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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1921)
THE UEB: OMAHA. TUESDAY, MARCH 15. xVZl. Widow of Hamon Last Witness i Of Prosecution Defense Opens Case by Ex amining Ex-County Attorney Who Filed Original Mur der Charges. Ardmore, Okla., March 14. Mrs. Jake L. Hamon, widow of lake L. Hatnon, for whose murder Clara smith Hamon is on trial, tdok the stand as the last witness for the prosecution at the afternoon session of court here today. The state rest sd its case at the conclusion of her testimony. Mrs. Hamon spoke in even tones, and answered questions quickly and decisively. She said she on one oc casion came to Ardmore and went to Hamon's and Clara's room at the hotel there. Clara Hamon watched the witness closely as she testified, but other wise seemed unaffected. 1 Ketch Continues Story. Frank Ketch, business associate, continuing his testimony, said he saw ho marks on Clara's hands or face. He said he reported to Ha mon what he had done, but defense objected to the testimony and the court sustained. "She shot me in my room in the dark." he said Hamon told him. "He did not say anything about how he was lying, but said some thing about a struggle for the gun," lie testified. Ketch said Clara had a 320,000th interest in an oil lease, a 5-70 inter est 'in a gas lease, a good property, and that Clara and he himself owned a picture . show at Healdton. She also has $5,000 worth of another oil company's stock, he said. Had Large Diamond. He said Hamon had given her a 10-karat diamond. , On cross examination Ketch said Clara still had some investments jointly with Hamon and some busi ness interests, and had a small rev :nue from the Hamon estate. , Dr. Walter Hardy was recalled to the stand and explained the bullet which killed Hamon entered his body at an angle. The defense counsel smiled as it has been their contention the bullet took such a course. Once Took Gun. Mrs. Hamon said she brought her daughter, Olive Belle, 11, here from Chicago and had talked with her husband and later went to his hotel buite. She saio Clara came in and threw her hat and glove? on the bed and ran out. Mrs. Hamon said she took a pistol from Clara's room on that occasion. Mrs. Hamon said she saw her hus band in Chicago from time to time. She said on her. visit here with Olive Belle, Hamon took her to the depot and put her on a train for Chi cago an hour and a half after she had seen Clara in Hamon's room, ,'i 'V-.i Defense Opens Case. I Kiissell B. Brown, former caa ity ittbrnev and the man who filed the murder charge against Clara Hamon, war 'the first defense .witness, ti was to be followed by Sheriff BuC Garrett. , . Mr. Brown said Frank Ketch had told him Hamon's under clothing had been burned. ' $. H. Brown, special prosecutor cross-examined his younger brother. Sheriff Garrett said Hamon told hitfi "he shot himself fooling with an automatic and that Dr. Hardy had "held out to the very last it was an accident." Sheriff Garrett said Hamon, . the da? before he died, told him he bad heard it rumored Clara would be prosecuted and lie did not want her prosecuted; that he did the shooting himself accidentally. Frank L, Ketch, formerly business manager for Jake L. Hamon, and row administrator of his estate, went on the witness stand this morn ing! over objection of the assist ing county attorney, J. L. Hodge, wSo announced that developments Saturday were such as to indicate that Ketch would be charged as an JCtessory after the fact of Hamon's murder. Judge Champion ruled Ketch should testify, however, and after he left the stand, S. P. Free ling, state attorney general said that the witness under the law had been rendered immune by the fact he had tettified on the stand. Ketch testified that under Jake Hamon's instructions he had drawn $5,W0 from his personal account, given it to Clara Hamon on the day Hotel and Sketch of Rooms in Hamon. Case BED X o w z o HAMON'J ROOM WamonJt Room J ; T Fn iUmofc Above Rar.dol hotel, where Clara Smith Hamon and Jake L. Hamon lived and where she is alleged to have shot him. Below Sketch showing the ad joining rooms. It is alleged Mrs. Hamon was standing near the door of her room and Jake L. Hamon was in front of her at the time the shot was fired. ToCureaCold I inOne.Day Take JBrovo'G Lnxatlvo Bromi I Quinine tablets mc S: Be sure you get 1 Th6 genuine bears this signature I: $ Hurry! to Albert Edholm's ' Goinsr 1 Out of Business Sale ' following Hamon's shooting in the hotel suite here occupied by the young woman and had told her to leave Ardmore and remain away. Ketch said on the witness stand that Mr. Hamon at first told him that he had shot himself accidentally and a moment later had admitted that Clara had fired the bullet and that the matter should be hushed up and Clara gotten away, as Mrs. Ha mon, his wife and the children would come to Ardmore as soon as they heard of the affair. Frank L. Ketch, former business manager for Hamon and now admin istrator of the estate, was the next witness called. J. L. Hodge, assist ant county attorney, said