The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, September 13, 1881, Image 1

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VOL. XV.
THE TIMES.
An Independent Family Newspaper,
IS PUBLISHED VERTUBBDAYBT
F. MORTIMER & CO.
TERMS t
INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
fl.30 PEII VI'All, POXTACG FllEE,
80 CTS. roil 6 MONTHS.
To subscribers reMrtlnR In this county, where
we have no postage to pav. a dlnmuHt of 21V cents
from the abnvn terms will be made II payment Is
made In advance.
Advertising rates furnished upon applica
tlon.
geledt Vozity
WE ARE NOT MISSED.
If yon or I
To-day should die,
The birds would sing as sweet to-morrow ,
The vernal spring
Her flowers would bring,
And few would think of us with sorrow.
Yes, he Is dead
Would then be said ;
The corn would floss, the grass yield hay,
The cattle low,
And summer go,
And few would heed us pass away.
How soon we pass !
How few, alas !
Remember those who turn to mold !
Whose faces fade
With autumn's shade,
Beneath the sodden church-yard cold !
Yes, it is so
We come, we go
They hail our birth, they mourn us dead)
A day or more,
The winter o'er,
Another takes our place Instead.
MISS SMITH'S MONEY.
THE following story is told by John
T. Morris, who is an experienced
detective of Springfield, Ohio.
" Not long ago there resided in Frank
lin county a wealthy 'old maid, Miss
Sabina Smith. By inheritance she was
the possessor of a large farm, ou which
was an old-fashioned, though comforta
ble, dwelling house. She was reputed
have a good square bank account.
"How old is she?"
" Well, on the shady side of 80, but
ehe had a weakness like all old maids,
not for kittens, poodles or canaries, but
for children. She had raised several
orphan girls, who are now well settled in
life. In 1865 she adopted a six-year-old
black-eyed girl,brlght as a button, named
Mollie McCann, whose father had fallen
in battle while fighting for his flag and
country, while her mother, crazed with
grief, pined and faded away. Mollie
eoon learned to love her new mother,
and from a prattling maid in short
clothes and pinafores she in -due time
bloomed forth into a gushing school
girl, and at IS was the belle of every
rustic gathering the pretty Miss Mollie
McCann, over whom the boys revel
while the girls envied. To all her ad
mirers she turned a deaf ear, and with
a pretty toss of the head, and a merry
twinkle of her roguish eye, bade them
'be off, and not bother her.' "
" Miss Smith was sensible : knew
Mollie would probably marry and have
a home of her own some day, so she
neither discouraged her fondness for
society nor harped upon the miseries of
wedded life in the maiden's ear,, but
when she came back from the State Fair
at Columbus in 173, and told her adopted
mother of the gentleman that she had
met, his attentions and good qualities,
Miss Smith was not pleased, nor did she
hesitate to frown her displeasure and
advised her ward to turn a willing ear
to the many suitors of the neighborhood
instead of seeking in far-off fields that
which waB nearer home.
"But Mollie, like many another, was
struck on a travelling man, and she car
ried on a secret correspondence with him
through a lady friend for a long time,
until at last they were engaged.
Miss Smith and Mollie were the sole
occupants of the house. The bedrooms
were four in number, two of which
were used as spare rooms, one being
occupied by Miss Smith containing
two beds, Mollie occupying the
one and Miss Smith the other. The
NEW BLOOMFIELD, IJA.., TUESDAY, BEPTEMBEB 13, 1881.
fourth bedroom was called Mollle's, but
was only usad by her when a ludy friend
was visiting her. In one of these spare
bedrooms was an old-fashioned bureau
and book case combined, the top drawer
of which could be converted into a desk.
The back part of this drawer was fitted
up with small drawers. One of these
small drawers had from time Immemo
rial been used as a money drawer. In
the summer of 1879 the sum of $305 was
missed from the drawer; in the summer
of 1880 $200 more mysteriously disap
peared, together with a quantity of gold
coins which had been in the family for
over a century. "On the 20th day of last
May Miss Smith loaned to a neighbor
$500, giving him her check and he
signing n note in her favor. Sickness
prevented him from presenting the
check at the bank at Columbus, and
learning that Miss Smith was going to
the city on the 30th, he requested her to
get it cashed. She did so and returned
with Mollie about dark ou that day,
having the money all in $100 bills.
