Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 307, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1912 — Page 2

The Daily Republican Krery Day Except Sunday HEALEY A CLARK, Publishers. RENSSELAER INDIANA.

i REMINISCENCES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Illustrations toy V. X.. BARNES

Che ADVENTURE OF THE DE VILS FOOT

(Continued.) “Ask what you like, Mr. Holmes,” said he, eagerly. “It is a bad thing to speak of, but I will answer you the truth.” '* “Tell me about last night.” “Well, Mr. Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my elder brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards. We sat down about nine o’clock. It was a quarter-past ten when I moved to go. I left them all round the table, as merry as could be.” “Who let you out?” “Mrs. Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out. I shut the hall door behind me. The window of the room in w'hich they sat was closed, but the blind was not drawn down. There was no change in door or wjndow this morning, nor any reason to think that any stranger had been to the house. Yet there they sat, driven clean mad with terror, and Brenda lying dead of fright, with her head hanging over the arm of the chair. I’ll never g*t the sight of that room out of my mind so long as I live.” “The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable,” said Holmes. “I take it that you have no theory yourself w hich can in any way account for them?” “It’s devilish, Mr. Holmes; devilish!” cried Mortimer Tregennis. “It is not of this world. Something has come into that room which has dashed the light of reason from their minds. What human contrivance could do thal?” “I fear,” said Holmes, “that if the matter is beyond humanity it is certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this. As to yourself, Mr. Tregennis, I take it you were divided in some way from your family, since they lived together and you had rooms apart?” “That is so, Mr. Holmes, though the matter is past and done with. Wo were a family of 5 tin-miners at Redruth, but we sold out our venture to a company, and so retired with enough to keep us. I won’t deny that there was some feeling about the division of the money and it stood between us for a time, but it was all forgiven and forgotten, and we were the best of friends together.” “Looking back at the evening which you spent together, does anything stand out in your memory as throwing any possible light upon the tragedy? Think carefully, Mr. Tregennis, for any clue which can help me.” “There is nothing at all, sir.” “Your people were in their usual spirits?” “Never better." “Were they nervous people? Did they ever show any apprehension of coming danger?" “Nothing of the kind.” “You have nothing to add, then, which could assist me?’*' ® Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment. “There is one thing occurs to me,” said he at last. “As we sat at the table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he being my part-

"Ask What You Want, Mr. Holmes."

oer at cards, was facing it I saw him once look bard over my shoulder, so I turned round and looked also. The blind was up and the window shut, but I could just make out the busheß on the lawn, and It seemed to me for a moment that I saw something moving among them. I couldn’t even say if it were man or animal, but I just thought there was something there. When I asked him what he was look-

ing at, he told me that, he had the same feeling. That as all that I can say.” “Did you not investigate?” “No; the matter passed as unimportant.” “You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?” “None at all.” "I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this morning!” “I am an early riser, and generally take a walk before breakfast. This morning I had hardly started w r hen the doctor in his carriage overtook me. He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down with an urgent message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on. When we got there we looked into that dreadful room. The candles and the fire must have burned out hours before, and they had been sitting there in the dark until dawn had broken. The’doctor said Brenda must have been dead at least six hours. There were no signs of violence. She just lay across the arm of the chair with that look qn her face. George and Owen were singing snatches of songs and gibbering like two great apes. Oh, it was awful to see! I couldn’t stand it, and the doctor was as white as a sheet. -.lndeed, he fell into a chair in a sort of faint,.and we nearly had him on our hands as w r ell.” “Remarkable —most remarkable!” said Holmes, rising and taking his hat. “I think perhaps we had better go down to Tredannick Wartha without further delay. I confess that I have seldom known a case which at first sight presented a more singular problem.” Our proceedings of that first morning did little i/o advance the investigation. It wa/ marked, however, at the outset by. an incident which left the most sinister impression upon my mind. The approach to the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a narrow, winding country lane. While we made our way along it we heard the rattle of a carriage coming towards us, and stood aside to let it pass. As it drove by us I caught a glimpse through the closed window of a "horribly-contorted, grinning face glaringtfout at us. Those staring eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us like a dreadful vision. “My brothers!” cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips. “They are taking them to Helston.” We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering its way. Then we turned oqr steps towards

“My Brothers!” Cried Mortimer Tregennis, White to His Lips.

