WOMEN WHO FASCINATE JURIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 41, 28 May 1910, Page 9

WOMEN WHO FASCINATE JURIES

A fascinating woman is never more fascinating than when she is in the dock fighting for her life. The notorious Countess Tarnowskn, when testifying on her own hehaii hi her trial at \'enice, was not allowed to sit near the judge, as were the other prisoners when giving evidence, for fear that he might be hypnotised by her charm.

Madame Steinheil, the central figure in that sensational murder mystery at Paris, possessed to a remarkable degree the same marvcllou-. mesmeric power. As when free, so when a prisoner, she fascinated everybody she came in tontact witili, and—the' jury acquitted 'her. An emotional French jury! Yes, but a stolid British jury once acted in precisely the same way. It was at the Old Bailey, some three years ago. A Frenchwoman was (in trial for throwing vitriol over her lover in a London hotel? For four whole days she stood in the dock, and during t/h'e whole four d'a.vs her eyes, dark as sloes, were hard'lv ever turned away from the faces of the jury. One who was present has left it on record that the wonderful variety of expressions she managed to impart'into those same eyes of hers has rarely been equalled. Small wonder such sirens escape conviction. But one wonders what verdict a. jury of 'women would .return.