I>COOOOOQ(OQOOeGCOS09009^ AUTHOR'S NOTE. The material facts in this J etory of circumstantial evidence £ are drawn from an actual re- i corded case, only such change of names and local color being V made as to remove them from { the classification of legal re- ft ports to that of fiction. All the essential points of evidence, X however, are retained. 5 bcoocoocccc<3ooccor/scoo!/^ <f HE Calf Skin club had as sembled early for its week ly session and every mem ber was in liis accustomed place with Judge Grower in the chair. When the routine business was fin ished the chairman rose and said: "We now will hear from Judge Btoakes who we trust has a story rela tive to circumstantial evidence. Judge Stoakes." Judge Stoakes, a large man of dig nified presence, whose silver hair •lone bespoke his 70 years, rose and began: "My story is of the troubled days In Missouri following upon the civil war, when factional rancor still ran high and the conqueror and the con quered lived together in outward amity hut with secret suspicion. I had Just hung up my shingle In a little town in the southern part of the state which had been the liot-bed of factional warfare, now captured by Lyon, now held by Price, and re peatedly preyed upon by the roving bands of irregulars of either side. Among the most noted leaders of these latter was Col. Jim Farrar. Among the northern sympathizers he was classed with Quartrell and the Youn gers, but when the struggle was over he settled down quietly in the little town of Chester, and his tall form, his flowing moustaches, his campaign hat and long coat became him as the costume did many another warrior of the lost cause. "Col. Farrar's household consisted of but one daughter, 17 years of age, and of that rare type of beauty which so often crops out in an adventurouß and warlike stock. Her name was Lucile and she soon set the heart of every young man in a flame. I my self fell at the first glance, and as I look back down the long stretch of years I can see the black hair, the rosy lips and the flashing eyes of Lu cile Farrar as I watched her ia silent adoration in the meeting house, upon the street or flying along on her pony which seemed as full of life and spirits as its fair rider. "It was silent adoration upon the part of us all, for never a glance did the fair Lucile have for any of us. Rut when Melvin Lessure came to Chester it was different. Something in her woman's heart must have drawn her toward him, for all the in difference and all the scorn were gone and they gave themselves up willingly to a love that quickly ran the gamut from passing interest to pas sionate devotion. "The very mention of a suitor for his daughter's hand was sufficient to send Col. Farrar into a rage terrible to witness. He noted the growing intimacy of Lucile and Lessure with jealous anger. But he could not watch her always, and many a time when he was away looking after the interests of his extensive plantation near the town we less fortunate youths saw Lessure starting on long walks with the fair Lucile. "Melvin Lessure inherited all the firey impulsiveness of a long line of French ancestry and was not the youth to brook long thi3 uncertain entente of his lovemaking. He had a big plantation several miles from Chester and had moved into town for the social advantages that looked large to us then. He was amply able to support matrimony in a style equal to the best in the community. He was handsome, studious and courtly In his manners and seemed to be eligible from any point of view. The local Madame Grundy could find no reason why Melvin Lessure and Lucile Farrar were not a perfectly matched couple. "But the rock on which their happi ness seemed destined to break was that of factional rancor. Col. Farrar was of the south unreconstructed and unreconstructable. Gaspard Lessure, Melvin's father, had cast his lot with the north and had died at his own doorway defending his property against the enemies of his adopted flag. "Melvin Lessure was no match for Col. Jim in brawn or bluster, bull lie hesitated not togo to him with bis suit, and the storm he provoked I give you as it was later reconstructed through the searchings of the law. "'Never, by the Almighty, never!' roared the colonel. 'Before I would see my daughter married to one of the accursed assassins of my country I would slay her with my own hands. Get out of my sight and never dare to raise your eyes to a daughter of the Farrars." "Melvln Lessure stood with white face, clenched hands and gritted teeth while Lucile threw hersslf at her father's feet and weepingly begged and implored him to mitigate the harsh sentence. Hut he cast her rudely from him with a curse, and, turning to Lessure with murder in his eyes, said: " 'You dog! You want my daugh ter —you! Why, I shot your father down in cold blood because he differed with me politically. Do you think I'll do less for you for trying to rob me of my daughter?' " 'So it was you who killed my father,' returned Lessure in a voice beneath the quiet of which lay the tense fixedness of a stern, unbending resolve. 