692 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

660 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

MRS. HIRSCH'S STATEMENT TO THE JURY.

Mrs. Hirsch: Gentlemen, I met Mr. Candler when a prominent lady of this city introduced me to him at his office in the city hall. Last summer, the Atlanta Woman's Club formed an auxiliary to the Red Cross and asked me to be the chairman of the finance committee of this auxiliary. Our goal was to raise money to donate eighty-five dozen operating gowns to the base hospital, which would require between $800 and $1,000. We decided to raise the funds by raffling an automobile. I asked Mr. Cook to select the car, as I knew nothing about them. Then, the question arose whether the raffle was legal, and some of my friends suggested that I consult Mayor Candler.

I had never met him, but had heard that he was a very strict church member and rather narrow-minded as to games of chance or gambling or anything of that kind, and I was very much afraid to approach him on the subject. I called a meeting of the Atlanta Woman's Club for the next day, and Mrs. Spencer Atkinson, who was chairman of our auxiliary, suggested that, in order to get the approval of Mayor Candler, she would accompany me to his office in the city hall and introduce me, and we would try to get his cooperation, which was done. Mrs. Atkinson took me down and introduced me to him, and we took one of the cards with us, on which was a picture of the automobile being displayed. We told him that we were trying to avoid calling it a raffle; we were simply calling it an automobile campaign for the Red Cross, and in order to keep people from calling it a raffle, we had stated at the bottom of the card, "Donate $1 to the Red Cross and receive the number on one of these cards."

Mr. Candler kept the card in his office, on his mantel, at our request, and bought one of the tickets for the automobile, giving us a dollar for the ticket. We jokingly told the Mayor that he was made an accessory to this raffle; that if we were prosecuted, he would have to be prosecuted, too. Mrs. Atkinson afterwards remarked in a very innocent way to the ladies at the club that "Mr. Candler and myself flirted outrageously in the office" that day. I don't think she meant it really, or anything of that kind, but he certainly did attract attention by putting his arm through her arm and my arm as we came from the office and told her not to tell Judge Atkinson that he had done so.

About three days after that, *The Journal* came out with flaming headlines that the Atlanta Woman's Club was raffling an automobile. I called up Mr. Candler at the city hall that morning and told him what *The Journal* had published, and he asked me to come and see him at his office about 3:30. I reached there promptly; he was talking to a man I did not know, and when he left, he walked over to the door and closed it; it had a spring lock. He came over to the davenport, where I was sitting, sat down beside me, put his arms around me, and made a great many demonstrations in a fond and affectionate way. I resisted his attempts to be affectionate.

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