Evening star., 1926-12-05
BY FRANCES MOVES HART.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
COURTHOUSE, SOMERVILLE, n, j..
December 4.-No one realized quite
how tired they were-physically. men
tally and emotionally tired-on the
last day of the HallMills trial. until
John Bum, the crier, stood SLOWLY
up, and the clear, bugle voice In which
he intones his invocation to the good
burghers Of Somerville every morning
failed him completely. A faint,
lamentable, echo of his impressive
"Hear We, hear ye"' rang out feebly,
and we knew Just exactly how weary
we were.
Tagged to the bone, judge, jury, de-
fense. accused and spectators; ana
most tagged, most exhausted. most
wearied of all, the special prosecutor
from Hudson County, Alexander
Simpson. AS he stood there adjusting
the blue tie under the blue collar with
nervous fingers. he looked literally
consumed with fatigue, as with
fever.
Simpson Real Fighter.
The narrow shoulders under the
h,ne serge coat have borne heavy
weight this past month; To-Day ne
threw off the burden, but his shoui.
ders will stoop under the memory OF
a. for many a day to come. he Is a
fighter. For one solid month we nave
watched him fighting every one IN
sight and a great many things tnae
are not in sight. -
The prosecutor is naturally sup
posed to fight the lawyers for the oe-
tense, but this prosecutor mas hao TO
firht a hostile community, a hostile
town. q hostile county-ano jury
selected from that county.
He has had to fight more than these.
a steadily mounting conviction that
the case on which he was to mount
TO glory would crumble beneath MS
feet He is extremely shrewd; It IS
impossible that he had not reanzed
this. 1,v..x
Nevertheless. he fights on. With
his back against the witness oox. as
though it were last wall, he sweeps
a challenging eye with a bad hght IN
II over the IL stolid and inscrutlble
faces lifted to his, and raises ms tlred
voice in a last challenge.
Extraordinary and Audacious.
It is. by and large, an extraor-
dinarv performance. Not extraor-
dinarily convincing, nor extraor-
dinsrily moving. perhaps, out
extra aordinarily .shrewd and auda-
cious.
Senator Simpson for two hours
literally dares the jury promptly to
acouit these people. He threatens
them with everything from hell fire
and fee to public scorn and five
more trials if they so much as at
tempt to "kick out this case In 2O
minutes He names. loud and clear,
Mr.. Young and Mr.. Hope as the
two Jurors who are warmly lnoepted
TO Senator Case. and, therefore,
inferentially and by direct accusa-
ton in the case Of Young, hostile
to him.
whatever in the line Of flowers or
fiattery. beyond grudgingly ex-
pressed hope that some Of them may
be honest or intelligent. and he tells
them more than once that 1t is they
who are on trial. as we'll as Frances
Hall and William and Henry Stevens.
He is never oratorical-one Of the
surprising things about him is the
brisk. matter. of-fact, businesslike way
in which he delivers his least war
ranted remarks. His voice is re.
freshingly distinct, for all its rather
unpleasant rasp; his gestures are
curt, nervous and not ineffective.
He is. in a way. less effective than
he has been at any time during the
trial, because fatigue has slowed up
his momentum and encouragement
has damped down his fires.
Senator Simpson may not. as he
has frequently contended, be q hand.
writing expert-but he Is enough OF
a handwriting expert to be able to
read the writing on the wall. He has
his back against that wall; his eyes
are turned from it, so that he may
pretend that they have not seen it,
but the writing on the wall s>lys
Not guilty." and Senator Simpson
read it long ago.
One of his fires. however, is still
burning and he expends what energy
he has left to piling 1t high with his
remaining fuel. His obvious hatred
for Frances Hall is curious. He ia ap-
parently just az hotly convinced Of
her guilty knowledge of the murder
and her participation in it, to the ex-
tent of cutting Eleanor Mills throat.
as McCarter and Case are convinced
of her spotless innocence and ig-
norance.
Under Simpson'A scornful tongue.