A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [149]
Milburn picked up with Ball’s damaging admission that he had been in error when he accused Grover Cleveland of having been present when Oscar Folsom broke his neck.
“I want to ask how you came to learn that the Beaver Island Clubhouse was a place of drunkenness and lust?”
“I do not know. I did not understand that there was a club. That is, I did not know the nature of the organization.”
Milburn kept at it. He was intense and very persistent. He wanted to know how Ball had come to characterize the Beaver Island Club as a disreputable place when “respectable citizens were in the habit of taking their wives and children there.”
Ball finally admitted that he got the information about the goings-on at Beaver Island from Dr. Alexander T. Bull, a physician who served as house doctor at the Iroquois Hotel. Dr. George W. Lewis had also been present during the conversation, which was held in Alexander Bull’s medical office at the Iroquois.
What about the publication of “A Terrible Tale” in the Evening Telegraph?
Ball admitted that he had turned over the findings of his investigation regarding Grover Cleveland to the Evening Telegraph.
“Did you give facts for it?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“To whom?”
“To Mr. Cresswell.”
“Did you visit him?”
“No, sir, he came to see me. I gave him the points, and he wrote the article. He made notes of what I said. But I did not write it.”
“Did you not recommend people to read it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Was it not a fact, Milburn asked Ball, that he had gone to Vine Alley “hunting up” the janitress who used to work for Cleveland? The question caused a stir in the courtroom. Everyone knew that Vine Alley was a notorious neighborhood where vice and wickedness were more or less condoned by authorities. The question was intended to establish that Ball was not just a source for the Evening Telegraph but had also played an active role in the newspaper’s investigation.
Ball said yes, he had gone to Vine Alley in search of Mrs. McLean, Cleveland’s “colored” maid, to question her about Cleveland’s drinking habits and the company he kept. Reverend E. S. Hubbard had accompanied him. It was an awkward moment for Hubbard, who at that moment was sitting in the courtroom.
“Did you visit with this negress?”
“I did.”
“And you visited her for the express purpose of finding out about Mr. Cleveland’s habits?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were in the habit of running down people to learn all about Mr. Cleveland, were you not?”
That was not the case at all, Ball said. He accused Milburn of trying to give the impression that he was a snooping detective. “These visits were made at the solicitation of our ministers.”
Milburn turned to another subject.
“You lived in Owensville, Indiana?”
“At one time, yes.”
“And you had trouble with a lady of your congregation?”
“I had some difficulty there.”
The unpleasant incident had taken place on May 15, 1881. Ball had been invited to give a guest sermon at the General Baptist Church in Owensville. He was delivering the sermon when an esteemed lady, Mrs. James Montgomery, caught up in the Holy Spirit, praised God in a manner that Ball found offensive. But he let it go. A moment later, she did it again—it was described as an “ejaculation.” This time Ball turned to Mrs. Montgomery and told her, “Hush up!” She just sat there, indignant at this public rebuke. The rest of the congregation became incensed at what they construed to be the humiliation of one of the town’s leading citizens. The next day, with righteous anger mounting, Mrs. Montgomery’s son went to see Ball and “compelled him to make an immediate apology to his mother.” Ball was threatened with a whipping if he refused.