The New York Times

LIZZIE BORDEN IN A FAINT
OVERCOME BY THE. PROSECUTION'S STORY OF THE MURDER.
Second Day of the Great Trial at New-Bedford-
The State Open's It, Case and Examines One Witness-Great Crowds About the Court House-
Jury Goes to Fall River and Takes a Careful View of the Borden House and Its Surroundings.

 
NEW-BEDFORD, Mass., June 6.-The trial of Lizzie Borden for the murder of her father and stepmother was continued to-day. A few spectators were admitted into the court chamber, but hundreds sought admission in vain. Today, as yesterday, when the trial opened, great crowds surrounded the Court House and gazed at the brick wall of the building, as though by so doing they might gain some slight information of the celebrated trial in progress within. There were no empty seats in the courtroom, though there was by no means a crowd. 

The majority of the spectators were men, but a score or more of women were in attendance. After the reading of the indictment the outline of the Government's case was given by District Attorney William H. Moody, a young man with an earnest and impressive air.

The prisoner sat behind the Deputy Sheriff and listened to Mr. Moody's careful address with the closest attention, as calm and unmoved as ever. Her eyes looked straight toward the speaker. Indeed, the spectators seemed as much interested in the prosecutor's words as did Miss Borden, and but for the uniformed Sheriff sitting beside her she might have been taken by a stranger for one of those who had come to the courtroom with no greater interest than that of curiosity.

It was a great surprise, therefore, to everybody when just as Mr. Moody finished speaking Miss Borden fell back in her chair in a faint.

Mr. Moody's exposition of the circumstances attending the murder of the Bordens was clear and succinct, and he evidently left a favorable impression on the minds of the jury.

In reference to the cause of the murder, Mr. Moody said: "There was or came to be between prisoner and stepmother an unkindly feeling. From the nature of the case it will be impossible for us to get anything more than suggestive glimpses of this feeling from outsiders. The daughters thought that something should be done for them by way of dividing the property after they had learned that the stepmother had been amply provided for. Then came a division and ill-feeling, and the title of "mother" was dropped.

The prosecution would show, Mr. Moody said, that when a dressmaker of the family had spoken of the stepmother as "mother", Lizzie had chided her and said: "Don't call her mother; we hate her; she's a mean spiteful thing."

"When," said Mr. Moody, "an officer was seeking information from the prisoner, right in sight of the woman who had sunken under the assassin's blows, and asked, "When did you last see your mother?" the reply came from Lizzie: " 'She isn't my mother; my mother died when I was an infant.' "

It would be shown, continued Mr. Moody, that there was an impassable barrier built up between the daughters and the stepmother, socially and by locks and bars.

For two hours the attorney spoke, calling attention to the constant presence of the prisoner in the house that morning, of her careless and indifferent demeanor after the crime, and of the various incriminating incidents which marked her conduct.

Then calmly and deliberately he delivered his peroration: "The time for hasty and inexact reasoning is past. We are to be guided from this time forth by the law and the evidence only. I adjure you gentlemen to keep your minds in the same open attitude which you have maintained to-day to the end. When that end comes, after you have heard the evidence on both sides, the arguments of the counsel and the instruction of the court, God forbid that you should step one step against the law or beyond the evidence. But if your minds, considering all these circumstances, are irresistibly brought to the conclusion of the guilt of the prisoner, we ask you in your verdict to declare her guilty. By so doing, shall you make true deliverance of the great issue which has been submitted to you. "

As the District Attorney ceased speaking the prisoner, who, with her face covered by the fan, had sat motionless for the last hour, suddenly succumbed to the strain that had been put upon her nervous system and lost consciousness. The Rev. Mr. Jubb, sitting directly in front of her and separated only by the dock rail, turned to her assistance, and Mr. Jennings, the attorney, hurried to the place from his position. Smelling salts and water were brought into immediate requisition, and soon entire consciousness returned.

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