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JULY 29, 1M4.
The Commoner.
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MRS. FLORENCE MAYBRICK, who, convict
ed on the charge of poisoning her husband,
has been confined in an English jail for the past
fifteen years, was formally released from prison
July 20. Mrs. Maybrick immediately left for
France, and after a rest in that country, will re
turn to America. An Associated press cable
gram says: "T,he transfer of the prisoner from
a penal prison to a quiet country home consti
tuted an almost unprecedented action on the part
of the British authorities. It was due to the,
mediation of the Duchess of Bedford, who as a
visitor to Aylesbury prison for many years, had.
taken a keen personal interest in Mrs. Maybrick,
and finally succeeded in obtaining the mitiga
tion of her punishment to the extent of her being
allowed to, spend the last six months of. her con
finement outside the prison walls. Mrs. May
brick's imprisonment was not terminated with
the clang of doors, the last sound which remains
in the. ears of so many of her fellow prisoners
who had preceded her to liberty from Aylesbury
prison, where, sha spent more than fourteen years
of her life.' It closed before the arched door of
the white convent of the Sisterhood of the Epiph
any in this little town, with the black robed sis
tors softly, uttering their blessings and good
wishes for her future. With two companions,
Mrs. Maybrick entered the carriage of Miss Daly
rymple, secretary of the sisterhood, and was
driven rapidly to Staustell, a small station four
teen miles away, where, after exchanging good
bys with her .companions, she boarded a train and
started on her journey to France."
" ' ,
DURING the year 1900, after the death of
Lord Russell, chief justice of England, a
letter which Lord Russell had written to Mrs.
Maybrick was1 discovered. A writer in the Omaha
World-Herald sayd that this letter shows that.
Lord Russell was convinced that Mrs. Maybrick
ought never to have been convicted and it has
been generally understood that all the recent
American ambassadors to the court of St. James
have done everything possible to obtain Mrs. May
brick's pardon. The fact of her probable release
was used for a reason for securing the postpone
ment of a trial, last year, of a lawsuit bearing on'
Mrs. Maybrick's interest in land in Kentucky,
Virginia and West Virginia until she wa"S able
personally to testify. If she could not testify
in these suits Mrs. Maybrick and her mother,
the Baroness De Roques, would have lost all titlo
and Interests in the many thousand acres of land
involved in the case. On February 1, last, Home
Secretary Alters Douglas, replying to a question in
the house of commons, confirmed the reports
which had been in circulation that Mrs. Maybrick
had been removed from Aylesbury prison to a
convalescent home7"where she would remain until
the summer when she would be allowed her free
dom. The home secretary said a license had been
granted Mrs. Maybrick under the penal seivitude
acts.
THE greatest secrecy was thrown about Mrs.
Maybrick's departure. Mother Superior
Julien of the convent said to an Associated press
correspondent that all inquiries must be referred
to the home office. The Associated press corre
spondent says: "At the railroad station orders
wore Issued forbidding the employes to discuss
Mrs. Maybrick or even to admit that ,she was
at the convent. The little town has taken deep
interest in this international figure. Crowds daily
stood at the Iron gates of the grounds, waiting
for Mrs. Maybrick to appear, but tliey were rarely
rewarded, she going out only when the road was
reported clear. When Mrs. Maybrick first ar
rived here she was kept under strict surveilance;
never leaving the convent walls even for a walk
in the grounds she would have to bo under the es
cort of one of the sisters. Subsequently she was
allowed to walk in the quiet streets of this pic
turesque place and in the shady country lanes In
the vicinity. Those who have seen the published
portraits of Mrs. Maybrick soon got to recognize
the black-robed woman, with black bonnet and
flowing strings, and gave her kindly greetings,
which frequently passed unnoticed, Mrs. Maybrick
seeking so far as -possible to avoid the attention
of the curious. Her time at the convent. was tak
en up by sewing, reading and chatting with tho
sisters, endearing lierself to them by many acts
showing that oven the many years of servitude
at Aylesbury prison had been unable to stamp
-out her innate kindly disposition." .
IT WAS during the year of 1903 that the British
government promised United States Ambas
sador Choate that Mrs. Maybrick would bo re
leased. The diplomatic correspondence between
the government of the United States and that of
Great Britain concenihg Mrs. Maybrick runs to
consideable length. The house of representatives
having adopted a resolution calling on the sec;c
tary of state for information as to the steps tak
en to secure her liberation, led to the presenta
tion of a state document in 1896, now in tho ar
chives of the house. Tho letters and telegrams
show- that efforts in behalf of Mrs. Maybrick had
up to that time heen made by Secretaries Blaine,
Foster and Olney. In 1890 Mr. Blaine transmitted
to Mr. Lincoln the correspondence of Rev. J. P.
Ingraham, rector of Grace church, St. Louis,
granduncle of Mrs. Maybrick, and Dr. J. H.
Campbell of New York, representing 3,000 Ameri
can women who had signed a petition to Queen
Victoria to grant a full pardon. Mr. Blalno, in
the official letter accompanying this petition, said
it was the belief of a large number of persons
-that Mrs. Maybrick was the victim of a com
bination of circumstances, "not the least Influen
tial of which was the peculiar mental condition
of Justice Stephens," who conducted the trial.
This judge, it may be mentioned, became insane
and died in that state after Mb retirement from
the bench. Lord Salisbury in his answer said
that' the home secretary, Mr. Matthews, with whom
the matter rested, had informed him that he had,
by taking an indulgent view of the evidence, only
been able to advise the queen to commute tho
capital sentence, and that nothing had subse
quently occurred which could Induce him to in
terfere on behalf of the prisoner.