'Then, Col. Farrar, I tell you that I will have your daughter and I will avenge my father. Are you mine till death, Lucile?' "'I am youra till death,' said the girl as she went over and placed her arm proudly about his neck. "Very little was seen of Lessure in town after that and it was whis pered that he was staying out on his farm and keeping out of the irate colonel's way. , "About two weeks aiter his unsuc cessful interview with Farrar, which was noised abroad as such things are in a small town, Lucile Farrar disappeared, and the tongues began to wag in earnest. When for a week she had not turned up the towns peo ple, who had little love for Farrar at best, were ready to believe anything. His threat against his daughter was known and the bolder ones cMd not hesitate to whisper that he had put it into execution. These hints took i form by degrees and at last a witness came forward who told of passing the colonel's house, situated on the edge of town, late at night, and of hearing low moans and pleadings. "At last suspicion took such fierce root that the sheriff headed an In vestigating party. Col. Jim was away and they had free run of the prem ises. "The search led to a cave in the side of the hill, once used as a cellar but long since abandoned. There they found torn pieces of a dress, a bloody hatchet and some tangled locks of black hair drenched with blood. The dress and tho hair were easily identified as belonging to Lucile Far rar, the hatchet as the property of the colonel. "When charged with the crime his knees tottered and he nearly fainted. He made no direct denial but moaned and cried like a child. During the trial that followed he seemed stunned and oblivious to what was going on. "I will admit that the courts of to-day would be loath to accept so inadequate a corpus delicti, but our blood was hot in those times and it seems to me we hanged more than we do now. Service waß had on Les sure and he testified to the facts of the quarrel and the threat. Upon this evidence and the prisoner's failure to deny they found their verdict of guilty and fixed upon the death penalty. "As tho day of execution approach ed Col. Farrar continued in a state of almost total insensibility. Hut when the sheriff came to read the death warrant, he roused and raising Ills hand to heaven, said: V'Before my maker I swear that 1 j amVruiltless of my child's death.' '"mey led him to the scaffold and | on th\way he passed Melvin Lessure who was* watching the scene like a bird by a snake. Col. Far rar requested the sheriff to stop, and CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY JULY 22, 1909. * extending his hald to Lessure ex claimed: 'Young man, I have wronged you and I have no wish to leave this earth with the ill will of any man. I ask your forgiveness for standing between you and my poor child and for the death of your father which I believed to be in the line of duty to ward my country.' "Lessure trembled violently but did not reply or raise his eyes. The march to the scaffold continued. A deputy was forced to support the tot tering form of Farrar while the sheriff adjusted the black cap. Then the sheriff stepped back and all was in readiness for the fatal word when Lessure sprang forward and cried in an agonized voice: " 'Stop! I alone am guilty—l alone!' "The officers of the law called him forward and demanded an explanation. He declared that Lucile was not dead but that they had run off and been married and his wife was then living in concealment in St. Louis, for fear of the wrath of her father and until he could settle up his affairs and join her. But he had not divulged to BOTH STRENGTH AND BEAUTY # Proper Respiration Adds to Each, But Is Too Little Under stood. There will be fewer flat-chested wo men and much leas nervous prostra tion when proper attention is giving to breathing, says an exchange. As Delsarte has said, there should be "strength at the center, freedom at the surface," and this freedom is but acquired by learning to use one's lungs at will. By developing and en larging them the thoracic cavity is in creased, and upon the degree of this power depends expansion. In order to control one's nerves one must learn to command one's involun tary muscles, which are diaphragm, the heart and the intestines. By breathing deeply and controlling one s breath and so increasing one's lung capacity, the heart action is stimulat ed, and this supplies the nerve centers with fresh blood, and the nerves act upon the muscles and the brain upon the nerves and muscles. In order not to have any waste of t nerve force, the chest should be kept her a plan which had formed in his brain to revenge himself upon her father both for his insulting words and for the death of his own parent. He had cut ofT a portion of her hair while she slept and dipped it in the blood of a lamb. lie had also sprink led blood over pieces of her dress. The hatchet was easily procured. These he had placed in the cave dur ing one of Col. Farrar's numerous ab sences from the house and there also he had himself emitted the moans which had been heard. He would