Evening star., 1935-01-08
BY KATHLEEN NORRIS.


living, trembling. suffering young
woman on the stand is something quite
different. Something so poignantly
impressive that to many OF us this
days work seems the most vital of
them ALL
Betty Cow impresses me as highly
sensitive, proud. dignified young
woman, and on the stand she was OBJ
viously nervous. obviously suffering.
She has so often been described as
pretty" that it was surprise to
find her not pretty at all; her face
is handsome, rather, with big eyes
that are somewhat prominent, wide,
good mouth, well-modeled cheek
bones, clear skin.
She was absolutely colorless as she
started her ordeal. That it was most
distressing ordeal nobody who saw
her could doubt. Her long, rather
thick throat throbbed, her mouth
trembled more than once, and more
than once she twisted her hands. Her
voice is pleasant and low, and her
accent that of London rather than
Glasgow.
Braced Self for Quiz.
It seemed to me that as the At
torney General, in his always con-
siderate and quiet fashion-for Mr..
Wilentz has polished manners-began
his questioning, she braced herself
quite consciously. The horror Of being
made to remember was beginning now;
she had long known that it must so be-
gin, and she was determined to 60
through with it with her chin up and
her courage high. She answered ques-
tions simply, straightforwardly. Except
for occasional inaudibility, when emo
ton overcame her, she was good wit
ness for the State.
But when Edward J. Reilly, Haupt-
mann's head counsel, took her on for
cross examination there was a change.
Mr. Reilly showed indications Of true
ulence early in his cross-examination
and Betty Cow didn't like it. She
showed now that she could be actually
naughty.
Reilly Got Short Change.
In good old Irish argot, Mr.. Reilly
got very short change out Of Betty.
No question seemed to move her, and
once or twice there was actual reproof
in what she said. Positively, I did
mott" she replied hotly, when she was
asked If she had or had not actually
planted the evidence of the little lost
thumb-guard. It ami" she retorted
with spirit when Mr.. Reilly said,
'.you're very bright girl, aren't you?"
But as the hard two and half
hours wore away, she dropped. Her
face grew tired and shiny, her shoul-
ders sagged little: she looked as she
is going to look when she is so years
old The fine, dark eyes moved as
quickly, flashed with as much feeling,
but there we're shadows around them
when the mornings work was over.
She told us little we didn't know
true. But even though ! knew the
facts, I hadn't sensed them. How
many1of you mothers and wives who
read this have visualized what went
on in that house of sorrow and shock
that night? How many of you have
visualized what went on in that happy
family that day before the soft. warm,
little sleeping fellow was picked out
of his crib?
Nurse Told Of Last Day.
Betty Cow told of an adoring lit
tie mother who wouldn't take a nurse
on country week ends at the new
home, because Anne Lindbergh liked
to care for her baby herself. She
told Of his mother throwing pebbles
up at the nursery window late that
fatal afternoon, just to see ner baby
smile down at her. She said that he
went down later, to have tea with his
mummy, and afterward he ran into
the kitchen, like every adored baby
who ever lived in a household of
enSlaved grown-ups. He galloped about
the kitchen table; he was carried off
for supper and bed by the nurse who
loved him, and his mother came into
his nursery to be sure that his small
chest was rubbed. and his blankets
held down by big pins.
There had to be a dose of something
from spoon to help break up the cold,
and of course he spilled it. as what
baby doesn't? and so there were spots
on the little nightie that is now States
evidence in one of the most terrible
OF murder trials.
1t all sounded so honey, so sweet
and safe and loving-tea with mother,
and a race into the kitchen, and a
flannel nightie, and a chest rub, and
big safety pins. 1t is all so frightful
now that it has come into this court
house. and come so much too late!
Like Judge Trenchard.
We of the long press tables exchange
opinions as the day goes by. We all
like Judge Trenchard and think he is
handling everything with great fair
ness and calmness. We all wonder,
as we consider the persons of Scotch,
Scandinavian, English, German birth
who are involved, whether it might not
be good idea to keep America Ameri-
can for few hundred years. And we
are none of us in sympathy with the
effort the defense makes to hint that
q truly good and affectionate nurse
wouldn't leave baby alone for two
hours on quiet Spring evening, when
he was snugly pinned into his crib,
warm and fed and blanketed securely.
Those of us who have raised babies
know that only a nervous or seriously
sick baby would need closer attention
than that, and this baby was neither.
We've all left our babies upstairs in
their cribs for the comfortable dinner
hour, the radio hour, the leiSurely hair
brushing and cold-creaming of the
early evening hours. Many of us can
remember leaving them much longer
than that. and thanking God for a
blessed interval of peace and freedom
after the exactions of the nursery day!
tCopyrisht 1885 by the North American