IT IS alleged that the brothers of Mr. May
brick were chiefly responsible for the con
viction of this woman. The Maybrick story is
told in this way: "At the age of 17 Florence Eliza
beth Chandler, a blue-blooded southern girl, met
in Liverpool the fashionable and agreeable James
Maybrick. This was in 1881, and after a short
courtship the two were married. The flrst yeais
of iheir wedded life seemed happy. Two chil
dren were born, Gladys Evelyn and James Chan
dler Mrs. Maybrick was devoted to her chil
dren but it was dqubted if she retained 'com
plete affection for Maybrick. Ostensibly, how
ever the family lived in the utmost harmony.
The 'shadows began to fall on a certain spring
day in 1889. Mr. Maybrick decided on that day
to go to the Wirral races on the edge of Liver
pool: He did not take his wife with him but
rode to the track on a horse and was caught in a
driving rainstorm. He was exposed to dampness
and cold which his already weakened system
could not withstand. Despite tho warnings he
must have received, he sat with a coterie of
friends at dinner. He ate and drank much. He
was able to reach home, but at once took to his
bed and asked for medical attendance. The case
was diagnosed as stomach and liver trouble, due
to "some grave indiscretion of diet away from
home." It was brought out in the trial that at
this juncture Maybrick asked his wjfe for a cer
tain white powder. This request was made in
the absence of the nurse. The wife went into her
husbands Pdvate room, as he had designated and
brought to the invalid one of the paper-inclosed
doses Mrs Maybrick admitted this act on the
stand, but shf swore she did not know what the
medicine was. She declared under oath that
She Lad noT toe remotest idea that Maybrick had
heen a slave to the arsenic habit for years
something fat was known to his relatives, but
apPrenUy had' been withheld from the wife and
mother For fifteen days Maybrick lay ill. His
wife devoted to him in his trouble, stood the
'strain for eleven days and then collapsed. 3he
went Into a swoon from which she did not errrge
for thirty-six hours. Shortly before she opened
her eyes her husband breathed his last.
MRS. MAYBRICK was formally arrested be
fore her husband died. She was Indicted.
The trial was hold boforo Judgo Stophon. Mrs,
Maybrick was defended by Sir Charles Russell.
It is said that Judge Stephen's charge was one
of .the most remarkable in tho history of Juris
prudence. He literally took tho caao for the
prosecution and argued it point by point throw- v
ing tho crime into bold relief and at every son
t'enco dispelling ttio trembling woman's hopes
of acquittal. The jury was out only an hour and
thirty-eight minutes. When tho verdict reachod
tho streot hoots and shouts tore tho air. Numer
ous crudo petitions were at onco begun, memorial
ising the homo secretary, who alone had power to.
exercise tho prerogatives of mercy. Members of
tho bar on, both sides of tho water discussed Judgo
Stcphon's astonlsblng charge. Of It Mr. Dopew
then said: "In my opinion tho judgo's chargo
convicted her. Such a speech as Russell made,
if made before an American Jury, wjuld have ac
quitted her. No American judgo would havo
mado j?uch a chargo as Judgo Stephen made. Ho
argued the case Trom beginning to end, and tho
jury could not help but see that ho believed tho
woman guilty. Such a chargo mado by Judgo
Barrott would suroly have convicted her Jn Now
York."
THOSE who are Inclined to superstition point
to the fact that soon after the trial, Judge
Stephens began to show signs of physical and
mental failure and that finally he died with his
reason clouded. Tho storm of public feeling,, the
protests from every side thus fortified by Judge
Stephen's fate, Mrs. Maybrick's sentence was
commuted to imprisonment for llfo, and she was
confined in Woking prison. Tho Illogical position
taken by the crown Itself becamo an argument
in favor of Mrs. Maybrick's innocence, and tho
position of Mr. Home S'ecrotary Matthews was
maintained only by silence. Tho Baroness do
RoqUe, Mrs. Maybrick's mother, was indefatig
able in her efforts for hor daughter. Tho Mutual.
Reserve Fund Life association of this city sent
$1,000 for Mrs. Maybrick's expenses. In Wash
ington city, with Mrs. Harrison, the wife of tho
president, at the head, an active interest in Mrs.
Maybrick's behalf was organized. This took its
most prominent form in an open letter addressed
to Queen Victoria, published in the North Ameri
can Review by Gall Hamilton, and certainly one of
tho most astounding pieces of composition doubt
less that the queen ever received. Home Secre
tary Matthews was himself the recipient of sev
eral kindred epistles.
GERONIMO, the old Indian chief, recently vis
ited Lawton, Okla. The Lawton State Dem
ocrat says: "The health of the old chief Js still
good, although he is very aged. His homo is ten'
miles from Lawton, yet he usually walks to and
from the place to do his trading. He is quite of
ten asked to give an exhibition of his skill as a
marksman with the bow. This he readily con
sents to do provided a nickel is made tho target
and is to become his own in case he hits It.
Geronimo denies the statement of General Miles
that the general captured him. The old warrior
says that somewhere up on the mountains, when
he was on the warpath, two white men came to
him and told him that General Miles wanted to
see him. The men accompanied him to tho camp
of the general and he was made a prisoner. Ge
ronimo says he thinks it was in Arizona, the
territory of his birth. Anyway, he says, it was up
in the mountains. The tribal relations of the
Apaches have been dissolved, and they no longer
look upon Geronimo as their chief. They consider
him a childish old man who Is too senile to ad
vise them."
AMONG the problems 'arising in connection
with the Panama canal, the mosquito prob
lem is at least not unimportant. Tho Washing
ton correspondent for the Chicago Tribune saya'
thai General Davis, governor general of the Pa
nama canal strip, has advised tho Panama canal
commission that he wants 100,000 yards of wire
gauze to prevent mosquito invasion of the zone.
He recommends the use of steel wire screens not