Lizzie Borden

“ Lizzie Borden was pale as she entered, but she flushed a vivid crimson as the District Attorney arose to speak. He said: “I can fully appreciate Your Honor’s feelings, now that the end of this hearing is about to be reached. The crime of murder touches the deepest sensibilities of feeling. There is the deepest feeling of horror about it, and above all in the unnaturalness that brings the thrill of horror to every mind. The man who is accustomed even to conflicts of arms may not be expected to be free from horror at the thought of the assassin. ”

“ Their own witnesses that they bring do not help them at all in this theory. But I ask them this: If Lizzie Borden killed her mother at 9:45 o’clock that morning and then was ready to come down stairs and greet her father and meet him, having on the blue dress, do you think that is probable, besmeared and bedaubed as she would have been with the blood of the first victim, standing astride and chopping her head into pieces by these numerous blows, blood flying all over the walls and furniture, on the bed and everywhere, and she wasn’t touched at all with blood? ”

“ Alice Russell said that when she came down stairs that morning she went into the kitchen and Lizzie stood by the stove with a dress skirt in her hand and a waist on the shelf near by, and Emma turned round and said to her, “Lizzie, what are you going to do?” “I am going to burn this old thing up. It is all covered with paint.” There is scarcely a fact that is not incriminating against Lizzie. ”

“ Then came Lizzie Borden, dressed in the same clothes she wore before the killing. This, together with the improbability that any woman could do such a piece of work, makes the suspicion seem altogether irrational. ”

“ About 3 o’clock in the afternoon the closed carriage which had become almost as familiar a sight as the police patrol, rattled over the rough pavement. Half a dozen men were in sight, and in a twinkling two hundred men, women and children swarmed around the coach. The City Marshal gave an order, Steward Geagan cracked a whip, officers hustled the crowd back and Mrs. George S. Brigham alighted. She was followed by Misses Emma and Lizzie Borden. Then Officer Doherty disappeared with the hack and returned with another witness. The same crowd collected but no one tried to drive it back. ”

“ Then if she had led the way in treachery and repeated crime Lizzie might have led Bridget right into the toils in which she herself became involved to the relief of Bridget by her statement that Bridget is not to be suspected. It is not every human being who can stand that strain. It is not every man that has strength of purpose and purity of mind. ”

“ Borden in and laughed, as Bridget says she did, she must have been insane, and was insane at the time of the commission of the crime. No human being could do a deed like that and then stand and laugh at a remark like that made by Bridget Sullivan. It is beyond the bounds of human belief. Then she says she went out in the yard and stayed there, and then went into the barn. I don’t believe she can tell how long she was in the barn. Look at the testimony in this case and see if you ascribe guilt to Lizzie Borden because she couldn’t tell whether she was in the barn twenty minutes or half an hour. ”

“ There was a clock in every room. Mr. Robinson required her to tell again what was on the breakfast table. Bridget added that they had butter, which occasioned some little merriment. He tried Bridget’s memory by asking her what Mrs. Borden did on Wednesday morning. He got an answer. She was positive that Lizzie had on a blue wrapper Wednesday morning, but she could not tell the kind of dress she wore Thursday morning. In the afternoon she had on a pink wrapper. There was a kitchen closet in the back corner of the north side of the house which she had occasion to enter ”

“ Foreman, are true, at the very instant when the murders were committed we leave Lizzie and Mrs. Borden in the house together. Was she in the passageway when this assassin came in? She alone knows. Was she in her room when that heavy body fell to the floor? She alone knows. But we know, alas, we know, Mr. Foreman, that when Bridget opened that screen door and went out to wash the windows, after Mr. Borden had met his half-past nine appointment at the bank, that she left in the house this poor woman and the only enemy she had in the world. ”

“ Foreman and gentlemen—I call your attention to it now, and I do not think that the commonwealth will question the statement when I make it—that there is not one particle of direct evidence in this case from beginning to end against Lizzie Andrew Borden. There is not a spot of blood, there is not a weapon that they have connected with her in any way, shape or fashion. ”

