Evening star., 1926-11-06

/ Ih a Iiuy gray suit ana q maroon Tie
Drab is the word, popularity applied
words. 1t is extremely descriptive
drab. the skin is drawn tight across
high cheekbones, the hair is thin and
mouse-colored, the sad, monkeyish
eyes peer out under blinking lids. He
is also popularity supposed to be un
emotional to the point of idiocy and
slow-witted and simple to the point
of distraction. Well, possibly. A few
of us find him enigmatic.
In a low, fiat voice that he is re-
peatedly told to raise. he shows US
his life. In 1929, he had been married
for IL years to a girl much younger
than himself; a pretty, foolish, emo
tional and highstrung girl: a girl who
sang, and laughed, and tainted, and
| read novels, and wrote nonsense, and
| was irritated when he was late for
supper; a girl who, when she started
| off to meet her death that night in a
gay little blue velvet toQue and blue
| po1ka-dotted dress trimmed with the
holly red ribbon that DIR. Hall had
given her for Christmas. called back
defiantly over her shoulder to ask him
why he didn't follow her and find out
where she was going? He didn't fol
low her. Jimmie tells, because he
didn't care.
| Sexton at Halls Church.
He was sexton of DR.. Halls church
and janitor Of the school next door to
his home on Carmen street. That
home. was the second floor Of the
shabbiest kind Of a frame building.
1t consisted Of four rooms, in one of
| which he slept with his son Dan, then
| IL years old Charlotte, aged 16, had
for two years shared the room with
her mother. He made between $32 and
| $38 q week.
| He tells us, lucidly and circum-
| tantially, exactly what he was doing
| he IL hours from 6 in the evening to
| J in the morning during that fateful
| night. At little after 6 he finished
Tearing up some shavings on the
| church porch and went home, a lit
le late for supper. There were few
| sharp words with his wife, but no quar-
rel After dinner he started to work
on a window box, riveting 1t. Char
| lotte and Danny went Off somewhere; /;
Eleanor Mills went. too, at about half
past Z, f1inging that taunt back over
her shoulder.
At 9 o'clock he spoke to a neighbor,
Mrs. Kelly, who was in her yard. At
9:45 he finished the window box and
the back Of the house: shortly after
that the children returned ana went
to bed, and Jimmy Mills sat out in
the mild Autumn air on the front
stoop. At minutes after II he went
to the church to close the windows,
as was his habit, stopping at drug
store to get a Soda-Water. He went to
bed at 1920, leaving the light burning
in the kitchen for his wife, who had
not returned.
Found Wife Still Absent.
At 2 o'clock he woke to find 1t still
burning, and, rising, put on his over
alls and called to Charlotte to ask If
her mother was with her. He couldn't
understand Charlotte's sleepy humble,
looked in at the door and saw the
empty bed. He remembered then, he
tells us, that she had had fainting
attacks, and thought she might have
tainted in the church. There, at any
rate, he goes, flooding the church with
all its lights and remaining about 20
minutes.
He does not see Mrs. Hall, who ac-
cording to her story comes there at
about the same time to look for her
missing husband. He goes home and
sleeps until quarter to 6, when he
rises, prepares breakfast for his
children, and sets about his duties for
the day. That is his story. To it he
adds the account Of three encounters
with Mrs. Hall, of which he gives a
verbatim account.
"She said: Have you had any i'll.
ness in your house?'
Il said: No, but my wife has not
come home'
"she said: My husband has not
come home, ether
Il said: DO you think that they
could have eloped?'
'She said: No, they must be dead,
or they would have come home.'"
FOrgets Some Statements.
Jimmy Mills, who could so distinctly
remember that four-year-old converse.
ton, could not remember one of the
many statements that Mr.. McCarter
claims that he made at a later date in
the presence of his children, Ellis
Parker, a detective; State trooper
and stenographer. Mr.. McCarter
read him literally pages Of those state.
ments, damaging statements, about
clippings and letters and telephone
calls and to each he replied, toneless-
ly, II can't recall it,"
One thing he did recall, he had been
a shoemaker for % years, and at the
time of the murder he still had in his
possession a shoemaker's knife and
stone, with which he repaired the
family'S shoes. When Mr.. McCarter
said triumphantly, "Ah, so you had
knife" little shiver ran around
the warm. still courtroom.
1t is perfectly obvious that the de-
fense is trying to pin the Hall-Mills
murder on Eleanor Mills small, meek,
shabby husband. Senator Simpson
commented on it bitterly several times
today, and it was not denied. It is
also perfectly obvious that so far they
have not done it. And it is also even
more obvious that the drab Mr.. Mills
is being neither as candid nor ex-
pansive as the defense could desire.
At the end of Jimmy Mills day some
of us find him far from colorless.
Although one of the strongest
1l~ nF<