Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-02-11
BY ANNE GORDON SUYDAM.

BY ANNE GORDON SUYDAM. Il
Special Dispatch to Tho Star.
PENNINGTON, N. j., February IL.
The witness chair to which for six
weeks have come men and women
from tenement and mansion, from
humble workshop and gilded Office,
from prison cell and sheltered home,
from the house down the road and
from far corners of the earth, is empty
at last The long procession of per-
sons who have sat before us in
grotesque unease or quiet dignity has
come to an end, the hundreds of
thousands of words spoken from that
chair have flowed into the static
silence of the court annals, and now,
deprived of its mysterious power, it
rests before us, a plain, vanished
wooden armchair, which might be
drawn up to. a kitchen table for
friendly cup of coffee. But still it
stands, with arms outstretched.
The silent witnesses in this case
have been many and strange and sad.
In that same chair we have seen
DR.. Condor holding the little empty
sleeping suit in trembling hands, we
have seen Betty Cow weep as she
took from counsel's fingers the thumb
guard which she had carefully tied
about the dimpled wrist of a warm,
clean baby as she put him to bed for
his last night on earth.
Experts With Bullying Cases.
We have seen beSpectacled experts
with bullying brief cases of charts and
diagrams as they sat for hour after hour
demonstrating the dark potentialities
of these matter-o f-fact EXHIBITS, and
we have seen Arthur Koehler, wizard
among good experts, as he held the
tell-tale rail of the kidnap ladder in
one hand the board from Hauptmann's
attic in the other and explained to us
with grave logic the similarties Of the
two.
We have seen Stanley Seals, young
carpenter, leap from the witness chair
to WELD Hauptmann's plane upon
piece of board placed on the judges
bench while the innocent shavings,
reminiscent of the corkscrew curls Of
our childhood, fell anonymously to
the floor; and We have smiled to see
William de Bisschop, pauchy little
nurSeryman, as he sat hopefully on
the edge of the witness chair clutch
ing a bunch of pine needles in one
hand and a 12-foot sapling in the
other, as knight might clasp his
banner, while he waited for lengthy
wrangle among the lawyers to end.
We have seen Walter Lyle, gas sta
ton attendant, as he fingered remi-
niscently the fateful $40 gold certifl-
cate which led the avenging law to
Hauptmann's house, and We have
watched William Seery, Federal agent.
as he identified the Sl4,600 of gold
certificates found in Hauptmann's
garage as the marked blood money
paid for the safe return of a child
whose price was beyond estimate. but
whom all the gold in the world could
not have recovered, since he had long
lain dead in the damp March leaves.
We have seen-and, perhaps, will see
as long as We live-Bruno Richard
Hauptmann, as he sat in that chair
and holding the ransome notes with
untrembling hands as he gazed upon
them with incrutable eyes, declare
emotionlessly that he had never seen
them before his arrest.
The small ghostly sleeping suit,
held tenderly aloft in the most callouS
of hands. hapless innocent emblem Of
banished baby. and the dark un-
calmly ladder which casts its sinister
shadow on the courtroom wall. SYM
Dol of stealth and cruel power, are
two exhibits which are stamped in
delibly on our minds.
Over the week end these silent wit
neSses played their part, as the law
yers went over them one by one to
check on their completeness so that
they might be available to the jury
for their last inspection. In those
last hours before the verdict is reach
ed, these exhibits great and small will
make their last appeal to the II men
and women who will pass judgment
on Bruno Richard Hauptmann.
No doubt the four women who have
bundled their own babies up for bed
will shed a few tears over the sleep
ing suit, as they think of their own
children and grandchildren safely
sleeping at home. No doubt Liscom
Case, only carpenter on the jury, will
examine infinitely the boards and
plane and Photographic charts. and
interpret them in simple language to
his fellow jurors. No doubt these IL
people will lend every effort Of con-
science and concentration toward the
dreadful decision which rests upon
them.
1t is strange to reflect that one
exhibit, the brown paper package
containing the sl4,600 ransom money,
is the legal property of Hauptmann,
and that even were he convicted OF
this crime. or of eXtortion, or of OBJ
tanning money under false pretenSe,
Col. Lindbergh will have to sue him or
his estate to obtain those marked
bills which all the world knows are
his.
According to the strange quirks OF
the law. any property found in a
mans possession is his, and therefore
the present status of the money is
simply that it was impounded by the
police commissioner of New York and
by a contract which took three weeks
to frame, loaned to the State of New
Jersey as evidence. It's personal GUS
todian is Joseph Lanigan of the prose-
cutor counsel, and he has spent many
sleepless hours worrying about it. 1t
repoSes in a vault in Trenton, and
every so often, under armed guard,
1t travels to the Pennington court
house where IT, is disDlaved before the