l)c me0, r. New , Pldomfteltr; )a;
NEW, . "YORK
CO NT IN.. B NT AL
ENIGMA IIKPAKTMENT,
, , . . , ,, , . .,
- All contributions to this department must
be aocompanledby the correct answer.
pSf Answer to Enigma In last week's
Tinun i" Jacob C. Hostctter. Perry county.
Fa."
13?" Answer to Problem In last week's
Timet s
A J1.5S7.B0
B 708 75
C 513.50
D for store,.. $513.50
" share of profit 256.25 708.75
. P K 8 V R T P rVc T M N
VEKPTHSPRCPTSTN.
The two lines above were affixed to the Com
munion Table of a small church In Wales, and
continued to puzzle the learned congregation
for several conturles, but at length the Inscrip
tion was deciphered. What was it t
Life
Insurance Company,
OP NEW YORK,
STRICTLY MUTUAL t
Was it Murder ?
Assets, no,5:jo,as5.oa :
woamrsniltliAnnw fnrms of Policies, and pre.
X sent an favorable terms as any company in the
United States.
Thirty days' grace allowed on each payment, and
the policy held good during that time.
Policies Issued by this Company are non-forfeit
ure.
No extra charges are made for traveling permits
Policy-holders share lu the annual profits of the
Company, and have a voice lu the elections and
management ot the Company.
No policy or medical feecharged.
Ij. W. FROST, Prefident.
M. B. Wihkoop, Vice l'res't.
J.P.ROGERS, Sec'y. j p EATON,
General Agent,
No . 6 North Third Street,
College Block, Ilarrlsburg, Pa.
THOS. H. MILMOAN,
6 42 ly Special Agent lor Newport.
Perry County Bank!
Nponster, .limit In & Co.
THE undcralgn id, having formed a Banking As
soclation under the above name and style, are
now ready to do a General Banking business at
their new Banking House, on Centre Square,
opposite rim co urtiio use,
NEW BLOOMPIELD, PA.
We receive money on deposit and pay back on
demand. We discount notes for a period of not
over60 days, and sell Drafts on Philadelphia and
New York.
On time Deposits, rive per cent forany time over
four months ; and for four months four per cent.
We are well provided with all and every facility
fordoing a Banking Business) and knowing, and
for some years, feeling the great Inconvenience un
der which the people of this County labored f orthe
want of a Bank of Discount and Deposit, we have
have determined to supply the want ;and this being
the first Bank ever established In Terry county, we
hope we will be sustained In our efforts, by all the
business men, farmers and mechanics.
This Banking Association Is composed ot the fol
lowing named partners:
W. A. HpoN8LEB,BloomHeld, Perry county, Pa.
B. F. Jonkin, " " "
Wm. H. Miller, Carlisle,
officers:
W. A. 8PONSLEB, President.
William Willis, Cculiier
NewBloomtleld,8 Sly
BALL SCALES!
LB. MAKYANFKTH, D. W. DERR and
JAMES U. GRUSR. known as
'The Ball Scale) Company," .
have now on hand a large supply of Buoy's Patent
COUNTER SCALE, the Simplest, Cheap
est and best Counter Scale In the niaiket
Mr- For Scales, or Agencies In Pennsylvania,
Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, ad
dress "The Hull Scale Company," Pottsvlue,
Schuylkill county, Pa. 1
. For Scales or Agencies In this County, ap
ply to the undersigned, where they can be seen
and examined auy time.
J
29tf
LETBY & BRO.,
.Newport, i"erry co., ra.
FRANK MORTIMER,
New Bloomtteld, Ferryco.,Fa.
Mutual Fire Insurance Company,
OF
Jonestown, Pcnn'a.
POLICIES PERPETUAL at Low Kates. No
Hteam risks taken. This i one ot the best
conducted and most reliable Companies in the
State. Country property Insured Perpetually
at at 00 per thousand, and Town property at (5 00
per thousand.
LEWIS POTTER,
NEW BLOOMPIELD, FA., .
4 is Agent for Perry County.
LOOK OUT!
I would reflectively Inform my friends that I In
teud calling upou them with a supply of good
of my
own: manufacture;
,: Consisting of . ; ' . ;
CA8SIMERS.
, ;, OAS31NETS.
' FLANNELS, (Plain and bar'd)
OAUPETS, Ato.,
to exchange for wool or sell for cash.
J. M.BIXLEH.
Centre Wooleb Factokt. 6,V7,4m
j. ii. onivm.
1. a. oiavm
M.oiaviN to SON,
Commission Merchants,
'- NO. , BPEAR'S WHARF,
IS alii more. Md.
4.We will pay strict attention to the sale of a
kinds of couulry produoe, aud remit the amount
promptly. . . . 6 my
ITUtEHII GARDEN SEEDS
1 For Hale at . '
F. MORTIMER'S, New Blooratleld, Pa.
AGHEAT many years ngo, while I
was comparatively a young man, and
still unmarried, I rosided in a certain city
of Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the reputation
of being the cleverest lawyer ever known
there. It is not for me to say the praise
was merited, but 1 certainly found myself
able to discover loop-holes of escape for
those whom I defended, which surprised
even my follow-lawyers. I possessed by
nature thoso qualities which would have
made me an excellent dotective, and I was
a thorough student of the law. There was
no mystery about it, but among the more
ignorant classes I had gained a reputation
for more than human knowledge. Perhaps
it was not polito for them to say thnt the
dovil helped mo, but they did.
However, I began to tell you about Mad.
ame Mattcau.
She was an old lady who owned a little
house in the suburbs of the city. She her
self was of American birth, but her hus
band had been a Frenchman, and so the
titlo Madame had been bestowed upon her,
She was now a widow, and her daughter
Gabrielle, and a son named Henri, were
her only living relatives. Her iucomo was
but slender, and she eked it out by taking
a few boarders, generally steady old peo
ple, ' who had known her for many years,
These respected and liked her ; but the
city generally had a prejudice against her.
There bad boon two sudden deaths in her
house. Each time the victim was a stran
ger who came at night, aud was found
dead in his bed in the morning. Each
time the jury was divided some believing
that strangulation had been the cause of
death, some that the man had died in a
fit.
It was a terrible thing that two such
deaths should have occurred beneath her
roof. Madame's friends pitied her. The
rest of the little world hinted that those
were strangers, and that their trunks, with
no one knew what amount of money and
other valuable property, romained In Mad
ame's possession. No one said she was a
murderess, but every one said it was " very
strange," in an odd tone, and no one since
that second death had visited Madame
Matteau'.
I myself perhaps because I admired her
a great deal, and bor daughter much more
rhad always insisted that it was merely a
coincidence, and that in a world in which
apoploxy and heart disease were so com
mon, it was no such marvel that two men
should have met sudden deaths in the
house. But my faith in this theory was
shaken when one morning it was published
over the city that another transient boarder
had been found dead in Madame Matteau's
house, and that she was arrested on sus
picion of having murdered him, bis watch
and chain having been found in her posses
sion.
Beforo I had recovered from the shock of
this terrible piece of news, a mossage came
to me from Madame Matteau. She desired
to see me. Of course I went to her at
once.
She had been taken to prison ; and I
found her in a little room with a barred
window, and an insuflioient fire upon the
hearth. The logs had burnt in two upon
the andirons, and the white ashes were
scattered over the hearth. Almost in them
sat Madame Matteau, in her widow's dross
of sombre blaok.
She was chilly with grief and excite
ment, and had drawn her chair close to the
fire. . .
She shook violently from bead to foot,
and ber face was deadly pale as she tnrned
it toward me and held out her hand.
"O, thank Heaven, you have cornel"
Bhe said, " I know you can save me. Is it
not horrible 7 How could I kill a man?
Why should I? Why do people come in my
house to die? To die horribly, with block
faces and starting eyes, as if some one had
choked them ? , Ugh 1 and he was a pretty
young ' man the night before. Oh, good
Heaven, bow hdrriblo 1"
I sat down beside hor. I took her
hand.
"Madame Matteau," I said, "becalm;
oolleot yourself. As your lawyer, I must
know all. Tell me front first to lost what
happened what was said, what was done.
If you "
I paused i, her black eyes Hashed upon
me. I could not auk ber whether she had
any confession to make. I saw she bad
not. Unless she was the best actress who
ever lived, Madame Matteau was innocent
of any crimo.
, " If you have any suspicions," I added,
"tell them alt to me."
" There is no one to suspect," sobbed
the poor woman.
" In the house were . Gabrielle, my
daughter, whom you have seen, old llan-
dah, the cook, Mr. and Mrs. Beauchamp,
friends of my poor doar husband in bis
boyhood the. best, the kindest people
Mr. Gray, a very old man, too foeblo to
leave the house, poor deformed Miss Nor
man, and the librarian, Mr. Bassford.
Hone of these could or would murder a
mouse. See how kind they are ; they re
main in my house ; they send me word that
they have no doubt of me. Oh, how oan
anybody?"
"And this man who" I began.
"Yes," said Madame Matteau, "I will
tell you ; he was fair, young, handsomely
dressed; bo asked Mr. Bassford at the depot
if he knew of any one who could accom
modate him. Mr. Bassford brought him
home. My only empty room was the one
in which those other two strangers died.
I could not boar to put him there ; but Mr.
Bassford laughed at me. We had supper
afterward. He talked a Ions while to
Gabrielle. It was late when he retired
late for our quiet household. Hannah had
made his fire. She came and told us that
she had done so. Ho said good night.
After ho had gone, we found that he had
left bis watch on the table. He wore it
only with a bunch of seals, and he had
been setting it by the dock, and showing
it to us as something very handsome. I
knocked at his door to restore it to him.
He had not loft ns but fifteen minutes be
fore, but he must have been asleep already,
for be made no answer. So I kept it for
tho night, aud wore it down to breakfast
next morning. As I came down I met a
gontlomau in tho hall. He inquired for
Mr. Glenn. That was the new comer's
name. I sent Hannah to wake him. She
could not do so, and grow alarmed. She
had a key that would open the door, and
used it. The next thing I knew we were
all in the room and the windows were wide
opon, and the doctor had been sent for
and the young man who had called was
screaming that his brother had been choked
to death ; and then there was the inquest
and they arrested mo. The brother said
tho first thing he noticed was that I wore
Mr. Glenn's watch and seals. I bad for
gotten it in my terror."
' So Hannah had a key to the room ?" I
said. f
Yes ; at least it was a key that would
open it. It was the key to Mr. Bassford's
door, bhe knocked the other out with a
stick and put that in." .
' The people who were there on that
night were your boarders when tho other
two men were found dead ?" I askod.
"Oh, yes!"
" And Hannah was there also?"
" All my married life Hannah has lived
with mo."
"Your daughter oversees the household
in your absence ?"
" Yes, poor child, with Hannah's help,
I thought a little while.
"Madam," I said, " thore is some strange
mystery in this affair. I do not despair of
proving to all the world your entire inno
cence. Meanwhile, be as calm as possible,
and endoavor to remember everything con
netted with the sudden deaths that have
occurred in your .house. The incident that
seems the most unimportant may really be
of the most immense value."
So I loft her and went home. Strangely
enough on the way I met the doctor who
hod been called in. He was a dull, heavy
sort of person, considerably given to beer-
drinking, and my opinion of bis ability was
not very great. However, I questioned
him on the subjoct, and he replied
"Well you see, I don't say the old wo
man murdered him. If she did, I should
say it was by sitting on him, or smothering
him with tho bolsters. I suppose the cause
of his death was asphixia.. Well, thon,
what is asphixia ? Why too little breath
to keep on living. He died because he was
shorth of breath. So we all do. I wash
my hands of tho matter. Only there's the
watch ; that looks dark."
I had learned nothing from the doctor.
The coroner lived near me. His Jury had
been twelve of the most Ignorant men in
town.
This is all he told me:
" He was smothered, that man was ; so
were tho other two. Men don't smother
themselves. We made it inscrutable Prov
idence t'other tlmo. We make it murder
this time. That there watch, you know."
Thus, without auy new lignt, I wont
home and formed my plans. There was
but one way in which to penetrate the mys
tery. I must outer the house ; I must see
the people there ; I must penetrute to the
room In whloh these men had died so sud
doaly, and I must not be known in my real
character. That Madame Matteau was ln
nooent, I fully believed ; but that some one
beneath her roof was guilty I made no doubt,
It might be the librarian, Mr. Bassford,
whose key fitted the dead man' door. It
was possible but no, I would not harbor a
mad superstition. There could be no su
pernatural power beneath which human
have been a spiritualist had she lived to
day, was a mere absurdity.
" I believe that there are some horrible
unseen things in the room," she bad said"
some awful, shapoless spirit, that when it
is locked in with its victim murdors him.
Let others believe What they Will, I be
lieve that." ',,.
The words hauntod me, but I laughed at
them of course. What it was, I would try
to know. I had a plan.
At dusk that day I want into my bed
room alone. , I came out a changed man.
I wore a white wig, a pair of great green
goggles and an overcoat, the tails of which
reached my heels. , I had a muffler about
my throat and a littlo hunch ou one of my
shoulders. I car.iiod a thick cane and
stooped a great deal as I walked. In my
hand l carried a carpet bag, and in my
bosom a hair of pistols well loaded.
As I passed out into the street the early
moon was just rising; she lit me ou my
way to '.ho door of Madanio Matteau's
house.
