An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

been directed by but one motive—that the state shall have

justice done. No malice, no pre-conceived notions of any

kind. So late as July 9th last I personally was not even

aware of the existence of this defendant, nor of his victim,

nor of the crime with which he is now charged. But,

gentlemen, as shocked and unbelieving as I was at first

upon hearing that a man of the age, training and

connections of the defendant here could have placed

himself in a position to be accused of such an offense, step

by step I was compelled to alter and then dismiss forever

from my mind my original doubts and to conclude from the

mass of evidence that was literally thrust upon me, that it

was my duty to prosecute this action in behalf of the people.

“But, however that may be, let us proceed to the facts.

There are two women in this action. One is dead. The

other” (and he now turned toward where Clyde sat, and

here he pointed a finger in the direction of Belknap and

Jephson), “by agreement between the prosecution and the

defense is to be nameless here, since no good can come

from inflicting unnecessary injury. In fact, the sole purpose

which I now announce to you to be behind every word and

every fact as it will be presented by the prosecution is that

exact justice, according to the laws of this state and the

crime with which this defendant is charged, shall be done.

Exact justice, gentlemen, exact and fair. But if you do not

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941

act honesty and render a true verdict according to the

evidence, the people of the state of New York and the

people of the county of Cataraqui will have a grievance and

a serious one. For it is they who are looking to you for a

true accounting for your reasoning and your final decision in

this case.”

And here Mason paused, and then turning dramatically

toward Clyde, and with his right index finger pointing toward

him at times, continued: “The people of the state of New

York charge,” (and he hung upon this one word as though

he desired to give it the value of rolling thunder), “that the

crime of murder in the first degree has been committed by

the prisoner at the bar—Clyde Griffiths. They charge that he

willfully, and with malice and cruelty and deception,

murdered and then sought to conceal forever from the

knowledge and the justice of the world, the body of Roberta

Alden, the daughter of a farmer who has for years resided

near the village of Biltz, in Mimico County. They charge”

(and here Clyde, because of whispered advice from

Jephson, was leaning back as comfortably as possible and

gazing as imperturbably as possible upon the face of

Mason, who was looking directly at him) “that this same

Clyde Griffiths, before ever this crime was committed by

him, plotted for weeks the plan and commission of it, and

then, with malice aforethought and in cold blood, executed

it.

“And in charging these things, the people of the State of

New York expect to, and will, produce before you

substantiations of every one of them. You will be given

facts, and of these facts you, not I, are to be the sole judge.”

And here he paused once more, and shifting to a different

physical position while the eager audience crowded and

leaned forward, hungry and thirsty for every word he should

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942

utter, he now lifted one arm and dramatically pushing back

his curly hair, resumed:

“Gentlemen, it will not take me long to picture, nor will you

fail to perceive for yourselves as this case proceeds, the

type of girl this was whose life was so cruelly blotted out

beneath the waters of Big Bittern. All the twenty years of

her life” (and Mason knew well that she was twenty-three

and two years older than Clyde) “no person who ever knew

her ever said one word in criticism of her character. And no

evidence to that effect, I am positive, will be introduced in

this trial. Somewhat over a year ago—on July 19—she went

to the city of Lycurgus, in order that by working with her

own hands she might help her family.” (And here the sobs

of her parents and sisters and brothers were heard

throughout the courtroom.)

“Gentlemen,” went on Mason, and from this point carrying

on the picture of Roberta’s life from the time she first left

home to join Grace Marr until, having met Clyde on Crum

Lake and fallen out with her friend and patrons, the

Newtons, because of him, she accepted his dictum that she

live alone, amid strange people, concealing the suspicious

truth of this from her parents, and then finally succumbing

to his wiles—the letters she had written him from Biltz

detailing every single progressive step in this story. And

from there, by the same meticulous process, he proceeded

to Clyde—his interest in the affairs of Lycurgus society and

the rich and beautiful Miss X, who because of a purely

innocent and kindly, if infatuated, indication on her part that

he might hope to aspire to her hand—had unwittingly

evoked in him a passion which had been the cause of the

sudden change in his attitude and emotions toward

Roberta, resulting, as Mason insisted he would show, in the

plot that had resulted in Roberta’s death.

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943

“But who is the individual,” he suddenly and most

dramatically exclaimed at this point, “against whom I charge

all these things? There he sits! Is he the son of wastrel

parents—a product of the slums—one who had been

denied every opportunity for a proper or honorable

conception of the values and duties of a decent and

respectable life? Is he? On the contrary. His father is of the

same strain that has given Lycurgus one of its largest and

most constructive industries—the Griffiths Collar & Shirt

Company. He was poor—yes—no doubt of that. But not

more so than Roberta Alden—and her character appears

not to have been affected by her poverty. His parents in

Kansas City, Denver, and before that Chicago and Grand

Rapids, Michigan, appear to have been unordained

ministers of the proselytizing and mission-conducting type—

people who, from all I can gather, are really, sincerely

religious and right-principled in every sense. But this, their

oldest son, and the one who might have been expected to

be deeply influenced by them, early turned from their world

and took to a more garish life. He became a bell-boy in a

celebrated Kansas City hotel, the Green-Davidson.”

And now he proceeded to explain that Clyde had ever been

a rolling stone—one who, by reason of some quirk of

temperament, perhaps, preferred to wander here and there.

Later, as he now explained, he had been given an

important position as head of a department in the well-

known factory of his uncle at Lycurgus. And then gradually

he was introduced into the circles in which his uncle and his

children were familiar. And his salary was such that he

could afford to keep a room in one of the better residences

of the city, while the girl he had slain lived in a mean room

in a back street.

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944

“And yet,” he continued, “how much has been made here of

the alleged youth of this defendant?” (Here he permitted

himself a scornful smile.) “He has been called by his

counsel and others in the newspapers a boy, over and over

again. He is not a boy. He is a bearded man. He has had

more social and educational advantages than any one of

you in the jury box. He has traveled. In hotels and clubs and

the society with which he was so intimately connected in

Lycurgus, he has been in contact with decent, respectable,

and even able and distinguished people. Why, as a matter

of fact, at the time of his arrest two months ago, he was

part of as smart a society and summer resort group as this

region boasts. Remember that! His mind is a mature, not

an immature one. It is fully developed and balanced

perfectly.

“Gentlemen, as the state will soon proceed to prove,” he

went on, “it was no more than four months after his arrival

in Lycurgus that this dead girl came to work for the

defendant in the department of which he was the head. And

it was not more than two months after that before he had

induced her to move from the respectable and religious

home which she had chosen in Lycurgus, to one

concerning which she knew nothing and the principal

advantage of which, as he saw it, was that it offered

secrecy and seclusion and freedom from observation for

that vile purpose which already he entertained in regard to

her.

“There was a rule of the Griffiths Company, as we will later