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