Ketcn on Saturday had been made an acces sory afte the fact in the murder of Hamon and asked that "Ketch be pre vented from testifying as giving tes timony' would give him immunity. Judge Champion ruled1 the witness could proceed, however. Ketch Tells Story. .sr-iKetch said he first learned of the shAoting of Hamon on the next tuoirning. Frank, I am never going to get w-fll," he quoted Hamon as saying I the hospital. , , "1 did it myself." he said. Ketch sntinued. "Don't tell me that," I eplied. ; , "I want it given .out, -I did it my self, give Clara f some : money and have her get away," he quoted Hamon. ., "My wife will be here as soon . as she hears of this and I want Clara to go. Tell the world any kind of a story, that I dropped the gun; any thing." Ketch said he wrote his personal check for $5,000, gave the money to Clara and later reimbursed himself from Hamon's money with a voucher authorized by Jake. He said he went back to the of fice and sent for Clara Hamon. "Clara, you've got to go. I've never interferred with your personal business or that of Jake, but the parting of the way has come. You are going away and you are going to stay," Ketch said he told Clara. Trunks Sent to Kansas City. "I was goinjy a. ay," Clara said, according to Ketch. "You are going now," Ketch said he replied. Ketch said she told him she harf to go to see her relatives at Wilson before she left and he told her that he would pack her trunk for her. The trunks were checked to Kansas City on Hamon's ".railroad pass, but Clara missed the train by 10 minutes and he gave her a package containing $5,000. Widow to Testify. Mrs. Jake L. Hamon, the widow, v. ho had been exoected to testify at the morning session, was too nerv ous to take the witness stand, al though she was in the court room. When at 11 o'clock the state had exhausted its available witnesses, ex cepting Mrs. H3mon it" asked for a recess until i o'clock, when other out-of-town witnesses shculd be available. The defense said that it was ready to begin its case and that it had "short witnesses" and assured the court no delay would be encountered vhen it got under way. Chestertion "Book" on "Nut?" Opinion Divided (Continueed from Pae One.) Arts society, conceded that the Chesterton lecture did not come up to expectations. "He's a better writer than he is a lecturer, that's evident, she said. "And I. don't think he gave the lec ture in its entirety. Perhaps the room was too warm, but I do. not think it would come with good grace for the Fine Arts society to criticize the lecterer it brought." ' Mrs.. Louis Nash, vice president, who introduced- Ghesterton, ex pressed disappointment that people in the audience had not asked Ches terton questions for him to answer from the platform. "He's far more clever in repartee but I enjoyed him nevertheless," she said- ... Mrs. Myron Learned, Mrs. Alfred Darlow and Miss Marjorie Barrett declared they enjoyed the lecture. Makes One Point. "I think he was wonderful, "said Miss Lida Wilson, "I confess I didn't get much out of his lecture and I don't think many in the audi ence did, but I think the reason we didn't is because our own education is so superficial, he's beyond us!" she expressed as her belief. The big Englishman, center of the foregoing storm of opinion, made one Chcstertonian point in his ex pensive lecture. He said "When education enters, common sense is annihilated." He said the fact that we now say Czecho-Slovakia when vc mean Bohemia and Jugo-Slavia when we mean Serbia illustrates his point. "But when a woman named Smith marries a man with a name of four syllables, we. don't continue to cajl her Smith just because its easier," protests Mrs. Blackwell in vain. Science is modern mythology, there is no such thing as "the mis sing link," or any historic basis for cave-man lore; lecturing-is an Ameri can national sport;, a Serbian village is more democratic than cither America or England and Patrick Henry would shorten his imfnortal statement to "give me death!" if he could arise and survey the Ameri can institution of government to day, according to Chesterton. Journalists are unscrupulous, vul gar and spread mininformation,' he opined. ':If America was three years late in the last war, England was 100 years late," he declared. "The English had been ignorantly educated to be lieve that Germans and they were a Teutonic for Anglo-Saxon people and that a barbarian overthrow pre saged another step forward for civilization." British Naval Program Calls For Large Expenditure Lbndoiij March 14. (By The As sociated Press.) The British naval estimates for 1921-22 amount to 91,186,869 gross and 82,479,000 net, it was announced by Lord Lee of Fareham, first lord of the admir alty, today. In a statement explaining the esti mates Lord Lee said they were based on the government's policy of maintaining a "one-power standard." Boy Bandit Killed in Gun Battle With Policeman Chicago, March 14. One of the three boy burglars was shot and killed by a policeman in a battle on the roof of a theater building early today. The others were cap tured. The police