Mr. Morse testified that Mr. Borden had told him that most of the family had been sick the day before. He was also questioned at length concerning the condition of things at the house when he arrived.
Bridget Sullivan was then called and said: “My name is Bridget Sullivan, and I was known by the name of Maggie at the Borden house. I was employed there for two years and nine months. I swept the front hall every other week and had no duties in the bedrooms. At the time of the tragedy Miss Emma was not at home. She had been out of town for a week, and when she was gone the family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Borden and Miss Lizzie. Miss Lizzie went with Miss Emma when she went away, but came back. I first saw Mr. Morse between 1:30 and 2 o’clock on the day he arrived. I saw him again walking out in the afternoon. I did not see him when he arrived home that night. I got up at 6:15 o’clock Thursday morning, and it was 10 o’clock the night before when I retired. I locked the screen door and the back wooden door before I went to bed. When I came down in the morning I found the doors exactly as I had left them, and I opened them. I went out for milk, and afterward hooked up the screen door. The back door remained open. Nobody else came in or out that I can remember, except members of the house. I did not go out of the house again until Mr. Borden went out. Nobody was up when I came down, and the first one I saw was Mrs. Borden. I saw her in the kitchen and on the back stairs at half past 6. Never knew anybody to go up the back way to the front part, or the front way to the back part; Mr. Borden came down about two minutes after Mrs. Borden; he went out doors before breakfast; he went into the barn and got some water; he emptied a pail from the house and came back; I was in the kitchen all the time; after Mr. Borden came in with his pail he washed up; he put his dressing coat on after washing up; think he put his necktie and collar on after breakfast; we had for breakfast cold mutton, soup, johnny cakes and coffee; breakfast, as nearly as I recollect, was at 7:15; after breakfast they were in the sitting room; Mr. Morse had come down to breakfast; he went out at quarter of 9, I should judge; Mr. Borden let him out; Mrs. Borden, I expect, was in the sitting room when Mr. Morse went; I saw Mr. Borden there about 9; don’t know when Mr. Morse went;
after Morse went, Mr. Borden went up the back stairs; did not see him when he came down or went out; don’t know if he went out the front or back door; I went out in the back yard awhile; I was sick at my stomach and vomited; did not see Mrs. Borden when I came back; was out in the yard four or five minutes, and came back into the kitchen and washed dishes. Mrs. Borden told me she wanted the windows washed inside and outside all around the house. I did not see Mrs. Borden after that. She went into the kitchen. The next time I saw her she was dead. Lizzie was then through with her breakfast. She came down stairs before I went outside. She was then in the kitchen. When I came back I don’t know where she was. I asked Lizzie what she wanted for breakfast and she said she didn’t feel like eating anything. When I saw Mrs. Borden she had a dusting cloth and was dusting the dining room. I didn’t know where Lizzie was. That was after both men had gone. I don’t know whether or not I locked the screen door after I came in from vomiting. I then cleaned up the kitchen and straightened up and commenced to prepare to wash the windows. I went down cellar and got a pail, got a brush from the closet and went out to the barn to get a stick. Miss Lizzie then came into the back entry and asked where I was going. I told her I was going to wash windows and that she need not hook the door. I told her I’d get the water in the barn, and she said all right. The door was then hooked and I had to unhook it. I was down in the cellar earlier in the morning to get coal and wood. The next time I went down was when I got the pail. It was half an hour after Mrs. Borden told me to wash the windows before I commenced. During that time I did not see Miss Lizzie except when she came to the screen door. Where she was I don’t know. I had not been doing any work in the spare room; Lizzie Borden never did work in the spare room when her friends had occupied it. After I went out to wash the windows I saw Lizzie; she had asked me as I went out if I was going to wash the windows; I told her yes, and that if she wanted to close the windows I would get water in the barn; five windows I had to wash; I shut three before I went out, and two others were already shut. I did not see Miss Lizzie after I got out; I had not seen anybody while I was in the barn after the dipper. When I went down stairs after the pail, I went down the kitchen stairs. We wash on Monday, and iron Tuesday, and on Monday and Tuesday the cellar door was open. I opened the door the day I hung my clothes out, and don’t know if anybody else went in or out of it that week before the murder. I shut and locked the door Tuesday, myself.