" The house was all securely locked
down stairs and Miss Smith deposited
the $500 in the secretary drawer, locking
it and placing the key in the bureau
drawer beneath. She then locked the
room containing the bureau and placed
the key under some quilts that lay in a
wardrobe in her bedroom. Before re
tiring she locked her bedroom door and
she and Mollie retired for the night in
separate beds in the same room. The
next morning, April 1st, the neighbor
who had borrowed the money, having a
long journey to perform, during which
he expected to make a payment on some
land he had purchased, called ' as early
as 5 o'clock, before Miss Smith and
Mollie had arisen.
" Awakening Miss Smith, she took
her key from the wardrobe, unlocked
the bedroom, then taking the bureau
drawer key from the under drawer of
the secetary, opened this to find the
money gone. She went down stairs;
everything was locked and bolted as she
had left it the night before.
" Who took that money ?"
" That was the question that confront
ed me. There was no sign of burglary ;
no lock forced ; windows and doors all
right. No one else in the house but
Miss Smith and Mollie. Of course, I at
once examined the girl. She talked
freely; said she always had a presenti
ment that the money would be stolen
iu fact, had a presentiment that night,
but feared to tell the old lady for fear
ot alarming her. I soon learned that
Mollie had a key which fitted the bed
room containing the bureau, hence my
suspicious were strengthened that Mollie
had arisen in the night, either unlocked
the door with her own key or taken the
one in the wardrobe, and securing the
money, hid it either in or about the
house without awakening the old lady.
I finally told Mollie that I should have
to search her and make a thorough ex
amination of the house.
" Well, she nalvely'remarked, 'If you
do find money about the house it won't
prove that I stole it, will itV"
" 4 It will be prima facie evidence.' I
said.
"I locked her up in her bedroom, and
began a thorough search; bandboxes
pried into, bureau drawers pulled out,
cupboards ransacked, and finally went
through her own room. Under the
carpet under her bed I found in a com
pact wad twelve one hundred dollar bills.
Now, fhe total amount known to be
missing was only $1,045. Where had
the $155 come from ? Where had the
gold coins goue to ? Was the bureau
drawer payiug interest on its deposit?
"'Now I've got' you Mollie,' said I as
I confronted her.
. " Mollie fainted.
" A bottle of camphor and a little cold
water brought her speedily to, yet she
sturdily proclaimed her innocence.
" I didn't take Miss Smith's money ;
no, I did not,' she conclusively exclaim
ed between her sobs.
" Miss Smith would not allow me to
take her to jail, where I reasoned con
finement would soon compell her to
confess.
" My work, however, was but par
tially done, for the gold coins had not
turned up.
" I determined that those coins must
be in the house, and resolved upon a
thorough search from cellar to garret.,
The cellar disclosed nothing; and at last
I stumbled upon a small stairway lead
lug to the garret, the door of which was
a common trap door,securely fastened by
a padlock, to which was attached three
links of a chain.
"Give me the key," I said to Miss
Smith, " to that trap-door up in the
attic."
. " Oh, no use of looking there the keys
have been lost for over five years, and no
one has ever been up there since.
There were cobwebs on the door, but I
noticed that over the crack of the door's
edge they seemed to have been broken
away, caused by the door having been
recently opened. With an ax I speedily
got the door open and saw large footsteps
in the, dust. By the aid of a lamp I fol
lowed the course of the tracks over the
boards which lay across the shaky raft
ers, to the farthest part of the garret,
where, over an old cross-beam, there
hung a pair of old fashioned saddle bags.
The dust on the bags had been recently
disturbed. Iu one of the pockets I found
the five one-hundred dollar bills which
disappeared on the night of the 30th of
May, the $355 that was missed in the
summer of 1879, the $200 that was lost
in 1880, and, better than all, the rare old
gold coins upon which Miss Smith set
such a store as an heirloom. I found
the money, but I found $1200 too much.
The mystery deepened. I resolved upon
oue thing and that was that Mollie must
know something about the money that
was bid under the carpet beneath her
bed. I talked kindly to her, told her
that Mi ss Smith's money had all been
found, and urged her to tell me how the
$1200 came under tha carpet of her bed.
" You will not believe me if I tell you,
but if Miss Smith will go out I will ex
plain. I put that money there; it was
my lover's. He had saved it out of his
wages and given it to me to keep. I
destroyed his letters for fear my aunt
would find it out. There's the story."
"But how did the old lady's money
get into the garret V"
" She carried it there herself. She was
a somnambulist and walked In her
sleep."
" How did you prove it, Mr. Morris ?
Bid the old lady let you occupy the bed
room and catch her?" '
" Oh, no. I got the old lady to take
off her shoe and stocking and place her
No. 0 foot down on a piece of white pa
per. With a lead pencil I marked out
her foot on that sheet of paper. With
a pair of scissors I carefully cut out the
exact shape of the old lady's foot, which
fitted exactly in the tracks in the dust
on the garret boards. Besides that Mol
lle's foot was much smaller, she only
wearing a No. 2i shoe, and would not
fit the track. I also on careful examina
tion found tracks of cob webs in the
frill of the old lady's night-cap, while
Mollie wore no night-cap. So you see
I proved it by both ends the old lady's
head and by her feet. I explaiued all to
the satisfaction of the old lady, she paid
me my money, and I predict a wedding
soon at the Smith mansion, with Mollie
McCann as the bride."
Wedding Anecdotes.
IT is not more than twenty-fiveor thir
ty years since the rich pineries of the
Chippewa, in Wisconsin, drew scores, of
young men from the older settled por
tions of the country, to work out their
fortunes in a then almost unbroken wil
derness. A few venturesome spirits
brought their families and settled here,
and now then a fair whfte maiden came
along, or, it may be, that in other re
gions, she would have been considered
only passably fair, but here with only
dusky maideus for her rivals, the few
pale-faced girls have no lack of admirers,
or of suitors for their hearts and hands.
In those days there came from civil
ized regions, a family having in their
care an adopted daughter called Mary.
Though sbe lived in a log cabin and
wore moccasins, no city belle could have
asked, for lovers more numerous or
more ardent. At last after as many
difficulties as would furnish a modern
novelist with a dozen thrilling chapters,
she was won by a young man whose
name we will call Jim, " for short,"
(shortness of names being a prevailing
characteristio of the early pioneers,) and
the twain were anxious to become one.
At the risk of offending some who
would like to hear of the courtship, I
will pass at once to the wedding. A
wedding 1 How could one be had when
no minister had yet found his way there,
and in all that region no officer of the
law known V At last, on learning of the
difficulty, a queer chap, named Jack B.,
announced himself competent of per
forming the ceremony. Being duly
prepared (the principal part of which
preparation consisted in providing that
indispensable accompaniment of pioneer
life a jug of whisky,) the questions and
responses, as " Will you take this
woman to be your lawfully wedded
wife?" " Will you take this man to be
your lawfully wedded husband ?" etc'
were gone through satisfactorily, when
the presiding officer announced : " That
according to the laws which ought to be,
I now pronounce you man and wife
and what Ood Almighty and Jack B.
has Joined together, let no man put as
sunder, and now pass that Jug of whis
key." The latter part of the injunction
was speedily obeyed and all hands par
took, even the bride, in spite of ail re
monstrances, being forced to place the
fiery fluid to her lips.
It is related as a fact that in early
days a hardy backwoodsman was elected
Justice of the Peace. He was credited
to know more of bunting, fishing and
trapping than of the law, but being
deemed honest, and in lack of better
material he was elected to the office.
His statute-book had not yet arrived,
when an anxious couple visited his
house for the purpose of being married.
In vain he plead Ignorance of any
knowledge of the wedding ceremony.
They would not take "no" for an an
swer. "Well, then, I will do the best
I can," said the officer, and the couple
stood up before him. There the wits of
the backwoodsman forsook him, and
he tried in vain to recall some words
that he had heard on like occasions.
At.last in sheer desperation he blurted
out: " Take her by God ! She's yours
she's yours for life and I am Justice
of the Peace." He managed to bring in
the name of the Deity in the only way
with which he was at all familiar. The
marriage was considered legal.
A Notable Chaplain.
EDWARD EGGLESTON, who has a
keen eye for originality of character
or humanity of soul, recalled some time
since in his vivid way, a figure worth re
membering amid the throng of actors in
the troubled war-time :
Dear Chaplain Joe Little, where are
you V It is years since I met you, filled
as you were with philanthropic schemes
for educating the poor whites of the
South. There may be men more capa
ble of carrying through a practical en
terprise, but there never .was a more en
thusiastic, unselfish, and hardy spirit.
A college, a theological seminary, and
a musical academy, all graduated Chap,
lain Little, but not altogether could take
the oddity of his genius out of htm.
When spiritual adviser to a regiment
of wild West Virginians, he told them
stories, sang them funny songs, adopted
their dialect, and won their open hearts
by manly open-heartedness.
When Mosby captured Little, it was
an unlucky time. Orders had been is
sued on the Federal side by General
Pope, I believe that bushwhackers
should have no quarter, and Mosby pre
pared to retaliate by shooting prisoners.
"It looked pretty solemn," said the
chaplain, " when they cast lots to see
who should Inherit my horse."
But he took his little nondescript har
monium, and began to sing for dear life.
All the droll songs that ever were
invented this doomed captive sang to
the bushwhackers there iu the moun
tains. "I think I ought toshoot you," said
Mosby, at length. " A fellow that
keeps up men's spirits as you do is too
valuable to the Yankees for me to let off."
But let him oft he did. Nobody
could shoot such a union of goodness
and drollery as Chaplain Little. Once
after a battle, a certain church was
turned into a hospital, and wounded
and dying lay all up and down the floor.
It was a blue time, when men were dy
ing not f wounds alone, but of despair,
which was like an epidemic iu the at
mosphere. A severe chaplain added to
the terror by passing about exhorting
the pour groaning fellows to prepare for
death. Chaplain Little, seeing how fa
tal this despondency must prove, walked
NO. 37.
up Into the pulpit, planted his little
melodeon on his knees, and struck up a
rldiculous.Bong known as "The Ohio
Girl." Sunlight cameln with the rich
melody of the chaplain's voice and the
humor of his song. The surgeons took
heart, and life seemed to come back to
the battered and homesick men. But
the austere chaplain in the middle of
the house called ou t, "Chaplain Little,
you ought to be ashamed of yourself to
si ng such stuff to meu who ought to be
preparing for death." Whereupon a
colonel, who had Just had a leg amputa
ted, raised his head and addressed the
last speaker " Chaplain Blank, I wish
I had two legs, bo that I could kick
you out of doors."
A Singular Will.
A singular will wa9 left by Charles
Elliott, a wealthy farmer of Knox, Me.,
who died there on July 15. Among the
legatees are two grandsons who share
equally with the children, but who are
hampered with the following provision :
' I further bequeath and say that if
Charles or George B. Elliott, legatees
above named, or any one of my grand
children (though yet unborn) or their
children, shall use tobacco in any form,
either to smoke or chew, or drink any
ardent spirits or alcoholic liquors in any
way unless prescribed by a physicians
under oath that it is neoessary (and that
not to last but thirty days) after this my
will is approved by the court, and lor
each offence of using tobacco or alcohol
ic drinks as aforsaid, to be cut off from
their dowry In my property for six
months for the first offense, and one
year for each subsequent ofTense, and
for one year of total abstinence of its use,
his or their dower to be restored as before
provided. Their said share or shares so
cut off to be disposed of and divided the
same as provided in case of their de
cease." A codicil provides that gam
bling or betting money or other valuable
consideration shall carry the same penal
ty as the use of tobacco and ardent spir
its. Alderman Jerome Visits English Relatives.
Mr. Lawrence Jerome, of New York,
has a niece who is the wife of Lord Ran
dolph Churchill. Not long since Uncle
Larry being in London, called at bis
niece's house, and thereby astonished
the stately footman who answered his
ring:
" Is Mr. Churchill at home ?"
(The footman shivers.)
" Me Lud is in Ireland."
" Humph I What's he doiug in Ire
land. (The footman is silent with horror.)
" Is Mrs. Churchill in r'
(The footman quivers with indlgna.
tlon.) . -
" Me Lady, sir is not down stairs
yet."
"Not up? Humph 1 A pretty time
of day to be in bed 1 Well, you just tell
Mrs. Churchill "
(The footman pales and is about to
summon assistance to eject the auda
cious Intruder, when a silvery laugh
and a voice float down from over the
banisters. "I hear you, Uncle Larry 1
Come right in !")
The footman, bowing low, " O, sir,
me Lud ! pardon me. If you please me
Lud, this way."
tSPTlje arrest and fining of C. A.
Cook for knocking down a man for say.
Ing " he' hoped to God Garfield would
die," recalls an incident that took place
in Cleveland sixteen years ago. On the
morning after Lincoln was shot a knot
of men were expressing their sympathy
with the victim, when an architect
named Husband broke out with : " I ant
glad Lincoln Is shot, and I hope he is
dead by this time." The words nearly
cost him his life. It Was only by the
most strenuous exertions he was saved
from the fury of a inol ; he was severe
ly handled, despite the efforts of friends
to protect him. He was a prominent
architect, and had built the county
Court House. On the corner stoue of
this building can be seen the following
engraved :
Erected A. D.. 1858.
; F. Branch. G. P. Smith, :
; K. Kverett, J . r&unell, :
; W. W. Richards, Contractors. ;
; Co. Commissioners. - . :
The is where the words " G. A.
Husband" had been, but they were cut
out the day after Husband was mobbed.