Evening star., 1935-01-03
BY KATHLEEN NORRIS.

tN.A.N.A)-SomehoW this typical,
revolutionary American country town
of Pennington, with Christmas SHOWS
still lingering on the roofs of the
high-lipped old brick houses and
Winter sunshine streaming in at the
long, old-fashioped court house WIN
dows, seems a fitting place for the
trial that will go down in our ma
tional history forever as "the Lind
bergh case"
For if ever we needed the finest, the
most balanced and honest traditions
OF our courts, we need them now. II
ever our boast of sane and unbiased
dealing with our fellow man is to be
put to the test. it will be put to the
test in the next few weeks. when the
case of the State-and the Nation,
and the world-against the man who
is suspected of the most hideous of all
the crimes in the calendar is to be
brought out into the open, and heard,
and weighed, and judged.
From the walls of the court room in
which I write looks down the portrait
Of a typical Colonial American,
ruddy-faced. dignified old subject of
Copley or Gilbert Stuart, in his ruff
fleS and stock and buckled breeches.
1t is he and his kind who have built
American justice into the thing it is,
and their spirits will surely preside
lere while We search for the answer to
the terrible question: Who are they
who sought the life of the child?"
Court Room Crowded.
It is 9.40 O'Clock on a fine, sharp
January morning. Already the court
is buzzing with newspaper folk, who
find their places at the long plank
tables by the help of the jealousy
sought red tickets.
A disappointed throng fills the steps
outside and stands packed patiently
in the snow -streaked street. Flem-
ington's one small hotel, directly op-
posite, boils with unwonted excite
ment. The town is rather like a
gentle old New England SpinSter, who
awakens suddenly to find herself in
a mao mouse.
Into the court straggles the press.
There is incessant chatter. Every
one who has been admitted at all
feels excited. superior, triumphant.
We are an oddly assorted lot.
Just behind the judges big seat
on the dais is a triple easement glV-
ing on a narrow area. Ten feet away,
across the shaft, is a wall of dra-
matically- perfect fitted gray stones
pierced with barred windows. ana
behind those windows. again await
ing his summons, is Bruno Richard
Hauptmann, the German-born. quiet
appearing young carpenter about
whom all this dreadful ceremony
and ritual move.
Not all, no. There is another young
man in the case, not by mis- own
will, but because fate has drawn him
into this coil of agony and will not
let him go. At about 10 minutes
past 10 o'clock Charles A. Lindbergh
comes in quietly through the court
door and takes his seat only few
feet away from the accused man.
Neither Chances at Other.
There they are together-the most
beloved of all our loved Americans,
and the man who may presently be-
come the most despised of all our
alien-born. Not our steadiest watch
ing from the press gallery can detect
them in so much as glance at each
other. Hauptmann sits staring
steadily ahead of him: Lindbergh
rests an elbow on the table at which
he sits with the State attorneys and
leans his cheek on his hand.
He is a heavier and huskier looking
man, this father of the lost child,
than when I saw him last, year or
two ago. His fine, grave young face
is Drowned from exercise and sun
shine. He is dressed in light gray:
his manner is just what I remember
it, gentle, polite. detached. Exactly
what these days mean to him it takes
small imagination to picture. This
is the man who, when the tragedy
first broke on the world, nearly three
long years ago, stated that he and his
wife would be glad to avoid notoriety.
As to the other man. Bruno Rich
ard Hauptmann in the flesh was a
surprise to me; his entrance into the
court was surprise. Somehow one
expects the suspected man still to be
dragged into court, in the medieval
manner: haggard, protesting, even in
chains. 1t was surprising to see
Hauptmann walk in quietly and sit
down in the very row of chairs-only
three chairs away, in fact, from Lind
bergh himself.
Sees Expression as Stupid"
Hauptmann's companion is deputy
sheriff; on either side of them sit
State troopers in Army blue. OF
Hauptmann We in court see only a
slender back with fine, vide shoulders;
a sleek head, gray-brown suit. Dur
ing the session he never StirS, never
moves in his chair. But when he
comes into the court or leaves it we
have a chance to study the impassive
face-not heavy or beStial, as so many
of the pictures have made it; rather
thin, with deep-set eyes, wide forehead
and to my thinking at least, stupid
expression. A German carpenter, his
finer sensibilities perhaps hardened
and coarsened when he was plunged
too young into the horrors of the great
war; an outsider, not possessing in
his makeup any of the yeast that is
America; not understanding.
Our Judge here looks a fine old
man-gray, grandfatherly. wise, per-
haps a little sad and disillusioned in