It was opened for me when I knocked by
old Hannah. Her eyes were red and swol
Ion. Then I told her that I was a stranger
and had received Madame Matteau's ad
dress from ft gentleman in New York, and
desired to stay undor her roof all night.
She Bhook ber head.
I don't think you can," she said,
'Tho lady is away from homo. Besides,
we are in trouble bore. I don't think Miss
Gabrielle would ",
But here Miss Gabrielle herself appear
ed.
'Iam an old man, Miss," I said, "and
as you see, quito infirm. I dread another
step. I should take it as a kindness if you
would accommodate me, and I will pay
any price you ask."
Miss Gabrielle looked at Hannah.
We have only one room," she said,
"and that"
I ended the question of my stay by beg
ging to be taken to it.
' ou will have supper, sir ?" asked the
girl.
But I declared that I had eaten and only
wanted rest.
Her reply was :
"Hannah, show tho gontloman to the
blue room and make a fire."
I was in tho blue room, the scene of the
threo sudden deaths or murdors. It was a
small apartment painted blue. It had also
blue window curtains and a blue silk cov-
beings drooped aud died. Death as it came
to us all was . mystery euough. What had
been said to me by a woman, who would
set of old mahogany furniture, and a very
handsome ewer and a basin of costly china,
It was at the time almost a universal cus
tom to burn wood. In this room, however,
was a small coal stove. I alluded to this as
Hannah came in with the scuttle.
"Yes, sir," sho said, "Missus does burn
coals. Her son is a clerk, or the liifb, at
them new mines in Maunch Chunk, and he
send it cheap to her ; but it's a nasty, dirty
smolling thing, and I hate it. . Now its
built and lit, 'will warm up in fifteen min
utcs. It takes longer than wood."
She went out of the door and came back
in a minute with a little tray, ou which
stood a pot and cup and saucer, also a little
bowl and tiny pitcher, and something in a
napkin.
"Miss sent a bit and a sip," said she.
" Tea rests us old folks mightily. Good-
night."
' Good-night," I said "I expect I shall
sleep soon ; I must be up very early,
though, for I have bills to pay. I have
some hundreds of dollars with me to pay
out to-morrow, and it's in this bag." '
She looked at me in a queer sort of a way,
and lingered beside me. At last she
spoke :
" Look ye, sir," she said, "I think that
old folks of your age do wrong to lock
doors on themselves. You might be ill at
night, and who'd get in to you ? Leave
your door unlocked."
The moment she was gone I turned the.
key. , , i .
Was it this woman's practice to beg trav
elers who stopped with ber mistress not to
lock the doors? Was there some baneful
potion in the cup she had given me? -
It was an Innocent looking cup enough
an old fashionod affair covered with little
gilt sprigs. The tea was. fragrant byson ;
but the suspioion that bad crept into my
mind tainted it. I fancied a strange color,
a ourious smell. I put it from ' me and
would not have tasted it for a kingdom
I had not intended to sleep, and I did
not undress myself. ' I merely removed my
disguise, and sat down besldo the table,
itb my pistols beside me. That some at
tempt might be shortly made to murder
me I felt to be possible. I thought of all
the old tales that I had heard of (rap doors,
and sliding panels, and secret entrances to
travelers' rooms. I was not a coward, but
I felt strangely nervous ; and singularly
enough for a man of my perfect health, my
hands were growing eold, and my feet were
lumps of ice, while my head was burning
hot. ; .
Fifteen minutes had passed, and the fire
was kindled, but the room was not warm.
The blue flames struggled among the black
coals, aud flung forked tongues tipped with
yellow tints into the room. There was no
thing cbeeiful abou the stove, though it
was of that open style now called Frank
lin. Yet, I drew a chair toward it from
habit, and tat with my foot upon the
hearth. I do not know how long I sat
there. ,
Suddenly I became aware that I was not
myself. I was losing my senses. If un
seen hands had been clasped about my
neck, nnd an unseen knee bad beon pressed
against my chest, my sensations could have
been no different.
A thought of the evil spirit which my
friend had suggested, faintly struggled in
to my mind. As I staggered to my feet a
noise like the roaring of the sea was in my
ears. The flame of the candle turned to. a
great yellow .blue. I' barely retained
strength enough to stagger to the window
and Ming it open. The fresh, cold winter
air rushed in at it. It gave me intense
pain, but . it revived me. In a moment
more I was able to clamber out of it upon
the shed below. ,
Thore I remained until tho day dawn.
With my returned senses the truth came
to me. That which had murdered the
three men who had slept before me in the
blue chamber, was nothing more or loss
than the coal stove.
It was provided with what is called a
damper, and this being caught in a man
ner closed it, sent the poisonous gas into
the room. It bad been kindled as a wood
fire would have been at the hour of retir
ing, by one ignorant of the danger possible
from coal gas, and they had slept never to
awaken, iiad l thrown myself upon the
bed, 1 also should have been found dead at
daylight, in all human probability.
As for the fact that noither doctor nor
coroner discovered the truth, I have but to
say that they were not deeply scientific)
men that coal stoves were soarcely used
in the place, and that it had not been men
tioned that the blue chamber was thus
heated.
Of course I rejoiced the household bv mv
discovery the next morning, and equally,
of course, Madame Matteau who was not
only freed from all suspicion, but became
the object of universal sympathy. She was
always grate to mo, and she proved her
gratitude by giving me what I soon asked
tor, the Hand ot her daughter Gabrielle in
marriage
A Debt of Gratitude.
ONE day, not long ago, while an En
glish merchantman was on a voyage
in the Mediterranean, the captain was call
ed to the hammock of a dying sailor who
bad askod to see him. The invalid seafarer
desired bis commander to draw up for him
a last will and testament, wherein the sum
of $7,000 in English sovereigns was to be
devised to a citizen of Memphis, in Tennes
see, li. ., auu the uncontrollable surprise
of the captain in his performance of the re
quest of the sinking man caused the latter
w umtio luo luuuwuiir exmuuuuuu oi lue
past circumstances enabling him to be
queath such a sum of money. An English
man uy uirtu, ne was a mechamo, in Mem
phis in the year 1801. No matter about the
causes of his expatriation and humble for
eigu occupation. Suffice it to say he had
chosen to be a mechamo in America. Only
for a short time, though ; for when the se
cession war began he enlisted in one of the
Tennessee regiments, having been scarcely
able to earn a living as an artisan, and be
ing just recovered lrom a weary sickness of '
which he must have died but for the gener
ous ministrations of a family of strangers.
Shortly after the discouragod convalescent's
enlistment, and before his regiment march
ed further southward, ho received from his
family in England the sum of 97,000 in
gold, which hud beon left to bim by a dy
ing uncle. Instead of availing himsolf of
this windfall, however, to withdraw from
the army and devote himself otherwise
than as a soldier, it was his eccentric whim
to bury his whole treasure under a tree, in
a lot belonging to the gentleman whose
family had been so kind to him in his sick
ness, and to neither speak nor act as though
he bad ever received any such money at all
Leaving the gold thus secretly placed, he .
marched away with his military comrades.
JNot long was it though before bis eccen
tric character again displayed itself. Be
coming speedily weary of the precarious
fortunes ot war, be deserted from the army
into Mexioo, and from thence embarked on
au English vessel as a common seaman.
Reaching England in due time, instead of
rejoining bis family there, he at once be
came a sailor on another vessel for a voy
age around the world ; and had remained
an obscure sailor until the fatal sickness
overtook him in the Mediterranean and an
expiring impulse of gratitude induced him
to bequeath his gold yet hidden in Memphis
to thoso who had so long ago befriended
bim in that city. , .
Such was the strange, soarcoly credible
story which he told to the captain in ex
planation or Dm curious will ; and, after
siguing the latter with another name than
that by which be had been known on ship
board, he carried the . remaining mystery
of his career with bim into the world of
shadows. i
The captain hardly knew ' whether to re
gard either Btory or will as anything more
than tho diseased fancy of a madman, but,
upou reaching port, mailed the document,
as he had solemnly promised, to the ad
dress of the Memphis gentleman to whom
the buried gold had been devised. ' And,
according to a late issue pf the Memphis
Iiegitttr, that gentleman's reception of the
will, together with the Captain's explana
tion of the' foregoing circumstances, has
been followed by a realization proving that
the dying wanderer of land and sea spoke
truly. The gentleman iu question ''had
some time before sold and delivered to
another party the lot on which the valu
able sovereigns were deposited. How to
got at it now without incurring opposition
and perhaps litigation was the question
which arose In his mind. After taking the
advice of counsel, he concluded to develop
the wholo matter to the purchaser and own
er of the place, and asked for the right to
make search... This was done, and the new
proprietor generously forwarded his wishes
and gave bim every facility to possess him
self of the treasure. On digging at tho
foot of the tree described in the will tho
gold, amounting to $7,000, was happily
found aud the new owner made glad by
the glittering heap,". Who the departed
giver of this little fortune really was in bis
native personality is not known, aud the
secret is buried with him beneath the blue,
waves of tho Mediterranean.