Evening star., 1926-12-02
Jury DEFENDED
FOR "SLEEP|NESS"
Dry HaII-MiIIs Testimony
Called Enough to Make
Anybody Doze.
BY DOROTHY DIX.


Special Dispatch to The Star.
SOMERVILLE, n. j., December 2.
An observer, probably suffering
from insomnia and green with envy,
made affidavit that when juror No. So
and-so closed his stirred old eyes for a
little rest that he was slumbering
ana sleeping, and not paying proper
attention to the evidence in the Hall
Mills case.
That any one can keep wide awake
and look interested and attentive
during the long dreary grind of most
of the dry dust testimony, espe-
cially the testimony by experts, is
the final proof of the triumph Of
mind over matter.
A garrulous old gentleman of 81,
with his ears, like bre'r rabbits, hung
out for news, made affidavit that
juror No. so-and-so had aSpersed the
character of Jane Gibson and spoken
disrespectfully Of Senator Simpson,
Jane being an intimate friend of the
old gentleman and Senator Simpson
his particular hero.
Case Parts Sweethearts.
Funny, how nobody can discuss
the Hall Mills case without getting
acrimonious over it, 1t has parted
sweethearts. alienated friends of
lifetime and promoted divorce be-
tween husbands and wives
Mrs. Mills brother-in law and her
sister and her daughter made affi-
davits that they had seen juror No.
so-and-so speak to Mr.. McCarter
Mr.. McCarter had explained to the
judge that the juror had merely told
him of his brothers death and that,
after expressing his sympathy, he
L, \
missing company as soon as pOSS1b.e.
But, wherefore and whereas, all this
had happened, and, not omitting the
pertinent fact that the consensus is
that the defense will win out, hands
down, Senator Simpson yesterday
arose and asked the Judge to adjudge
the case a mistrial, at the same time.
in few well-chosen words that
scorched where they hit, paying his
compliments to Somerset County and
the juries and the people thereof.
Justice Parker denied the plea, and
the case went on, but there were a
few dark moments, as the poets say,
when we wondered if all Of this travail
would have to be gone through again,
and when Mrs. Hall and her two broth
ers and the big group of relatives who
have sat close behind them all this
weary time looked white and stricken
dure this ordeal once more.
Prosecution Called Brilliant.
Now that the evidence is all in, and
both sides have rested, it is possible to
contrast the way in which it has been
handled by the opposing lawyers.
The prosecution has been brilliant
and spectacular. 1t has been a sort
of guerrilla warfare on Senator
Simpsons part. He has made quick,
sudden, unexpected onslaughtS on the
enemy. He has sprung mines under
them. He has dropped bombs from
the clouds upon them. He has ar
ranged dramatic stage settings, as
when he had Mrs. Gibson brought in
TO testify on her bed. He has played
to the gallaries in his ceaseless mock
ings of the counsel for the defense
and in his vltriolic asideS that have
never failed to win laugh.
The defense has set off no fire
works. 1t has made no attempt to
make a picturesque figure of either of
the defendants. 1t has set itself sober
ly and conServatively, and quietly,
brick upon brick, fact upon fact, to
build up its case until it felt that there
there could be no doubt of the justice
of it's cause. Everything has been
done with dignity, perhaps with lit
tie pOnderOuSneSS. But there is no
gainsaying that dignity and ponder
BUSINESS are pretty overwhelming in
their cumulative effect.
Mr.. McCarter began the summing
up for the defense, and he was, really,
the surprise of the whole trial. Sitting
at the counsel table. arising only to
interrogate a witness now and then,
slowly and hesitatingly. he has
seemed an old man, a gentle, placid
old man who had seen too much of
life to let the pin pricks of Senator
Simpsons acid wit annoy him.
Fire Returns to Him.
But when he arose to face the jury,
the old war horse shifted the battle
from afar. and his youth and his fire
descended upon his again, and he
thundered and ragged against his op-
ponents. He lashed them with his
fury and scorched them with his in
Vective
Never in a courtroom have I heard
a more bitter tongue-laShing given to
man than he administered to
Schwartz, whom he accused outright
of having manufactured a spurious
fingerprint of Willie Stevens on the
card. and not only of having peddled
it to a sensational newspaper. but
after he had sold 1t, of coming to the
defense and saying that he would
like to he retained by it, and that he
could give information that would
negative the prosecution.
Mr.. McCarter began his speech by
saying, as he pointed to the defend
antsS These people are not thieves.
They are not thugs. They are not
bruteS. They have no criminal record
On the contrary, they and their for
bears have lived in this community for
generations. They have been law
abiding. honest. honorable cultivated,
educated GOd-fearing people How
absurd for anybody to think that they
could commit this awful, atrocious,
terrible murder"
Then he went on to describe tho
happy home life of, Henry Stevens and
his wife. and Mr.. and Mrs Hall. Mrs
Hall believing in her husband. deny
ing that she knew of his affair with
Mrs. Mills that she had Minna Clark
spy upon the. or that she had in her
possession the love letters that her
husband and his sweetheart had writ.
ten each other.
Hand of a Master
And he showed how the defense had
disproved each of these contentious.
In mastery fashion he put witness
against witness = Mrs. Demarest' s
daughter against her. for the daugh-
ter had been out with the mother at
the time she averlCd she saw Mrs.
Minna Clark and Gorsline spying on
the Rev. Mr.. Hall and Mrs. Mills, and
the daughter did not see them: three
prominent clereymen of the Episcopal
Church and a number of Mrs. Halls
friends against the heaISe driver who
said he saw scratches on Mrs. Halls
face at the funeral. and so on and
or through the long list of witnesses
who have come and gone from the wit
ness stand.