declared they were cutting a hole in the roof, pre paratory to a safe blowing. ESS EX lat Essex owners know of the car has put all concern of it from mind. So far as certainty of destination is involved the Essex owner commits himself to a journey across town, or across con tinent with equal serenity. He knows no travel weariness or mechanical difficulty will invade his enjoyment. His desires set his frontiers. He travels to them by any road he wiD GUY L.SMITH -SERVICC FIRST lSfS.S-7 fAANAM T. OMAHAxU.SlA. lHONt DOUOIAS 1t?0 See the Hudson and Essex at Space 11 Auto Show. I Americanism of Hughes Is Reassuring to Countrymen New Secretary of State Not a Smirking Diplomat .Trying to Play-Act Tallyrand, But Sane, Proud and Civil American Defend ing His Country's Rights. By EYE WITNESS. C'lilroKO Trllun"-Omnli lice Ia-hmpiI Wirt. Washington, March 14. I listened to Charles Evans Hughes, not as a reporter, but as a citizen of the re public, and all the time I listened I wished how 1 wished! that you were there. From that room of state, where the wary Cass and the Jovian Web ster enveloped in white stock looked down from the walls on their successor, I listened to six feet of sense and statesmanship and un theatrical Americanism strangely exhilarating, strangely sobering, alto gether reassuring and there sang in my thoughts, out of the forgetfulness of 20 years, the line of a play, of which the name is gone from me:' "It was like banners waving in my heart!" Quotes Are Forbidden. "There is a rule here that what the president and the secretary of state say in their conferences with journalists on state matters may not be quoted. It is for background and guidance or as Mr. Hoover put it, for information and not for quota tion." Charles Evans Hughes eniphasized that rule, saying in the course of his talk, " I don't want to keep repeat ing 'don't quote me' that is under stood. I am talking just to advise you so that you can see the road as far as I can make it clear. I want to be Perfectly frank and candid with you, but I have difficults tasks before me and I don't want you to treat that (he was referring to a specific matter)' in a way to embar rass our negotiations." In the case of the new Secretary of state's utterances, application of the rule is peculiarly exasperating and wooden because nothing would so hearten and so steady his coun trymen as the far and wide distribu tion of what he said in just the sober, vigorous definite way he said it. But I must be content with back ground, and that is why I say again, "how I wish you had been there." Fastidious in English. , Fastidious though Mr. Hughes's taste in English is. he, is not afraid of a rough and ready way of putting things, for when he was running for president he once said, "we wont have any more, if I can stop it, of these 'kiss me and I'll kiss you, ap propriations in congress." Hence he will not mind if I pack roughly into the fewest possible words the text of a talk that is going to mean so much to his anxious countrymen facing :i 'distracted world. The text, as I shape it, was: "Be of good cheer and keep your shirt on." There is not going to be any skull duggery on the one hand, -nor any wabbling on the other, in our adi justmcnt of the multitude of diffi cult question left unadjusted by the war. Meanwhile and hug this to your worried heart, for six feet of sense stands behind it nothing has been lost, no American rights have been given up. Nobody ever was author ized to give them up and none will be given up. They cannot be sur rendered except by treaty and no treaty surrendering them has been made. American rights and interests stand today as they stood on the day of armistice. Will Stand Firm. That goes for Yap and for Meso potamia, where the. oil wells flow. Japan and Britain can put each of these clauses in their respective pipes and meditate. What America went into the war for will not be sacrificed. All we need is to have this situation under stood and worked out in a courteous and friendly way. It will be handled without bluster, not in a flamboyant way, but through diplomatic chan nels. Directing the channels will be a statesman and jurist who has a way some might call it a nasty way of pushing out that white tuft of close cropped whiskers when he talks. If you could see the chin behind the beard you would probably see that it is projected and the jaws set hard. As to .what impends I have the feeling that no ally, capitalizing the common griefs and common trials of the past, and no enemy enveloped in the cloak of contrition, is going to put anything over on us. If they tried to, there would be Charles Evans Hughes standing be tween and his attitude would be "all right, I'll have the law on j-e." Makes Last Analysis. ' He likes the phrase'in "in the last analysis" for its convenience and his mind estimates things "in the last analysis" while other minds are put tering over them in their superficial aspects, their indirections and their possibilities. He swings hack on your questions with answers like this, regarding the news from Russia,-via every country except