Evening star., 1926-11-09
CH|VALRY DROPPED
/ BY HALL DEFENSE
Velvet Gloves Stripped OFF
and Steel Hands Applied
to State Witnesses.
BY FRANCES MOVES HART.
Special Dispatch To The Star

The defense in the Hall-Mills tria
Yesterday showed that it hadn't the
taintest intention of being bound by
any Of the traditions Of chivalry thai
nave hitherto been supposed to hang
about ii like a fine aroma Fears
have been pretty generally expressed
that Mr.. McCarter and his colleagues
would be so oppressed by the knowl
edge that they were scholars nd gen
tlemen that they would forget that
this was a murder trial md think that
II was debating society.
II may be safely stated that these
fears are Srouniless The defense has
obviously decided on a court a la prim
Tive in its simplicity. Every witness
for the prosecution is to be treated
as An embryo crook or a fun l-hedged
scoundrel. The defense implies openly
and boldly and frequently that evi
dence has been tampered with and
what Is more. that it is likely 10 be
tampered with again. Ii has urgently
requested the court TO take custody OF
the exhibits rather than leave them
in the ha ands of what is called the
State
Brings Roar From Simpson.
What is called the State?' roars
Atc puAl dSCu pI oSCC0tol. lONt iOh
or. may ! ask whether | am TO be
subjected TO this kind of thing? Am
] the State or am | not the State"
Down through the ages echoes
Louis of Frances magnificent AFRO
gance, THE state, | am the state.
Judge Parker bends his fine old head
in rather weary acquiescence. Ger
tainly. certainly. Mr.. Simpson is the
State. He is evidently. however. not a
very sovereign State. in so far as the
counsel for the defense is concerned.
on the contrary. the defense appar-
entity has decided to regard him as a
species Of highly unscrupulOus blood
hound. and is willing to take any
amount of pains to make this impress
sion perfectly clear.
The defense started to strip off the
velvet gloves and apply the steel
hands at about ; minutes past 10.
The first witness. G.. Russell Glider
sleeve. was permitted unmoleSted to
state that he had seen Mrs. Mills and
DIR. Hall on Broadway several years
before the murders. He was dismissed
without cross-eXamination. while Mr..
MCCarteT sat meditatively fieXing the
steel fingers.
The next Nitness did not fare so
we'll. Young Robert Erling is among
those who were present in the lane
that night and who now wish they
had gone somewhere else.
Tries to Shield Girl
This lucllless lad. in order to cor
rohorate Jane Gibson'S story that she
was in the lane at about 10, states
that she passed him riding on her
mule, Jenny. as he sat parked in his
automobile with a girl. In spite OF
furious protests on his part, the girls
name was jerked out of him, and Mr..
McCarter then devoted the better part
of an hour endeavoring to make II
seem simply preposterous that any
Young man should want to spend an
evening with a girl after having spent
q whole dav with her.
1t is difficult to believe that even
Mr.. McCaIter is so venerable as to
have forgotten the days when such a
performance would not have seemed
altogether fantastic. Even on the
faces of the oldest Of the jurymen a
fugitive and reminiscent CLEAN could
he detected behind the steel bowed
spectacles.
Mr.. McCarter wanted very much to
know whether Erling hadn't tried to
hribe another hoy 70 say that he. too.
was i'm the lane that night. and did
at rest by Erling's mildly indignant
denial. He did not. however. shake
Erling's story an iota. Some Of that
story bore the ear1narkS OF truth. in
that il was not too circumStantially
pat
Erling said that he had heard no
shots, no screams. no creaking
wagon. Surely a liar would not have
found it difficult to enter those shop
worn items in the inventory of things
heard and seen in the lane that night
hut ii seems perfectly possible for one
not too decrepit to remember youth
that the shots rang out and the
wagon Creaked in one world. and that
Erling and the girl. walking down the
little lane under a sky Of Autumn
stars. moved through another.
Registrar Put on Stand.
Walter Scott. assistant State regis
trar. was put on the stand in order
IN identify two reports submitted in
order to obtain burial permits. The
State implied. briefly but unmistak-
ably. that these documents might
well he irregular. and that if they
weren't then the signatures were prob
ably forged With these minor reser-
vations. 1t permitted them to be en-
tered in evidence,
At 1890 A recess was called for
lunch. and il was observed that Mrs.
Hall was wearing a new black coat,
with silky black fur at throat and
wrist. and that Senator Simpson was
exhibiting a cream -colored fedora that
was undoubtedly the most cream col
cred fedora that ever topped Ave feet
nothing OF masculine huma nifty. Vic
{Y,fa n
sides as to what would happen if the
kidnapped" Mrs. Gibson could not ap.
pear for the rumOred three weeks.
opinions were expressed with great
q nimat tion hut little authority.
Al ] $50 the court arrived. the jury
arrived, counsel arrived. the accused
arrived and Fred Drewen arrived.
Mr.. Drewen. a large. pleasant look
ing. dapper young man with a mas
Sive black pompadour who was recalled
for recross-examination on Willie
stevens fingerprints. evidently spent
the first few minutes under the
pleasing hallucination that this cross
examination was to be a perfunctory
AFFAIR. He was rudely disillusioned
He Smiles Often.
II the man worth while is the man
who can smile when everything goes
dead wrong, Mr.. Drewen is very
worth while. indeed. He was still
smiling when he climbed from the wit
ness box. hut the smile was a fixed
g nd mecha nical shadow of its former
exuberant self No matter how hon
est Mr.. Drewen may he. there must
ha We been moments when he thought
himself metamorphized into Jimmy
Valentine and Clip the Blood" and
Gerald Chapman. He would have had
to be a supercrook indeed. TO rate Mr..
McCsrter's tone.
Before he got down he had contra
dicted himself profusely and admit
I ed that he had taken the tingerprints
10 the Daily Mirror to be photo
sraphed Not SO good. Mr.. Drewen.
still. he descended smiling, having
that these were the law