have carried his hellish plot through to the end but that the colonel's plea for forgiveness at the gallows un nerved him. "This confession was made partly at the place of execution and partly afterward in the jail. As soon as It became clear that Lessure had an im portant statement to make the sheriff turned to the colonel to take the in signia of death from his head. Far rar, unobserved by all who were in tent upon the words of Lessure, ha 4 sunk into a sitting posture. The sheriff stepped up to him and raised the black cap. He was dead. "Lessure was immediately placed under arrest. He blew his brains out in his cell that night with a pistol procured, no one knew how. Lucile went mad on hearing of the tragedy, and was confined some time in an asylum. She recovered and ended her days in a convent. "That, gentlemen, is my story." There was a stirring of chairs and a general lighting of pipes which had been allowed togo out in the rapt attention that prevailed while Judge Stoakes was speaking, when Judge Grower aro~e and said: "I believe I voice the sentiments of the club in extending thanks to Judge Stoakes." (Copyright, 1909, by Joseph B. Bowles.> active by deep inhalations, thus loos ening the tension of unemployed mem bers. The persistent and regular prac tice of a breathing exercise will not only do this, but will give poise and self-confldence. The movements of respiration stand in a double relation to the nervous system, being required to introduce oxygen into the blood, which takes up the oxygen, and freeing itself of the carbonic acid it contains, the latter thus acts as a powerful stimulus to the lung nerves. One should remember to avoid col lar-bone breathing, to cultivate the raised and active chest, and to gain control of the diaphragm in order to have complete mastery of breathing. It is not necessary to take a long, tiresome trip to some far away place in order to be taught 10 care for oneself, for nature will come to one's till with joyful alacrity in one spot as well as another. But knowledge is not the only thing required. It is its application that counts, and this means steadfast de termination. Pennsylvania Happenings Pittsburg.—lt was indicated recent ly that the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. lias made such progress in rounding out its financial plans that it will be gin placing its $;i5,000,000 car orders early this fall. The cost of the 35,000 cars to be ordered, it is estimated, will average SI,OOO a piece. A large part of them will be of the steel gon dola pattern for hauling coal, ore and limestone, while the rest will be box cars, with steel underframe. Harrlsburg. Twenty-mree more prosecutions were ordered by Dairy and Food Commissioner Foust against dealers in Allegheny county. Four teen of these cases are to be brought as the result of selling adulterated milk, water having been added and butter fat having been removed; four for adulterated sausage containing cereals and too much water, and Ave for oleomargarine, colored with coal tar dies. Harrisburg.—Last fall sensational stories were printed telling of the im mense heads of wheat that could be grown from the variety known as Alaska wheat. Although the agricul tural department advised against the purchase of this kind of wheat by the farmers of this state, many of them were willing to pay $lO a bushel for it. This wheat has just reached its maturity about here, and several sam ples of it have been received here. The stalks are tall and healthy look ing and so are the husks, but there is not a grain of wheat on any of the stalks. It is estimated that the Ne braska man who sold the seed wheat made a fortune. Harrisburg.—Col. George W. Storm of this city has just completed six portraits of former auditors general and a portrait of a former state treas urer. The former portraits have been hung in the auditor general's depart ment and the picture of the former state treasurer, William B. Hart, 1888- 1889, was placed in the state treas ury. The former auditors general fol low: John F. Hartranft, 1866-72; Harrison Allen, 1872-75; Justus F. Temple, 1875-78; William P. Schell, 1878-81; Jerome B. Niles, 1884-87; A. Wilson Norris, 1887-88 (died in office). The half a dozen pictures added to the gallery in the auditor general's department complete the list since the Civil war, Pittsburg.—The strike of 18,000 coal miners, which has been ordered, will close down many mines of the Pitts burg Coal Co., or famous soft coal trust, and will be a blow at the United States Steel Corporation, which gets its coal from the Pittsburg Coal Co. It Is understood that one of the reasons why the strike was decided upon at this time is because of the strike now on by the Tin Plate Workers against the Steel Corpora tion. The decision to strike was ar rived at after a long conference be tween the national and international officers of the United Mine Workers of America. The reasons given by the miners for the strike is that the Pittsburg Coal Co., with its 70 mines, has not lived up to its agreement with the workmen and that new and heav ier duties have been forced on the men. ' Harrisburg.