Evening star., 1935-02-03
TRIAL LAWYERS
ROLES DRAMATIC
WjIentz and Reilly Seen as
Opposite Types in
Court Battle.
ANNE GORDON SUYDAM.
pseisl Dispatch to The Star.


PENNINGTON, N. j., February a.
Among the most interesting char
acter parts on this Pennington stage
are those played by the lawyers.
Belasco himself could not, for sheer
dramatic contrast, have discovered
two such different star players as At
torney General David Wilentz Tor the
State and Edward j. Reilly, chief de-
fense counsel.
The one is q Russian who came
to this country as an Immigrant, ana
who, until he was. appointed attorney
general of New Jersey few years ago,
was little known. He had gone quietly
about the business of making name
for himself, when suddenly fate gave
him his big opportunity and now he
finds himself in the limelight. If it
he true that he was made attorney
general through the influence OF
Mayor Hague, it was probably due
more to his ability than to out-and-
out patronage. Certainly he shows
few of the familiar and often unde-
sirable traits of the political ap-
pointee.
Reilly of Long Experience.
Reilly, in direct antithesis, is an
American-born Protestant Irishman
and a criminal lawyer of long and
often lurid practice. He has de-
veloped to a high degree the gentle
art of securing acquittal for thugs,
crooks and murderers who, according
to every reasonable law of retributlon,
seemed headed for the galloWs.
His clients were not always of this
low order, however. More highly
strung individuals, particularly ladies
who in a little tempest of feminine
feeling had pumped lead into their
boy friends, could turn to the gallant
Reilly and count on his eloquence, his
great-hearted understanding to alb
solve them of even the fainteSt stigma
of guilt. In fact, so moving has been
his plea for the outraged virtue OF NAL
treated murderesseS that jurleS have
been known to dissolve in tears over
the wronged little woman and the
plunge of her knife into mans ribs
has been made to seem as innocent as
the thrust of playful kittens paw.
Wilentz Purrs and Pounces.
Wilentz is dark, slight, immacu-
lately groomed. His hands are often
soothing, even deprecatory; his man
ner is most caresSing at his deadllest;
he purrs before he pounces upon his
victim, who has often been lulled into
false security by those gentle tones.
AS YOU come to appreciate his artistry
YOU wait in fascinated suspense for
the moment when he will leap from
his easy conversational manner, MS
casual rowing of the court room floor
and fling himself with barred teeth
upon his prey.
He leans familiarly over the wit
ness chair, he rests elbow upon It's
arm. he converses with the witness
as though they were two old neigh
bors chatting over the back fence,
and suddenly, just as you begin to
feel that surely the quiet Of this man
is a natural quiet, he is transformed
into an avenging fury. His veiled
ewes flash righteous fire, his hands
are torn from his pockets, where
they once rested in debonair ease, and
seem to fling thunderbolts at his
covering prey, and his form OF Ian
guage, as we'll as his words, stripped
of all amenities, assume dire and
dreadful starkness.
Hauptmann Showed Fear.
Hauptmann, for all his poise, was
afraid of Wilentz when he strolled to
the chair and rested his arm upon it.
He had learned the ways OF the man
during those weeks before he took the
stand In his own defense, while he
watched him hour after hour, and he
was not deceived by that sly, amiable
approach. No one who has seen
Wilentz's preliminary tactics could
fail to understand the unbearable
signifcance of his hand upon the wit
ness chair.
You put yourself in that same chair
and YOU know that, guilty or innocent,
you would want to shout out, Take
your hands of me, I'll tell you every
thing II you'll only keep away"
Reilly is so direct an opposite to
Wilentz that the two, seen and heard
together, seem like those gigantic SYM
bolic creations of Milton. He Is heavy,
rubicund and coarse of feature and
form. He wears morning coat and
gray-striped trousers and white carna-
tion by way of establishment. Some
how that inevitable white carnation
has Haunting insolence in this dingy
court room.
Witnesses Baked Reilly.
think Reilly was floored by the
high caliber of the States witnesses.
The rumored rift in the ranks of the
defense, when his cohorts are said to
have been disguised with his inept
croSs-examination, may well have
grown out of his complete unfamiliar
ity with such witnesses as these in
murder trial. For, with the exception
Of Millard Whitted and one or two
rather unnecessary and unconvincing
identifying witnesses, the persons who
took the stand for the State were dis
tinguished by reputation, intelligence
and responsibility. To a man whose
own star witnesses have turned out to
be q Shoddy lot Of hole-and- corner
bootleggers and itinerants, the high
character of the States witnesses
whom he had to cross-examine seemed
to have presented a psychological
problem beyond his experience or
imagination.
After the peculiar and seemingly
incongruous manner of lawyers, these
two professional antagonists in the
greatest criminal battle of our gen.
Grafton, who differ utterly in race,
religion, temperament and principle,
bow and smile and defer to each other
on minor points with disarming gra-
ciousness.
I'm consideration Of my distin-
suished adversary's request, will give
my consent" says Wilentz.
"As the learned attorney general
has well remarked" says Reilly.
mo, no, my dear Alphonse"
"But yes, my dear Castor"
And suddenly the air Is charged
with the sarcasm, the professional
antagonism that flashes from one te
the other, and they stand before the
bench like two angry small boys de-
manding justice from the ever-patien1
and impartial Judge Trenchard.
Then, suddenly, brief recess Il