iussia: 'Rlian rinnrte ar. t'frv conflicting and, from the standpoint Or SCraill ill pv1rvrti rr a ,in " - V 1 Mt . join about an alleged policy ""Such ac tion I might put in this way will not be necessary." One of the most heartening Uioiigrtts that came to me while giv ing heed to his words and intently rfnehinc for tiis nprsnnalitv waa f!in one "Welshman is going to have to talk business witn anotner Welsh man," and the thought filled me with an impious kind of glee, for I know the Welsh pretty well. Hughes i:; of emphatic Welsh extraction. "I would' give a weeks wage to see Lloyd George and Charles Evan Hughes looking into each other's eyes from opposites sides of the council table. Hughes the Adjuster. HI may define' Weeks as a direct ing mind and Hays as' an organiz ing, and Mellon as a creative, and Hoover as a formulative, then may I not describe Hughes as the adjus ter in the cabinet. Within a month he will be 59 years old and I have the notion that the grav-eyed, pleasant-voicedv erect, smiling man is physically, mentally and spiritually in the prime, of his career. There was an effect of cer tainty in the poise, the tone and the sentences of him that sent the on looker to that conclusion. He stood throughout the talk whicn was long, as such talks go sometimes with both hands thrust deep in his trousers pockets and sometimes with them loosely clasped in front of him. He loomed very tall and very erect as he stood and there was no con straint in his manner. While he talked he teetered a little on his feet, but did the teetering on one spot. lie used a firm, spacious gesture, which 1 shall have to call a swim ming kind of gesture (his only one), with which to enforce 'his words that swept away rumor, speculation and excitement, and it was exhil irating to watch both arms sweep ing out in front of him and then coming down decisively. His smile is very winning and spontaneous and he used it with charming effect in greeting, but he seems to' smile more with his eyes than his lips. He smiled with special courtliness when he had to refuse to answer a ques tion and always he would turn with rather flattering attention direct to the one who questioned him. One thing he s not and that is a smirking diplomat trying to play act Tallyrand. I have .seen some thing of those evil birds in other lands. Europe is, today what it is because of them. Best of all, he is an American sine, proud and civil, and when he left his anteroom I heard one of my countrymen say to another, "Isn't that the first Ameri can voice you've heard in the State department in eight years?" British Naval Estimates for 1921-22 Lower Government Decides Capital Ships Must Continue as Main Unit, London Writer Says. London, March 14. Navy csti mates for 1921 and 19-2, to be an nounced tomorrow, will show a re duction of possibly 10,000.000 cm the net estimate for the last financial year, which was 84,372,400, accord ing to the forecast of the political correspondent of the London Times. He understands that the government has decided, in principle, that tin capital ship must continue to be the main unit of the fleet. The correspondent says that of capital' ships, eight ar; obsolete, and adds that it is regarded as unecono mical to man such ships with ex pensive, highly trained personnel, consequently these eight are ex pected to be scrapped. The govern ment, he says, considers that the re maining 30 capital ships constitute, for the present, an adequate basas for the maintenance of the one-power standard. . "But as at least four will need to be replaced," the forecast continues, "the construction of four vessels will eventually be necessary." The correspondent refers to the estimates as embodying a compara tively moderate building program and says it would hardlv be possible to spend more than 1.000,000 on each new battleship laid down. Commenting editorially, the, Times hopes that the forecast expectation is "not illusory, for nothing is more certain that that this country and the dominions cannot bear the heavy burden of any new naval arma ments, i The decision to replace obsolete warships of the first class by few battleships and battle cruisers, it adds, is not a final pronouncement on the capital ship controversy. "It means only, it says, "that the case against the great ship is n proven. Thieves Cook Meal for Selves While Family Sleepf Duncannon-, Pa., (March 14.As sociate Judge John A. Boycr has is sued an invitation to the burglars who ransacked his store while he slept overhead with $500 in real money under his pillow, to again visit his store and make an effort at getting awsy with some more goods. The thieves cooked them selves a meal of ham. and. eggs on the stove in the kitchen of the Boyer residence while the family slept on undistnrbed. III. ' l .New Spcg Fashio3s AH of flie fascinating fabrics, all YY of flie cheeiful Spring-time colors and all Qie lovliness and sim plicity of line whicli characterizes Hie seasons most successful fashions are being presented here, now at new, low .prices & will be honor ed and delighted to show.them tojoa mmm
