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The Atlanta Constitution,
Sunday, 17th August 1913,
PAGE 16, COLUMN 1.
(By Britt Craig.)
Sol Higgins, who is something of a philosopher as well as an interested spectator of the Frank trial, emerged from the courtroom yesterday at noon, blinked one eye at the glaring sun, and remarked to the man beside him who carried the price of two beers:
"You know, there's three things that Providence, Himself, don't happen to know, namely: How to argue with a woman, where you're wife's goin' to whet her knife when she cuts meat, and just 'zactly what's on the minds of the Frank jury."
And Sol is probably right, for there are some things that are beyond even Providence. Not even a psychological search warrant could get results. From the present attitude of this dozen good men and true, you would first suspect that they were sitting in a regular session of the board of education with the subject of buying chairs for some school before the meeting.
Students of human nature, and those persons who like to observe the physiognomies of the other fellows, find it quite a popular pastime to sit and persue the impassive, not to say absolutely unreadable, faces of the men who are to decide the fate of Leo Frank. It is an interesting study in perfect listlessness, and the dozen faces are in decided harmony with things about the room that never move.
They never smile, they never sigh, they never grin, they never do nothing but sit and look, look, look.
There is little emotion on their twelve faces. One might as well try to figure who put the salt in the ocean as to try to read the thoughts of the Frank jury.
All Look Tired.
Along toward the second and third week of the case, the jury assumed an attitude that spoke better than words that they would like to have a bed. They sit and squirm about in the hard, straight-backed chairs and strive to appear comfortable, with about as much success as the fellow who endeavors to make himself look at home in his first dress-suit.
Every-once-in-a-while the jury gaze roams over the courtroom, indolently, lazily. Then it goes to the wall papering and the fans and the little knot of flies that are holding some kind of a caucus around the middle chandelier, on the ceiling.
Quite often it rests upon the witness stand and its occupant. Expert testimony flooded the stand during the early part of last week, and the latter part of the week before. Doctors got up and told volumes about hydrochloric acid and digestion and pancreatic juices and the salivary glands and mastication, and Dr. Somebody-or-Other's test breakfast, and enough about cabbage to make the jury ashamed to look a real, healthy cabbage in the eye, and the jury sat and looked on with a gaze that was as disinterested as a red-blooded schoolboy would be in the presence of Webster's dictionary.
When Jury Did Take Notice.
Expert testimony came and expert testimony went in one endless stream. The courtroom was thrilled and even the blaze and sensation-dead press table sat up and took notice. But the jury! The experts might have been reciting the multiplication table for all the interest the jury seemed to take in the proceedings. Occasionally all eyes would go in unit to the stand, and there would be a perceptible stir in the twelve straight-backed chairs.
PAGE 16, COLUMN 3
:: An Ex-Chief and Present Chief ::
Photo by Frances E. Price, Staff Photographer.
Former Chief Jennings, of the police department, on the left, and Chief Lanford, of the detective department, snapped at the courthouse while discussing the Frank trial.
Frequently pretty women and girls came to the stand.
But that's another story.
There is about as much expression on the faces of the Frank jury as there is in a pane of window glass. One might as well try to read the secret of the spyinx in its worn and chiseled features as try to divine the thoughts of this dozen talismen.
In the words of Scar-Eyed Bill, he of the crooked optic and modern vernacular:
"There ain't a chance!"
PAGE 16, COLUMN 4
Saw Frank Get Off Street Car Photo by Francis E. Price, Staff Photographer.
MRS. ALBERT G. LIEBY
Neighbor of Frank's who saw him at lunch time on day of murder.
PAGE 16, COLUMN 4
WITNESS FOR FRANK
M. O. NIX.
Who identified Frank's handwriting on financial sheet.
PAGE 16, COLUMN 5
DEFENSE EXPERT DR. JOHN OLMSTEAD
Who attacked testimony given by Dr. Roy Harris.