MODERN TRILBY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 October 1924, Page 5

MODERN TRILBY.

WOMAN'S DEEENCE TO POISON CHARGE. MT. VERNON (111.), Sept. 24. LaAvrenee Hight, Methodist preacher, and Mrs Wilfred Sweet.in. who confessed that, mutual infatuation prompted the poisoning .of the minister’s A\ T ife and the woman’s husband, were- to-day plaeed in separate gaols. Hight. says he is at peace Avifh God. and ready to die on the gailoAvs if necessary. Mrs Sweetin Avill seek to escape the gallows, by claiming she is a modern Trilby and that she acted under the hypnotic, influence of the preacher, who she calls a. real Svengali. It has been reAmnled that Hight. when preaching the funeral sermon over Sweetin’s body, said “I am unworthy to preach the sermon over this good man.” Ilight was a follower of horse-racing in his youth. He avas . converted to religion by bis AA r ife. He has three groAvn-up children. While being taken prisoner Hight joked AA'ith the detec-.tiA’-es, but. Mr & SAveetin Avept bitter ly* Trilby, in George du Marnier’s novel of* the same name, Avns an artist’s model in the Quartiei Latin Paris. Svengali Avas a Polish Jew and a musical genius. He gains hypnotic control of Trilby, and by this means turns her into a celebrated prim a donna.