—Unless the new petrol butter, the latest product of the Standard Oil CO., is made exclusively from unadulterated milk, it will come under the oleomargarine head and cannot be sold in this state as but ter. It can only be sold under license, issued in conformity to the oleo act. At present the ingredients of the new "butter" are not known to the dairy and food division, but it is prob able that an analysis will be made of the new substance as soon as it is offered for sale in Pennsylvania. Dairy and Food Commissioner Foust lias issued the following statement in regard to the matter: "The compo sition of the matter is not definitely known. If, however, it should be found to contain any substance, dele terious to health it would, being sold for use as a food, come under the pro hibitive provisions of the general food act. If it contain no substance dele terious to health, but is an article sim ilar in character and use to oleomar garine, butterine, or butter, and is not produced exclusively from unadulter ated milk or cream, it would come within the provisions known as the 'oleomargarine act,' and would there fore, be legally salable only under li cense issued by the food bureau, and could not be legally licensed unless it were kept free from all coloration or ingredient that causes it to re semble or be in imitation of yellow butter; and would, of course, be sub ject to all the provisions of the act mentioned." Uniontown. —Sixty separate compa nies, holding 75 plants, with 10,000 ovens and 40,000 acres of coal —that tells the story of the bigness of the new independent coke merger, whose success was assured beyond peradven ture at a meeting in this city. New Castle. —Fifteen hundred men will be benefited by the resumption of work at the Standard Steel Car Co. The company has received a large order for all-steel cars for the New York traction lines. The plant has been shut down for two months. MORE PINKHAM CURES Added to the Long List due to This Famous Remedy. , Camden, N. J.— "It is with pleasure that I add my testimonial to your already long list —hoping that it may Induce others to avail themselves of n^ am ' 8 and made me feel like a new person, and it shall always have my praise. —Mrs. W. P. VALENTINE, 602 Lincoln Avenue, Camden, N. J. Gardiner, Me. "I was a great suf ferer from a female disease. The doc tor said I would have togo to the hospital for an operation, but Lydia E. Pinfeham's Vegetable Compound com pletely cured me in three months."— MRS. S. A. WILLIAMS, li. P. D. No. 14* Box 39, Gardiner Me. Because your case i 8 a difficult one, doctors having done you no good, do not continue to suffer without giving Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound a trial. It surely has cured many cases of female ills, such as in flammation, ulceration, displacements, fibroid tumors, irregularities, periodic pains, backache, that bearing-down feeling, indigestion, dizziness, and ner vous prostration. It costs but a trifle to try it, and the result is worth mile lions to many suffering women. STOPPED HER SONG OF JOY. Slight Forgetfulness That Marred the Full Appreciation of the Welcome Rain. "Isn't that a lovely shower!" ex claimed Mrs. Randall to her friend in the parlor as they gazed out on the sudden downpour. "Yes, we need it so badly." "Need it? I should say we did. It's a God-send! Why, our goldenglows, hyacinths and roses out in the back yard are shrinking for the want of rain. The sprinkler can't take the place of rain, you know." "Indeed not." "Oh, I tell you this is Just lovelyt See how it pours! And to think that just when everything threatens to dry up and every one is praying for rain nature answers these appeals and sends us beautiful — Good heavens!" "What's the matter?" "I've left the baby out in the yardl" —The Circle. NO TIME LIKE THE PRESTNT. "Why, Mrs. Jones, what are you do ing out in all this rain?" "Oh, I just ran out to buy an urr< brella!" Hospitals a Benefit to Property. The National association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis has recently concluded an investiga tion, which shows that 67.5 per cent, of the tuberculosis sanatoria and hos pitals of the United States have been a benefit to the property and health of the communities in which they are located, in the case of more than 62 per cent, of the sanatoria the presenca of the institutions has helped to in crease the assessed value of surround ing property. Better than cold —Like it in color— Hamlins Wizard Oil—the best of all rem edies for rheumatism, neuralgia, and all pain, soreness and inflammation. We lose money and comfort, and even temper sometimes by not learn ing to be more careful.—Dickens. 31 re. Window'* Soothing Syrup. For children teething, iofterii the gums, reduce* Sammallon, aUaya pain, curea wind collo. 3M a botti*. The daughter's doings have been the mother's acts. II MTCMT© Walioa H.rol»mon,Wailv f'H I I'M I Ington, I).I'. Hooks free. Illtfb. I m ■ W eat reference*. Beat reaulMa 3
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers