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Vl AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER. "X?mI&!
r0. -VII. New Bloomfleld, Pa., Tuesday, May SO, 1873. ; No. SO.
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Tried for Murder.
A Detective's Story.
I HAVE worked up many bard cases,
and havo cornered many notorious
criminals, but never, before or since, have
I engaged in a case so complicated, or one
which was so , hard to clear up, as that
Btuart-Firstone murder case
You know the Stuarts were very healthy
and the old man had only two sons, Cecil
and Gilbert; outlandish names they had, to
be sure, but they were very proud of them,
at least the younger one. As I said, he
had' only two to bother him, and. to these,
of course, lie gave the bulk of his property.
Cecil was a cripple, the result of being
dropped by a careless nurse in infancy.
Gilbert, the younger of tho two, was
early known to all the sports as a jolly
good fellow, partly because he would al
ways stand a treat, and would play bil
liards and such games; and yet ho was nev
er known to win when playing for a wager.
In this manner he sustained his reputation
of beine a free-and-easy fellow. But in the
meantime his proporty was steadily do
creasing until, at last, his share which, in
the first place, would have been moro than
enough for men like you and me dwin
died down to an insigniticant sum, and he
had to look in some other direction for
money to pay his gaming debts. Ho bad
often applied to his brother for aid, and
- had often obtained it, together with good
advice, which he promised to heed, but
never did.
Cecil was always very studious, and had
surrounded himself with all tho old-fashioned
books that he could hear of or obtain.
And on account of his lameness this kind
of company had a charm for him that we
in good health would not feel.
Cecil was always very lenient toward
his erring brother; but at last healing from
every source of his scrapes, he was com
pelled, by a sense of duty, to resolve to
. l-c fuse his application for aid. And it was
not long before he bad to test bis resolu
tion, for Gilbert, after an "all night" of it
at a gaming saloon, came to him and beg
ged for more money. Cecil Teasoned with
him, and with tears iu his eyes begged that
he would quit his wild habits. But all was
of no avail, and he was compelled, much
against his brotherly foelings, to refuse
him the aid he sought. At this Gilbert
Hew into a frenzy of rage and left the
house, swearing that he would get the mon
ey in some manner.
As he was walking honeward, fueling
anything but pleasant, he saw his dead'
liest enemy riding with a young lady, to
whom he bad , been paying attention for
some time, but who now gave him the
" cut direct." Maddened at this, be rush
ed into a saloon near by, and calling for
whisky, he swallowed a glassful in an in
slant, then went home and called his bos
om friend and counselor to him.
Albert Firstone, the friend, was a broken-down
gambler; a man who had spent
a fortune on the turf, and was now nom
inally acting as a jockoy for Gilbert Stuart,
but, was in reality his ; confederate in
schemes of robbery, and, as the sequel
will show, of murder. These two friends
were closeted togother for a long while,
and time showed the tesult of their con
ference, though I would not spoil my sto
ry by revealing too toon their nefarious
designs.
Of course you remember the excite
' ment in the up-town circles when the new
of Cecil Stuart's murder was circulated,
and the astonishment of every one when it
was known that his body had been found
in tho coal collar of Roger Lyon's brown
stone palace.1 Astonishment was inoreased
manifold by the Intelligence that ' Roger
Lyon had been arrested and charged with
the crime of murder.
Although but few wcro intimately ac
quainted with Cecil Stuart, and a scarce
ly large circle barely knew him us a very
eccentric man, yet the crime being com
mitted at the very door of their mansion
made it seem the most startling one in the
records of our city; and as there were many
influential personages who loved Roger
Lyon better than all their friends besides,
and many a poor washerwoman who bless
ed the day that he saved her bit of ground
from the auctioneer's hammer to have
him, the people's favorite, charged ' with
such a deed, seemed to bo an outrago upon
all classes of our citizens."'
I well remember whon Lansing, Lyon's
lawyer, called upon me and begged me
to try my beet to clear up the mystery.
At this time I had been in the detective
force nearly four years, and of course,
know the ropes pretty well. But for a
month I confess that at times I was nearly
ballled.
t
But I will come directly to my story.
As a first step, I went to the cellar where
the body was found, and, as I had ordered
it to be left there after the inquest till I
could examine everything myself, it still
remained there. Being something of a
doctor, I naturally examined tho wounds,
and was satisfied they would not cause in
stant death. But I did not roly upon my
own medical skill in this, but sent for a
physician, lie came a sharp fellow nam
ed Denninc and probed tho wounds.
One of them went closo to the heart, the
other two were in tho lungs, evidently in
tended to cause hemorrhage, which had
followed, but not sufficient to cause death
immediately.
Roger Lyon's knife, with which tho deed
had been committed, a silver-mounted
affair, lay near tho wall.
The doctor soon finished his work, and
giving me a look that I interpreted in
stantly, went out, taking Lansing with
hitu, to whom he communicated tho re
sult of his examinations. When they had
gone I walked over to the wall and picked
up the knife. As soon as I stooped over to
do this I saw somo marks on the wall that
appeared to have been made by a sharp
instrument of somo kind. Whilo I was
examfning these Gilbert Stuart and Albert
Firstone ontered. I was about to call their
attention to the marks when a sudden
thought caused me to close my mouth upon
the words that were almost on my tongue's
end.
After obtaining por mission thoy took
the body to his late residence.
As soon as they were gone, I again ex
amined the marks, and found they were
a combination of letters and figures ar
ranged like this:
B 1225 I)
I copied them on paper, and then, tak
ing tho knife with me, I went to my office
down-town, to study out, if possible, the
cipher I bad discovered. I had no doubt
that it was made by Cecil, probably after he
had been stabbed ; and I . was convinced
tl-.at the cause of its being in cipher was,
that no one would be able to notice it
euough to obliterate it. But by what
means could I obtain a key wag now the
puzzle. , , . ,
Acting according to a suggestion of Lan
sing,! went to the library, and for a week I
rummaged its shelves for any work that
mentioned cipher writing. I continued
bringing home books until my dun looked
more like a reading-room than a detective's
office, whilo in their midst sat Lansing,
searching every page, and, occasionally
jotting down , something in a book by his
side. ., , , , ,,
. One day, ns I entered , with my arms full
of books, I noticed a look of ( triumph
on his face as his pencil flow over the pa
per., , In answer to my inquiry . he banded
mo a slip of paper upon which he had cop
ied a table giving the relative , number, of
each letter that is used in common English
words. I looked it over, and waited for
him to speak. In a moment he looked up
and said : i . : . ,
" You see that (he table gives 'e' the
prominence over others ; call 'o'ono. Then
you see 't' is second best; call it two. Then
run your eye up to the fifth in importance,
and we have 'd' and 'I.' Take lost num
ber five, and the figures, with the addition
of the two letters that were expressed,
read, 'aettl'd,' So you see I have trans
lated the cipher in one way.V. .,.,,
I admitted that it was a very ingenious
translation, and was very much encouraged
by it, although the word "settled" might
not have any special relation to the enm iu
hand. But 1 did not doubt that it was
nearer the true rendering than any wo bad
reached, and it convinced me that the
figures were to be changed, In some way, to
letters, before the cryptogram could be en
tirely solved.
About a week after this, Lansing was
called out of the city by the sickness of his
mother. As I parted with him at the
depot, I told him to keep up bis courage,
and to write out his defense, while I would
attend to the remainder.
During all this time the opposing counsel
were striving in every possible manner to
make an adamantine chain of evidence
that should Immediately condemn the pris
oner beyond any shadow of doubt.
In this way nearly three weeks had
passed away since the murder, whon I re
ceived a telegram from Lansing informing
me of his return to tho city. All this time
I had been shut up in my office, working,
it must be confessed, with little hopes of
success.
The day that I expected Lansing's re
turn I went to the place where the body
had been found, and examined carefully
the marks on the wall, but I could find no
other than the ones I had seen before, so I
concluded that those wcro he only ones.
As I stood looking at .them, however, I
saw what seemed to be a piece of stone
lying on tho floor of the cellar. As a de
tective sees a cluo in everything, I picked
it up, and found, to my surprise that it was
a piece of putty. As soon as I discovered
this I searched the whole wall to find
where the piece camo from, and at last I
discovered that some marks near the others
were tilled with putty. I scraped it away,
and the whole cryptogram appeared as fol
lows :
ST 1220 I)
124
A Firtl Oni
(The letters and figures in italics had
been concealed by putty.)
I took another copy and went back to
my retreat, leaving orders for no one to be
admitted to the collar.
Here, now, was anothor mystery ; and
from the revelation which I had just re
ceived, I was astonished into 'tho bolicf
that Albert Firstone hud something to do
with the crime But yet the cipher was
still a mystery.
While I was studying those 'new devel
opments, Lansing came in. I grasped his
hand with a pressure that made him wiuce,
as 1 showed him the other letters I had
found. He looked at them a moment, and
then springing from his chair fairly shout
ed
"Firstone is the murderer, and his name
is the key to the cipher 1"
And showed me that the word "Fir
stone in my copy was soparatcd in two
words, and that line read : " A ' First
one." By this key tho figures read, 'a b
b e," and the cipher,with the addition to
tho part concealed, read :
Stabbed
- by
A. Firstoue,
Wo did not either of us shout " Eureka"
or anything else. But I looked at Lansing,
who was trembling like a leaf, and said,
"You ought to have been a detective."
Having written out the cipher according
to his translation, and being convinced that
I had been outwitted, or something of that
sort, by a lawyer, I leaned back ' on my
chair,' and, I can't tell why, but I burst out
into a hearty laugh, which Lansing soon
joined.
After my risible powers were exhausted,
I rang the bell for the errand-boy, and sent
a note like this to Denning:
' " Come up to my duu this afternoon, and
bring some handy instrument for the de
tection of foreign substances such as pieces
of stone In blood. , ,
After sending this 1 prevailed upon
Lansing to go with me to luncheon. . In an
hour we returned, and found Denning,
with a large microscope and several small
vials. I immediately went to my desk,
took out Roger Lyon's knife, and banded
it to him, asking bim to soo if there were
any pieces of stone la the blood stains
which still showed on tho knife. lie knew
my meaning in an instant. And , taking a
vial be carefully rinsed a portion of the
stains with its contents, letting the liquid
run upon a glass slide, which he had
placed in the sun's rays. ' .
Impatiently we waited and watched for
the evaporation of the liquid. It was soon
all gone, when he placed the slide in the
ndcroscopo and turned the powerful, sun
glass upon it. On looking In the Jens,
minute particles of stone, some stained
with 'blood were plainly visible, thus prov
ing that the knife had been used tp cut the
stone of . tho cellar . after (he blood bad
stained it.
"That is the result you wanted to reach,
is it not?" asked Denning, looking me in
the face. .
"Yes," I answered.
Then taking a piece of paper I wrote for
a moment, and then banded him what I
had written, with a request that he would
sign it, which he did. It was an affidavit
certiflytng that, according to the best med
ical knowledge, the deceased must have
lived some time after tho fatal blow was
received ; and that, from minute particles
of stone which adhered to the blado, it
must have been used by some one, probably
the deceased, to cut stone with after the
blood stains were on it. ,
Here, then, was the evidonce needed to
prove the innocence ot the prisoner. I
could not resist tho temptation to reveal it
to Denning, and a happier trio could hard
ly be found than wore assembled in that
little down-town office.
The trial was to commcuce in about a
week, and of course wo were impatient for
the time to pass.
At last the day camo. The court-room
was crowded, and many of the detective
force were present. After somo other
business, our case was called up. The
judge asked
" Guilty or not guilty ?"
" Lansing, in the behalf of the prisoner,
broke the silence with the words
' Not guilty," and added, " I would ac
cuse Albert Firstone of the crimo charged
upon ray client." ,
The looks of the wrotch as he made this
bold charge carried the conviction of its
truth to every miud iu the court room.
The attorney then went on to say that he
knew the charge he made was a serious
one, but if he also knew that ho had suffi
cient evidence to prove its truth. lie
therefore asked the court to postpone the
tiialof his client until the charges he had
made were investigated.
This request tho court readily complied
with, and Albert Firstone, was ordered
into custody.
A preliminary examination was at once
had, and a true bill was found against him,
and in a few hours he was placed in jail to
be tried for murder.
In the meantime, Lyon, was roloascd on
bail, until such time as a final disposition of
tho case could be had.
Tho next morning Albert Firstono, was
found dead in his cell, and a slip of paper
containing a confession of the deed, was
found beside hiin.
He also Implicated his friend Gilbert, as
an accomplice, but that individual bad
taken care to save himsolf from further
trouble by flight. '
All this was very fortunate for us, for
although we felt sure that we had caused
the arrest of the guilty party, we might
have had some trouble to convince a jury
of the fact. '
As it was, Mr. Lyon's case was the next
day called up, and a formal verdict of
" Not guilty" was entered on tho records
of the court, and as the real culprit was
beyond the reach of human punishment,
that was tho end of the Stuart-Firstono
murder case.
A Fish Story. '
A very staid and worthy old gentleman
resided iu New Haven, . whom a successful
mercantile career of more than thirty years
bad place in independent, if not aflluent
circumstances, but, through either custom
or . a desire to add to bis already ample
store, be still contained bis business and
his anteprandial visits to the counting
bouse. One morning the good wife bad
postponed the matutinal . meal in conse
quence of his absence, until that rare and
valuable thing in a woman her patience-
was well-nigh exhausted. At last, how
ever, he made bis appearance; and without
any excuse for his tardiness, but looking
especially glum and out of humor, he sat
bim down to eat. A cup of coffee par
tially restored him, and opening bis mouth,
he spake: ,
' Most extraordinary circumstance, most
extraordinary indeed I"
," Why, what do you mean, my dear?"
demanded the lady. , , ,,
, "Mean ?, Here have I bad to open the
shop with my own hands, and after sitting
lu tho doorway a full hour, waiting for. my
boys, not ouo or tueni made bis appearanoe,
and I was forced to close the shop again to
co mo to breakfast I" .
, " Good heavens !," exclaimed the lady
with unfeigned horror, "you have not
been to the shop r Why, it is Sunday IV
, "Sunday!" returned he ; V Sunday
Impossible madam; we did not have flnh
for dinner yesterday I" '
DIVIDE ET IMPERA !
How Does a Llgbt Enalne Draw a Heavy
- .Train. ,
riHE first locomotive was ' patented
JL twenty years ago. Driving only one
car, if lightly loaded it did very well ; but '
when the load it drew was heavier than its
own weight, its wheels would not bite ,
that Is, thoy would turn round and round
without advancing. Hence a cow-catcher
was needed behind to guard , against cattlo
running into it in the rear. It seemed at
first impossible to make a less weight move
a greater on an up grade ; and, for 27 years
afterward, no one invented an engine ablo
to draw three times its own weight. At tho
present day, however, locomotives sweep
along with trains more ponderous by IS or
20 times thun themselves. One means
of gaining this vast increase of power for ,
the locomotive, was by dividing the load.
It was found, that an engine poworless to
stir five times its weight of 'freight when
concentrated in one ear, could readily draw
it when distributed in n dozen cars loosely
shackled together. It . was heavier than
each single car ; and it bad overcome tbo
inertia of each one, a moment before it en
countered the inertia of another. It was
thus more than a match for each car taken
singly ; and, pulling them successively, it
drew after it a train as long as a comet,
and the farther it ran the more strength it
had to run further. Here was the story of
little David over again. Ordinarily the
stripling's weight, as ho told Goliath, was
one hundred and twenty, but whenever ho
got mad h weighed a ton. Moreover, the
engine forced the momentum acquired by
every car it had started, to swell its own
potency in overcoming tho resistance of all
that remained still motionless.
"This railroad achievement (making a'
light engino draw a heavy train), if not so
common would seem miraculous ; mid it is
analogous to an expedient for securing a
farm which is equally simplo and equally
efficacious. It is this : ' Divide your pay
ments.' Buying, as 4,523 set tiers have
bought of tho Burlington und Missouri
River Road in Iowa or Nebraska, within
the last three years, on ton years' credit,
and six percent, interest, you pay in eleven
instalments spread over half a life time,
the first not due till the beginning of the
third year. Besides, every acre you buy
adds to your paying power, as the head
way of every moving car reinforces the
tractilo energy of the locomotive."
In purchases made sinco 1873 nothing is
due on the principal until the beginning of
tho fifth year, and then only ono seventh
annually. '
"Divide to conquer" is the maxim of
Satan when he sows discord among breth
ren, use it lor your good as Satan will lor
your harm, and as Stephenson did to mul
tiply tho magical forces of his immortal
and world-moving locomotive. ' ' Get mad
and weigh a ton." Own, land and nobody
shall ever own you. Bo your own man 1
A rick pocket's Discomfiture.
A woman who was riding in a Broad
way omnibus, not long since, became aware
that the "gentleman," on her right was
feeling for her ' pockot under her cloak.
For a moment a cold shiver passed through
her, but as it was broad daylight, and as
there were evidently many persons in the
omnibus to whom she might apply for pro
tection, she took courage, and recollecting
that in the dress she wore her pocket had,
much o i her previous annoyance, been
sewed on the wrong side of tho skirt, con
cluded to sit ' still and wait the course of
events. After having- been sufficiently
UJlLVlMllllcu ui. I.iu i:nuil.ui 11V1 IIVIU-
bor to find the pocket, she turned to him
add said quietly, " My pocket is on tho
other ; side, sir." The man immediately
jumped up, pulled the strap, and disap
peared with mobtamusing rapidiiy,the cool
ness of the lady having been too much for
his artistio nerves.
i i .. ! i i, ,1, A ..:., tv. , ... .. .. l . : ..l .
Idle Girls.
!
It is a painful spectacle in families Where
a mother Is a drudge to see tho daughters
elegantly dressed, reclining at their ease with
their drawing, thoir music, their fancy work
and their reading, beguiling themselves of
the lapse of hours, dnys and weeks', but as
a necessary consequence of neglect of duty,
growing weary of their useless lives, laying
hold Of every newly invented stimulant to
arouse their drooping energy, and blaming
their fato, when they dare not blame their
God, for having placed t'lein wheie they are.
These individuals will often tell yo'j, with
an air (if aiiVcted compassion (for ho can
believe it real), t hut poor, dear minima is
working herself to death, yet no sooner do
you propose that they should assist' her,
than they declare she is quite in hor ele
ment, iu short, that she would never be
happy if she had only half so much to do.