I got through washing the windows at twenty minutes past 10, I think. Washed the sitting room side first and then the parlor and last the dining room. The windows were shut upstairs. I then went inside at the screen door, hooked it, and getting a hand basin washed the sitting room windows inside. Did not see Lizzie or Mr. Borden in the house while I was washing the sitting room windows. Didn’t see anybody outside or in the house while I was washing windows. I heard Mr. Borden try to get in at the front door. Afterwards went to the front door and found the bolt and lock turned. Miss Lizzie was upstairs at that time. She might have been in the hall, for I heard her laugh upstairs as I let Mr. Borden in. I went to open the door and it was locked, and I made some exclamation when she laughed aloud. I did not see her until five or ten minutes afterwards. I was in the sitting room. Mr. Borden came in and sat down at the head of the lounge in the dining room. He was reading and I was in the sitting room washing windows. I did not see her when I let Mr. Borden in. I heard her tell her father that Mrs. Borden got a note and went out. Lizzie spoke very low. I don’t know where Lizzie went then, and I don’t know whether or not she stayed in her room. After I finished in the sitting room, Mr. Borden took the key from the sitting room shelf and started upstairs the back way. When he came down I was just going into the dining room. I did not see Miss Lizzie then. She was not in the dining room, sitting room or kitchen. Then Mr. Borden sat down near the window in the sitting room, with a book or paper in his hand. He brought the key back and put it on the shelf. He sat in an easy chair, and I had started to wash the first window in the dining room. I did not see Miss Lizzie, and only saw her when she came into the dining room, and then to the kitchen, and then back again to the dining room with an ironing board. She placed the ironing board on the dining room table. Where she came from I do not know. She put the ironing board on a corner of the table. It was about two feet long. She always ironed the handkerchiefs. I did not hear Mr. Borden leave the chair in which he was sitting. After I finished I came into the kitchen, and Miss Lizzie asked me if I was going out. I told her I didn’t know, as I was feeling sick, and she said if I went out to be sure and lock the door, as “I may be out,” and Mrs. Borden had got a note and gone out. I then went upstairs to my room, and Miss Lizzie was down stairs working at the ironing board. She came out and told me there was a sale of dry goods at Sargent’s. If Mr. Borden changed his position to the sofa, I didn’t know it. Soon
after I got upstairs it struck 11 o’clock. I was then lying in bed, but I didn’t take my clothes off. I thought I had time enough to get dinner at half past 11. I always went upstairs before dinner if I had time. Didn’t look at the fire before I went upstairs. The dinner was to be soup to warm over and cold mutton. Had not put the soup on, and the potatoes were in the soup. A coal fire was started in the morning. I was going down stairs about 11:30. Had not gone out of the screen door again after I commenced to wash the windows inside. I next heard something when Lizzie called me. It might have been ten or fifteen minutes after I came upstairs. She hollored at me. I knew from the way she hollored something was the matter. She hollored loud; she said her father was dead. She told me to run after Dr. Bowen. I wanted to run in ahead and see, but she told me to run quick and tell the doctor. I went and told Mrs. Bowen about it. Mrs. Bowen told me to tell Miss Russell about it and I went back and told Miss Lizzie. She told me to go after Miss Russell. When I got back from the Bowens, Miss Lizzie was still at the door. When I got back from Miss Russell’s Dr. Bowen had just got out of his wagon, and I think Mrs. Churchill was there. Miss Lizzie was then in the kitchen. We talked, and Miss Lizzie said she’d like us to search for Mrs. Borden. I said I’d go upstairs, and Mrs. Churchill said she’d go with me. I went up and saw Mrs. Borden before I went in. When the house was searched that day a box of hatchets was behind the furnace. I don’t know if the cellar door was open when the officers were searching the house the day of the murder. I asked Lizzie where she was, and she said she was out in the back yard.”
“When was it she said that?” “After I got back from Mrs. Russell’s.” “Do you know what dress she had on?” “I don’t know.” “Had Mrs. Borden said anything to you about going out?” “No, sir.” “Was it her habit to notify you when she went out?” Mr. Adams promptly objected to this and the Court excluded the question. “Then the only thing you know about her going out was what Lizzie told you?” Mr. Jennings objected to this question and said that while he did not object to the District Attorney asking leading questions on unimportant matters, this was altogether too serious a point to allow such queries. District Attorney Knowlton declined to take this view of the matter, and a discussion commenced, pending which an adjournment for the day was taken.
CHAPTER XVI.
Third and Fourth Days of the Trial.
Mr. Knowlton called Bridget Sullivan to the stand and she continued her testimony—“Mrs. Borden came down stairs Wednesday morning, saying she and Mr. Borden had been sick that night. They looked pretty sick. Lizzie said she had been sick all night, too. I came down to start the fire. Miss Lizzie had been ironing eight or nine minutes when I went up stairs. There used to be a horse kept in the barn. Since the horse was kept there, I have seen Lizzie go to the barn. Miss Lizzie spoke about her mother going out and said her mother had received a note that morning.”