Evening star., 1926-11-19
PIG WOMAN" Wins
DAY AND SMILES
Expression of Triumph Lights
Her Features as She
Ends Ordeal.
BY DOROTHY DIX.

SOMERVILLE, N. j., November 10.
Like queen In a parade-or a
funeral procession-Jane Gibson came
| to court. For the ambulance in which
she was brought from Jersey City was
joined at every crossroad by the cars
of the curious until by the time 1t
reached Somerville the bizarre caval-
cade blocked the streets of the little
town.
/ Outside Of the courthouse a seething
mob Of men, women and children
| struggled for entrance. Within the
courtroom the stage had been set for
the great scene in the drama of the
| Hall-Mills trial. Just under the bench
where the two wise judges sit a hos.
pital bed had been made up with
snowy-white sheets and piles Of
pillows.
| And not 10 feet back of the bed, sit
ting where she could keep her beady
black eyes upon it, was an old woman
| who had come to court on the strang
est errand that ever brought mother
| there. She had come to take away
her daughters character and blacken
ito prove her not only liar but a
liar who was willing to swear away
the lives Of three persons.
| Hated by Mother.
This was Mrs. Gibsons mother. Mrs.
Salonle Cerenner. She had been
! dressed up in unaccustomed tinery for
the occasion, and she wore q brand
new velvet hat and q brand-new black
coat and dress, but, nevertheless, with
| her hawks beak of nose and the
| srim slit Of her sunken mouth and her
sagging, leathery face, she looked like
some bird OF evil omen brooding over
it's foul nest.
| She has borne II children, this
queer, unnatural mother-some dead
some lost, some forgotten. but this
daughter that she Graded in her arms
and sucked at her breast she hates
because of some money transaction in
which she believes she was cheated.
| So to avenge this wrong she has
come to drag forth the shameful Sc
| crets of her child's life and display
them before the world. And as she
| looked down at the white bed you
could see her sucking in her withered
lips as If she were savoring the venom
upon them and found it sweet.
| There's a long wait, and then the
policemen cleared the aisles and q
murmur goes through the room that
Jane Gibson has come.
| First upon the scene Is a pretty
young nurse In a starchy white uni
form, with a rakish cap on her head
and a blue cape lined with red flung
jauntily over her shoulder Then a
! wfse-looking young doctor, and then
| two men bearing the stretcher on
which lies shrouded figure.
| Mrs. Gibson Speaks.
| They put the stretcher down care
fully and deftly lift its occupant onto
| the bed. Then follows the ritual OF
! ioly no huc nf a
| temperature, of feeling the pulse, Of
F, listening to the heart.
| Then the doctor and the nurse step
aside, and we have our first glimpse
| of Jane Gibson. She lies very still and
straight, the covers folded primly un-
der her chin. On her face is the pallor
Of sickness. Her roughhewn features
have been chiseled by suffering until
they have a certain f1neness of dignity
that they did not possess in health.
Her eyes are sunken, her hair black
against the pillow. Her hands are
knotted by hard work, but they are
bleached and bloodless looking.
She looks the wrath of the husky
| woman, who four years ago ploWed
and tended a farm and did the hard
| labor herself She is very nervous.
| She wrinkles up her forehead and
moves her head continually from side
| to side, but her voice is Unexpectedly
strong and vibrant.
| In taking the oath, she folds her
hands as a child does in prayer. and
| then led on by the questions of Sen
ator Simpson, she told the strangest,
| the weirdest, the most dramatic story
| I have ever heard told in court. In
substance, it was very much what she
| has told over and over again in the
| newspapers, but she gave an odd
poignant quality to it, as she told it,,
some times in whispers, some times
her voice rising high and shrill, lying
| there on the bed from which she
may never rise again.
Saw Figures i'm the Night.
| She told of riding through the night
on her old mule Jenny, following
the creaking wagon Of the men whom
she suspected of stealing her corn,
and of seeing white woman and
man she thought was negro in De
Russey's lane. She told of going
back. after she had lost the creaking
wagon, and tying her mule to cedar
tree so that she might hunt the
corn thieves on foot. Then. on hear
ing .quarreling voices, and cursing
and swearing, and seeing a man with
a flashlight.
Then, of seeing men fighting to-
gether. and hearing woman say "Oh,
| Henry" and then a woman screaming
and screaming and screaming. and
| then three more shots, at which she
ran away. She told of coming back
hours later, to the same spot, and
seeing a white-haired woman with the
moon shining on her face, who was
kneeling down on the ground and
moaning so that she made sound
| like Screech owl.
And she identified the woman she
had seen in De Russey's lane, and
the woman she saw kneeling on the
ground as Mrs. Hall, and the man
| that she thought was a negro as
Willie Stevens, and the man with the
fiashlight as Henry Carpenter, and
the other man as Henry Stevens.
Dramatises Her Story.
Evidently Mrs. Gibson had re-
hearsed the story in her mind thou
sand times and dramatized it. for
she emphasized her points by repeat
ing the same word over and over
again They were fighting-fighting
fighting" She cried. "Oh. my. oh,
my-oh, my She screamed
she screamed-screamed, and it left
YOU wondering how much of her story
was true, how much the delusion of
subject until she cannot distinguish
between fancy and fact.
For Mrs. Gibson does believe her
story now. and as she was carried
from the courtroom on her litter, she
raised her hand to Heaven and cried
out in a voice charged with hysteria
God knows l have told the truth
and you know it, too" pointing at the
llawyers for the defense.
| Vet Mrs Gibson never told her