Evening star., 1926-11-08
MRS. HALL BEGINS
TO SHOW STRAIN
WEAKNESS Creeps Into Face
of Widow as Trial Con-
tinues to Drag.
BY DOROTHY DIX.
Special Dispatch 10 The star.

SPECIAL DiSpatch To Inc star.
COURT HOUSE. Somerville, n. j.,
November S.--If there is ever lie
on which the recording angel drops a
tear that blots it out. it is the one
that a wife tells to cover up her hus-
bands defections.
Millions of wOmen-God bless them
and pity them--tell these white. lies.
They speak Of a drunken husband s
debauches as nervous attacks" They
Camoufiage lazy husbands shiftless-
ness as the artistic temperament" y"
They speak of the reserve" of a cold
and unloving husband. And millions
of women boast of the devotion Of
husbands who are tired Of them and
neglect them as if they could conjure
back the love they yearn for by just
pretending that the thing they want
TO be true is true.
And so | think that the good saint
above who writes down the account
of what we do and say in the flesh
must have thrown down his pen with
a smile and a sigh and said: "Oh,
what's the use? She loved the man..
And she's just a woman-poor thing" p"
on that day soon after the murder
when the prosecuting attorney and
the assistant prosecuting attorney,
and the grim-faced detectives, and the
big policeman, and all the inquisitors
of justice, came to question Mrs. Hall
about her husband.
Picture of Ordeal
Can't you picture them all trooping
into the big, stately. red brick colonial
house, and it's mistress, one woman
among many men, sitting still and
quiet and dignified before them, all of
her forces gathered to do battle for
the things that she held dearer than
life, determined that nothing should
break her down and make her ask for
their compassion? Resolute that she
would not let them see the cankering
sore that she had hidden from the
eyes of even her nearest and dearest? :?
And so she lied like a lady about
her husband and painted him as a
model of conjugal affection and de-
MED that she had ever suspected him
of Wrongdoing, or had seen anything
amiss in his attentions to Mrs. Mills,
or that she had ever had any jealousy
Of the pretty choir singer.
Yes" she said "she had known
that her husband and Mrs. Mills were
much together, but she had thought
that perfectly natural because of Mrs
Mills interest in the choir and church
work. Yes, she had known that Mr..
Hall had paid Mrs. Mills bill at the
hospital. Indeed, she had contributed
part of the money herself She had
felt that Mrs. Mills was such worthy
woman and aspiring to something
higher and better, and so she had tried
TO help her.
Yes. she had known that her hus-
band had gone out on that fatal night
in September, in answer to a tele-
phone call from Mrs. Mills, and that
some time during the evening he
would be sure to see her, but she
had thought nothing of it. Yes, she
had loved her husband. Her love
had been the one great and beau
tiful thing in her life
No, she had never for a moment
suspected that he had ceased to love
her, or that he cared for any other
woman"
But She Deceived No One.
And so on, and on, the litany of a
trusting woman, the hymn of JOY Of
the wife who knows beyond all pre-.
adventure that she holds her hus-
hand heart in the hollow of her