Monday, 28th July 1913 Mrs. Leo Frank and Her Mother Cheer Prisoner at Courthouse

Atlanta Journal
July 28th, 1913

Accused Neither Care-Worn Nor Haggard—His Eyes Meet Those of Crowd Without Faltering

There was one question on the face of every member of the big crowd in and around the courthouse Monday morning. To those standing without in the street, to those crowding the corridors and hallways, to witnesses flowing through rooms on the second floor, to the packed courtroom, the query was, where is the prisoner.

The man to whom the trial meant more than it meant to any other human being, had been brought to the courthouse early in the morning.

He was in a bare walled little room a few feet from the doorway leading to the court. With him sat two deputy sheriffs, his father-in-law, Emile Selig, and a friend.

From time to time during the morning the curious slipped to the door and gazed in at the accused. They saw a little man whose dark eyes gazed at them unwinking through big glasses. He was pale, but neither care-worn nor haggard. He wore a light gray suit striped with darker gray, black shoes, and a black and white four-in-hand tie.

Hardly once during the morning did Frank sit down. He held in his hand a daily paper and strolled aimlessly around the room, flicking with it at the table and the chairs.

Shortly after 9 o'clock there was a stir in the court room. Guided by a deputy sheriff two women pushed past the staring jurymen and vanished in the direction of Frank's room. They were Mrs. Frank and her mother, Mrs. Selig.

The wife of the accused man wore a black suit, a black hat, and a heavy veil. Mrs. Selig was dressed entirely in white, and carried a white parasol. She was not veiled.

The little man in the gray suit looked up eagerly as the two women entered the room. His lips were parted in a half-smile, his arms were raised toward the door.

The woman in black and the man in the gray suit were in each other's arms. She spoke once as she kissed his wan cheeks and fondled the black hair, "My lad, my lad!"

Mrs. Selig kissed Frank on both cheeks, grasped him by the arms, and held him off to gaze in almost a proud manner at her son-in-law. Then Frank and the woman gathered in a little group near the big table. All were standing.

They spoke in whispers. Every now and then one of them would pat the other on the shoulder. Frank was smiling slightly and his wife seemed to be unable to keep her hands from touching him. She would straighten the black-and-white tie, stroke his coat collar, never taking her eyes from his face.

Mrs. Selig took a seat over near the wall and fixed her eyes on the couple standing near the table. She was smiling, too, a wistful almost pleading smile. At intervals she would get up and approach them. Once she took Frank by the chin and shook it gently as if to tell him that he could not lose. He laughed as she did it.