“ But we shall show you, in addition to that, there were other strange people about that house; people who have not been located or identified. We shall show you that the government’s claim here about Miss Lizzie’s not having been out to the barn is false, and that this—well, if it was not for the tremendous importance, I should be tempted to call it cakewalk of Officer Medley in the barn, exists in his imagination alone. ”

“ Miss Lizzie A. Borden was to be arraigned in the Second District Court, on Friday morning. By 9 o’clock a crowd of people thronged the streets and stood in a drenching rain to await the opening of the door of the room in which the court held its sittings. It was not a well-dressed crowd, nor was there anybody in it from the acquaintance circle of the Borden family in Fall River. Soon after 9 o’clock, a hack rolled up to the side door and Emma Borden and John V. Morse alighted and went up the stairs. ”

“ I tell you, Lizzie, that go wherever you may, there will be something to put up with. The world isn't a bed of roses for anybody, I can tell you; and if you don't have one thing to try you, it will be another."
"Yes, I daresay it will," said Lizzie, folding over the corner of the ironing-cloth; "but still I don't see why I should have to put up with strange people's tempers when I can help you at home."
"But I don't want you at home," remonstrated her mother. "The little bit of washing I have got I can manage by myself, and I cannot afford to keep a great girl like you." ”

“ She held up her finger warningly as she drew near, and looked up and down the street to make sure no one was watching her, and that no policeman was in sight, and having satisfied herself that nobody was about, she darted inside the gate and carefully bolted it after her, and then followed Lizzie to the comfortable little kitchen at the side.
"Well, my dear, I've had a deal of trouble to find out all you wanted to know," she said, seating herself in the chair Lizzie had placed ready for her. "Are we all alone—is that woman who calls herself your mistress safe out of the way?" ”

“ I can't think why it is, Lizzie, that you're always so hard. Daisy and I have got plenty of feeling and emotion and your father, poor man, had more than he could manage. But I'm sure more's better than none at all, where feelings are concerned."
"I suppose," said Lizzie, speaking to more than her mother, "that if everyone had so much feeling there'd be nobody to give the advice. Feelings don't suit everybody."
"You're a strange girl," said Mrs. Rand, "and you're like no one in our family. All your aunts and uncles are kind and friendly. I don't suggest that you don't do your best, Lizzie. ”

“ And Lizzie was less sentimental than the average village girl of her class, to begin with. You've seen the girl who would sit bolt upright, hands down, while the tears of chagrin or disappointment start from eyes set in a face of stone? They are as hopeless as the dark-skinned "white" men, whose faces go grey in anger.
Lizzie kept company with a young man in Shepperton, who was "on the line, on a trine" (as Barry Pain puts it) or—"on the railway," as we'd say, and there was some talk. 'Twas said also that Lizzie's mother helped her. But Lizzie didn't mind "talk." ”

“ Elizabeth did not move. To be forgotten utterly was the best she hoped for; to be noticed was the worst thing that could happen. Mary indicated her sister by a nod, and Miss Hillary grew haughty again.
"Oh," she said, "never mind her at present. We will let Lizzie Gordon remain where she is for the rest of the morning." And on she went with her work, while Lizzie Gordon, the outcast, too wicked even to be included in a disgraced class, sat and hung her head in a very abasement of soul. ”

“ Night yet is early, Warm and dew-pearly, Wakeful and starry: Such fruits as these No man can carry; Half their bloom would fly, Half their dew would dry, Half their flavor would pass by. Sit down and feast with us, Be welcome guest with us, Cheer you and rest with us." "Thank you," said Lizzie; "but one waits At home alone for me: So, without further parleying, If you will not sell me any Of your fruits though much and many, Give me back my silver penny I tossed you for a fee." They began to scratch their pates, No longer wagging, purring, But visibly demurring, Grunting and snarling. ”