this ill-omened house in which they had met their strange fate. It a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a cottage, with a considerable garden -which was already, in that Cornish air, well filled with spring flowers. Towards this garden the window of the sitting-room fronted, and from it, according to Mortimer Tregennis, must have come that thing of evil which had by sheer horror in a single instant blasted their minds. Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully among the flowerpots and along the path before we entered the porch. So absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, that he stumbled over the watering-pot, upset its contents, and deluged both our feet and the garden path. Inside the house we were met by the elderly Cornish housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a young girl, looked after the wants of the family. She readily answered all Holmes’ questions. She had heard nothing in the night. Her employers had all been in excellent spirits lately, and she had never them more cheerful and prosperous. She had fainted with horror upon entering the room in the morning and seeing that dreadful company round the table. She had, when she ceeovered, thrown open the window to let the morning air in, and had run dowrn to the lane, whence a farm lad for th«

Man and His Ways

One day a well-known politician was enjoying a chat with a friend at a hotel, when a strange young man came up and said: . “Can I see you for a moment, Mr. Dash ?” “Certainly," said Mr. Dash, rising. The young man led him across the room and seemed to have something rportant to say to him. Arrived in' corner, .the stranger whispered in the politician’s ear: “I am of the staff of an evening

doctor. The lady was on her bed upstairs, if we cared to sfee her. It took four strong men to get the brothers Into the asylum carriage. She would not herself stay In the house another day, and was starting that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St. Ives. We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Misa Brenda Tregennis had been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon middle age. Her dark, clear-cut face was handsome,

“Why a Fire?” He Asked.

even in death, but there still lingered upon it something of that convulsion of horror which had been her last human emotion. From her bedroom we descended to the sitting-room where this tragedy had actually occurred. The charred ashes of the overnight fire lay in the grate. On the table were the four guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards scattered over its surface. The chairs had been moved back against the walls, but all else was as it had been the night before. Holmes paced with light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various chairs, drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He tested how much of the garden was visible; he examined the floor, the ceiling, and the fireplace; but never once did I see that sudden brightening of his eyes and tightening of his lips which would have told me that he saw some gleam of light in this utter darkness. “Why a fire?” he asked. they always a fire in this small room on a spring evening?” Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp. For that reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit. “What are you going to do, Mr. Holmes?” he asked. My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm. “I think, Watson, that I shall resume that course of tobaccopoisoning which you have so often and so justly condemned,” said he. “With your permission, gentlemen, we will now return to our cottage, for I am not aware that any new factor is likely to come to our notice here. I will turn the facts over in my mind, Mr. Tregennis,.. and should anything occur to me I will certainly communicate with you. In the)meantime I wish you both good morning.” It was not until long after we were back in Poldhu cottage that Holmes broke his complete and absorbed silence. He sat coiled in his armchair, his haggard and ascetic face hardly visible amid the blue swirl of his tobacco smoke, his black brows drawn down, his forehead contracted, his eyes vacant and far away. Finally, he sprang to his feet. “It won’t do, Watson!” said he, with a laugh. “Let us walk along the cliffs together and search for flint arrows. We are more likely to find them than clues to this problem. To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces. The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Watson —all else will come. “Now, let us calmly define our position, Watson,” he continued, as we skirted the cliff 3 together. “Let us get a firm grip of the very little which we do know, so that when fresh facts arise we may be ready to fit them into their places. I take it, in the first place, that neither of us is prepared to admit diabolical intrusions into the affairs of men. Let us begin by ruling that entirely out of our minds. Very good. There remain three persons who have been grievously stricken by some conscious or unconscious human agency. That is firm ground. Now, when did this occur? Evidently, assuming his narrative to be true, it was immediately after Mr. Mortimer Tregennis had left the room. That is a very important point. The presumption is that it w’as within a few minutes afterwards. The cards still lay upon the table. It was already past their usual hour for bed. Yet they had not changed their position. I repeat, then, that the occurrenc« was immediately after his departure, and not later than eleven o’clock last night. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

paper, and I should like you to tell me what you think of the situation in the east.” Mr. Dash looked a little puzzled at first, then he said: “Follow me." Leading the way, be walked through the readjng-room, through a passage into the dining-room, and drawing his visitor into the corner behind the hat he whispered: “I really don't know anything about it; *

WHALES ARE AWED

Captain of Blubber Bark Describes Eruption of Volcano. j Portuguese Sailors Pray to the Saints and Every Form of Life in Sea or Air Vanishes—Hurricane Hits Ship. San Francisco. —The whaling bark Gayhead, Captain Wing, which left here seven months ago on a blubber expedition in the frozen north, returned with 350 barrels of sperm oil, the product of eight whales, and an account of the volcanic eruption at Katmai in June. The Gayhead was .200 miles from the volcano and 150 miles off shore at the time of the eruption. Whales were plentiful, sea birds were visible in all directions and fish, large and small, could be seen in the clear, green water. A whale had been cut out of the school that was spouting not far from the bark, had been killed and made fast alongsidv the vessel. Fires had been started under the blubber kettles and the work of cutting up the whale was in full blast when a muffled explosion that seemed to shake the universe was heard. It was followed by six more explosions. A few minutes later there appeared on the horizon a small, black cloud that assumed leviathan proportions as ff rushed toward the Gayhead. There was wind with it, and it struck the vessel with the violence of a hurricane squall. As it hit the bark the air was filled with fine white dust, that soon covered the decks. The blaekness was on both sides of the vessel. “Black as the darkest night,” is the way Captain Wjng describes it. Between the two strata of black was a column of fiery yellow, bright as gold. Captain Wing, who has passed many years in the arctic and who recognized the explosions as of volcanic origin, says that the combination of black and yellow was the strangest sight he had ever seen. The Portuguese whalemen quit work, dropped to their knees and invoked the aid of every saint on the calendar. They were satisfied that the day of judgment had arrived. The

CANINE AS SPONSOR

Admission to Society in New York Declared to Be Easier Now. Woman With Social Aspirations May Obtain Entree by Possessing Dog —Routes Are Open to the Climbers. New York. —Time was when breaking into New York ( society was a simple matter. You merely waited. Eventually, in the course of several generations, you stood a chance of being invited to the very best houses. It was three generations before the Astors amounted to anything as social beings in this community, writes a New York correspondent. Thfe Vanderbilts made the extraordinary leap in better time —in two generations—thanks to the mental resources and determination of a doughty social warrior whom the family acquired by marriage, and later lost by divorce. People “get in” New York society now in a few years; sometimes in a single season. Now a multiplicity of avenues of approach have been discovered. Here are ten: Dogs, women’s clubs, publicity, charity, summer resorts, graft, the opera, first nights, travel eign), woman suffrage. The avenue of dogs alone indicates the advance we have made. Some cynics may crll it retrogression. How cruel when one can thus lessen the years necessary for a social entree! - Children used to be the avenue of approach, which has been usurped by the later pets. One of the first moves of the socially ambitious woman in New York these days is the requirement of a dog. If the proper beginning is made, If the right sort of dog is secured, the next step is to enter him at the exclusive dog show. This may be done the very first year. And there the woman has iher first social opportunity. There are dog luncheons, dog dinners, dog receptions to which her canine will be invited, and no canine can go alone. The mistress must T be included. Some day she may eventually be invited on her own account. Another avenue for the social climber is the summer resort and foreign travel. In itself New York is a glacial city, socially. Its surfaces are so rounded that it must be a hardy climber who can secure a hold. Thus many have resolved to bring into the strategy of their campaign a flank assault on the citadel of caste. They remove their i artillery to a distance. They pay outrageous prices to the hotels in the fashionable resorts In summer and to the stopping places on the grand tour to Europe In the hope of thus scraping a valuable ac< u&intance. /lost of them fall. The average tenure of residence in New York of the wealthy women who come from elsewhere is seven years—the life of the chorus girl, of the yellow reporter and of the bounder tenant at Newport First they wear out the novelty of the theaters and the opera. Then, having been ignored, or, if too persistent, snubbed repeatedly, they move

FERDINAND FOLLOWING HIS ARMY

King Ferdinand of Bulgaria is here seen in his motor car at Maritza, following his victorious army. It is the latest photograph of the modern scourge of Islam.

shower of ashes and the accompanying darkness lasted for forty-eight hours. “As the squall approached,” said Captain Wing, “I noticed the whales skedaddle. They hooked on at .full speed. When the air cleared, two days late£, there was not a whale in sight, nor a fish nor a fowl, nor a sign of any kind of life. It w r as not until the Gay-

on to the American resorts In summer, to the European in winter, in the hope that they will find the social crust there less glacial. Through this avenue a few —a very few —find the coveted entrance and many fail." The pensions of Naples, Florence, Rome, Vienna, Paris and Munich are filled with the wives and daughters of wealthy American men who have settled in New York from elsewhere. *-

BABY IS HELD BY SNAKE

Reptile, Attacked in Time, Seems to Grow Angrier as Little Victim Struggles for Freedom. San Gregoria, Cal. —Trapped in the coils of a huge gopher snake, which stole upon her as she lay asleep In a hay field In Wild Goose canyon, five-year-old Charlotte Newman, daughter of a farmer who resides near Davenport, was held captive by the reptile for a half an hour, while frantic children who had discovered her plight summoned help from a distant farmhouse. The little girl, who'ls visiting relatives in the canyon, fell asleep while at play with her juvenile companions In the new mown hay. She was not missed until her cries of terror were heard by the boys and girls. When they ran to her the snake had wrapped itself about her ankles and she was powerless to escape. Frightened at the snake, which semed to be enraged at the struggles of the child, the children hastened to the farmhouse, half a mile distant, to

MANY TERRAPIN ARE HATCHED

Georgia Man Finds Way to Keep Species From Becoming Extinct. Philadelphia —At the Hotel Hanover is A. M. Barbee of Savannah, Ga., who is hatching diamond back terrapin these days, and proving that the tasty reptile can be conserved and a supply arranged for generations to come. This will be good news to the bon vivant. for it has been proclaimed that the finest flavored member of the terrapin family will soon be extinct. Barbee, who has been in the business of catching and selling terrapin for twenty-three years, began to study the matter of establishing hatcheries. He has succeeded. The female terrapin has a habit of depositing about ten eggs a month. She spreads ( them out on the sand and gets away, having no further interest in her offspring. But the crows, who are as fond of terrapin as is a millionaire, swoop down upon them. Barbee established a farm where this yea# he will hatch 70.000 little diamond backs. At this farm, which in on the Isle of Hope, about nine miles from Sayannah, the terrapin go to him when he calls. When he feeds them he floods the sand piles on which they live, and when they have fed the water Is drawn off. He hopes to interest the government in his plan.

head had cruised many miles and had winged its way far out cjf the track of the volcanic dust that as much as a bird was seen. That cussed squall queered our cruise all right.” It was more than a month later that the people on the Gayhead learned that Katmai had been in eruption.

obtain help from their elderp. When men armed with pitchforks came to the assistance of the girl the snake still held her fast. The reptile was soon killed, and when measured was more than six feet in length.

LOSES HIS CAR AND LIBERTY

St. Paul Man in Auto Wreck Jailed for Reckless Driving by Judge. Minneapolis. —J. B. Lawrence, wealthy business man of St. Paul and a member of an automobile firm there, not only is out SI,OOO for damages to his automobile, but also must spend 20 days in the Hennepin county workhouse for reckless driving, according to the ruling of Judge C. L. Smith of the municipal court. Lawrence, who was found in the wreckage of his automobile, was given three days to arrange his business for the enforced vacation. Judge Smith, in pronouncing sentence, declared that after investigation he was convinced the only reasbn Lawrence did not kill some one was because there was no pedestrians near him to be killed. The arrest of Lawrence is In line with the campaign being waged by police and court against speeding.

Failed to Get a Wife.

Lima, O. —Dale Cary, forty, rural bachelor of Ada, was disappointed when he appeared at a newspaper office here and found no answers to an advertisement he inserted asking for a wife, a brunette preferred, on six months’ probation. Cary admitted reading the story of Mile. Olga Petrova, who sought a husband for six months only. Cary has hopes of yet securing a bride on trial.

CLERKS FLED INTO VAULT

Breaking Trolley Sounded Like Earthquake In Atlantic City and Workers Are Panic Striken. Atlantic City, N. J.—Half a dozen clerks were standing near the big vault in the Chelsea National bank in this city, discussing the earthquake. Thei* hacks were turned toward the street. Suddenly there came a blinding flash, as though from a huge ball of fire, followed by a rumbling noise. The clerks, terror-stricken, and without waiting to investigate, took it for granted that another earthquake had visited the city, and they considered the safest place was the big vault. Into this they jumped, and, pulling the door Bhut, awaited developments. They waited for a long while, but seemingly nothing happened. Then • they tried to open the vault door, but could not It ’was some time later when the cashier, missing the clerka and noticing that the vault door was closed, opened it, and found the young fellows nearly smothered. A big campaign banner, water soaked from the rain, had fallen across the trolley feed wire, breaking the wire and causing the flash and explosion which the clerks noticed. The breaking of the feed wire tied up trolley traffic on the lines for nearly two hours.