanted a certificate for absence
from the bureau. DR.. Bryson gave
it to her. Again later the girl dis
appeared. Bryson followed.
A Youthful Romance
Bryson promised the-girl the lux
urv and the excitement she craVed.
For two years she had been on the
stage as dancing girl with Rutn
st. Denis. She had appeared at
Keith's theater in Washington, and
had met Haines. A youthful love
of romance had caused her to mar
nv the man. but she soon found that
the wife of a chauffeur had but lit
tie upon which to live.
DR.. Bryson said the girl became
"his wife" forgot his promises OF
"oav times" and after a somewhat
extended honeymoon in Newark, IN
which he iealously watched the ad
mirirg glances cast at the girl by
other men, brought her out here to
central Pennsylvania and took a
house in Cassville, a tiny village OIL
not more than $50 souls. To Helen
Haines. who had lived upon adm1ra'
tion. the village was a prison.
Tn her diving statement she said
her husband often had threatened to
kin her and kill himself rather than
To give her UP. When, after one OF
the inevitable quarrels as to the
course of their life, he left her alone
for a moment, the girl said she
knew he had gone for his army re-
volver. The pistol her husband had
regarded as his "best friend" in the
| Flood red days and the murderous
nights of the Argonne, was leVelled
at her after the door Of her room
had been broken in. DR.. Bryson
drove the. girl to the hospital here
End said She had shot herself. But
she recovered long enough to give
her message of accusation to the
law.
Mrs. Kirby, mother of the dead
girl. has told the coroner that Bry
son confessed to her in his cell.
Leaving here with the body of her
! daughter. the mother seemed to har.
Dor no great i'll feeling against the
prisoner. Rather was she bitter at
! the chauffeur in Washington, who
! insisted upon telling his story to the
world and then announced he would
not attend the funeral Of his wife
Bryson, who was inFalided home
! from France, has been moody and
depressed ever since he cameBo this
neighborhood. He does not now
seem to realize the seriousness OF
his position.