“ My own lad, she’s too good for that. She’s not one to judge and scorn the sinner. She’s too deep read in her New Testament for that. Take courage, Will; and thou mayst, for I watched her well, though it is not for one woman to let out another’s secret. Sit thee down, lad, for thou look’st very white.”
He sat down. His mother drew a stool towards him, and sat at his feet.
“Did you tell her about Lizzie, then?” asked he, hoarse and low.
“I did; I telled her all! and she fell a-crying over my deep sorrow, and the poor wench’s sin. ”

“ But girls like us”—she pointed to Lizzie, then brought her finger back to her own knee upon which she tapped in bitter emphasis—“we’ve got only ourselves. We’ve got to make good or go under. And it’s fight, fight, fight. I’ve had to do something I hated since I was sixteen and now she”—with a nod at Lizzie, “has got to do something she hates.”
“How lovely it would be to know there was some one who cared!”
Lizzie, sunk in the chair, eyed her like a brooding sphinx. She met the gaze with the boldness of the meek roused to passion:
“You do hate it, Miss Harris. ”

“ A year or two rolled around—years of hard labor, which made Lizzie, who toiled untiringly, as her mother had done, old before her time. She was noted, however, all over the village for a thrifty, industrious, excellent girl. James Foster was a pattern for lovers; every spare moment he gave to her. What few amusements she had time to enjoy he procured for her; and as the village people said, they went as steadily together as old married people.
Lizzie's father was a narrow-minded, selfish man, caring very little for any one's comfort but his own, and at times was exceedingly cross and testy. ”

“ Now, Mother, say I may give warning as soon as I go back, and let me come and help you instead of looking for another place."
But Mrs. Betts shook her head. "No, no, Lizzie," she said; "your father wouldn't like it. You must try to put up with Mrs. Spencer's temper; and be careful how you do your work, and then she will not be cross with you."
"You don't know her," snapped Lizzie; "nobody ever can please her. The girl next door told me as good as that the first day I went."
"Very well; if you knew your mistress was hard to please you should have been more careful not to offend her. ”

“ Lizzie greets them with wistful softness and seems as indifferent to their homage as if they were pictures hanging on the wall. I talk to them, and while we talk we are acutely conscious of her, singularly dominated by her compelling presence.
[Pg 198]
In all the change in her that quality is as strong as ever. I do not yet know what it is that makes her the focusing point of everybody’s attention, but that she is, nobody who has lived in this house could deny. I believe actresses are trained to “take the stage and hold it,” but Lizzie has the faculty as a birthright. It is not her looks ”

“ Many a one dies in—”
“Oh, my lad! dunnot speak so to me, or my heart will break outright,” said his mother, with a sort of cry. Then she calmed herself, for she yearned to persuade him to her own belief. “Thou never asked, and thou’rt too like thy father for me to tell without asking—but it were all to be near Lizzie’s old place that I settled down on this side o’ Manchester; and the very day at after we came, I went to her old missus, and asked to speak a word wi’ her. I had a strong mind to cast it up to her, that she should ha’ sent my poor lass away, without telling on it to us first ”

“ I shall place no obstacle in the way of your seeing Lizzie White, but I caution you, without knowing more about her than that she left a good home, that she may take a most unfriendly attitude. If there is anything unseemly in the meeting, I know that it will arise from her. No one can tell me that she lacks your native refinement; it must be so; a woman such as she is at heart may make a dreadful scene, whether she be interested in Ivan or not. ”

“ But Lizzie did not heed him; she had risen to her feet and was endeavouring to descend from the cart.
“Here, bide a bit, ’ooman, bide a bit. Ye can’t get down by yourself. Wait till I help ye.”
He let down the tail-board and assisted her to alight, and Lizzie, staggering towards the door, beat upon it with her open palm.
p. 45“Oh, I must get in—I must get in,” she cried. “I forgot about door bein’ locked! Oh, what shall I do, what shall I do! He’ll be gone!” ”