Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 309, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1912 — Page 2

The Daily Republican , Every Day Except Sunday HEALEY & CLARK, Publishers. RENSSELAER- INDIANA.

REMINISCENCES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ARTHUR COHAN DOYLE Illustrations by V. L. BARNES

The ADVENTURE Of THE DEVIL'S FOOT

(Continued.) “I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely barren,” he remarked. “I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the police, but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. Roundhay, if you would give the inspector my compliments and direct his attention to the bedroom window and to the sitting-room lamp. Each is suggestive, and together they are almost conclusive. If the .police woulcj desire further information I shall he happy to see any of them at the cottage. And now, Watson, I think that perhaps we 6hall be better employed elsewhere.” It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur, or that they imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of investigation; but it is certain that we heard nothing from them for the next two days. During this time Holmes spent some of his time smoking and dreaming in the cottage; but a greater portion in country walks which he undertook alone, returning after many hours without, remark as to where he had been. One experiment served to show me the line of his investigation. He had bought a lamp which was the duplicate of the one which had burned In the room of Mortimer Tregennis on the morning of the tragedy. This he filled with the same oil as that used at the vicarage, and he carefully timed the period which it would take to be exhausted. Another experiment which he made was of a more unpleasant nature, and one which I am not likely ever to forget. “You will remember, Watson,” said Holmes one afternoon, "that there Is a single common point of resemblance in the varying reports which have reached us. This concerns the effect of the atmosphere of the room in each case upon those who have first entered it. You will recollect that Mortimer Tregennis, in describing the episode of his last visit to his brother’s house, remarked that the doctor on entering the room fell into a chair? You had forgotten? Well, I can answer for It that It was so. Now, you will remember also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper, told us that she herself fainted upon entering the room and had afterwards opened the window. In the second case—that of Mortimer Tregennis himself —you cannot have forgotten the horrible stuffiness of the room when we arrived, though the servant had thrown open the window. That servant, I found upon inquiry, was so ill that she had gone to her bed. You will admit, Watson, that these facts are very suggestiveIn each case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere. In each case, also, there is combustion going on in the room —in the one case a fire, in the other a lamp. The fire was needed, but the lamp was lit —as a comparison of the oil consumed will show —long after it was broad daylight. Why? Surely because there is some connection between three things—the burning, the Btuffv atmosphere, and, finally, the madness or death of those unfortunate people. That is clear, is it not?” “It would appear so.” “At least may accept it as a working hypothesis. We will suppose, then, that something was burned in eachcase which produced an atmosphere causing strange toxic effects. Very good. In the first instance —that of the Tregennis family—this substanoe was placed in the fire. Now, the window was shut, but the fire would naturally carry fumes to some -extent up the chimney. Hence, one would expect the effects of the poison to be less than in the second case, where there was less escape for the vapor. The result seems to indicate that it was so, since in the first case /only the woman, who had presumably the more sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that temporary or permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect of the drug. In the second case the result was complete. The facts, therefore, seem to bear out the theory of a poison which worked by combustion. "With this train of reasoning in my ■ head I naturally looked about in Mortimer Tregennis’ room to find some remains of this substance. The obvious place to look was the talc shield or ■moke guard of the lamp. There, sure <m«ngh, I perceived a number of flaky ■shea, sad round the edges a fringe of brownish powdeF, which had not yet been consumed. «Half of this I took, as you saw, and I placed it In ■a envelope.” "Why half. Holmes r*

"It Is not for me. my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. The poison still remained upon the talc, had they the wit to find it Now, Watson, we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open our window to avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of society, and you will seat yourself near that open window in an arm-chair —unless, like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to do with the affair. Oh, you will see it out, will you? I thought I knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may be the same distance from the poison, and face to face. The door we will leave ajar. Each Is now In a position to watch the other and to -bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem alarming. Is that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder—or what remains of it—from the envelope, and I lay it above the burning lamp. So! Now, Watson, let us sit down and await developments.” They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair before I was conscious of a thick, musky odor, subtle and nauseous. At the very firSt whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all control. A thick black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, hut about to spring out upon my appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the threshold, w’hose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing horror took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, and that my eyes were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like leather. The turmoil w ithin my brain was Such that something must surely snap. I tried to scream, and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but distant and detached from myself. At the same moment, in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair, and had a glimpse of Holmes’ face, white, rigid and drawn with horror—the very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead. It w T as that vision which gave me an Instant of sanity and of strength. I dashed from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together w r e lurched through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown ourselves down upon the grass plot and were lying side by side, conscious only of the glorious sunshine whiGh was bursting its way through the hellish cloud of terror which had girt us in. Slowly it rose from our souls like the mists from a landscape, until peace and reason had returned, and we w T ere sitting up on the grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with apprehension at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific experience which we had undergone. ->

“Upon my word, Watson!” said Holmes at last, with an, unsteady voice, “I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for oneself, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry.” “You know,” I answered, with some emotion, for I had never seen so much of Holmes’ heart before, “that it is my greatest joy and privilege to help you.” He relapsed at once into that halfhumorous, half-cynical vein which was his habitual attitude about

A Thick Black Cloud Swirled Before My Eyes.

him. “It would be superfluous to drive us mad, my dear Watson,” said he. “A candid observer would certainly declare that we were so already before we embarked upon so wild an experiment. I confess that I never imagined that-the effect could be so sudden and so severe.” He dashed into the cottage, and, reappearing with the burning lamp held at full arm’s length, he threw it among a bank of brambles. “We must give the room a little time to clear. I take It, Watson, that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt as to how these tragedies were produced?” “None whatever," “But the cause remains as obscure as before. Come into the arbor here, and let us discuss it together. That villainous stuff seems stilt to linger round my throat. I think we must admit that all the evidenoe points to this man, Mortimer Tregennis, having been the criminal in the first tragedy, though he was the victim in the second one. We must remember, in the first place, that there Is some story

of a family quarrel, followed by a reconciliation. How bitter that quarrel may have been, or how hollow the reconciliation, we cannot tell. When I think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy faoe and the small, shrewd, beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I should judge to be of a particularly forgiving disposition. Well, In the next plaoe, you will remember that this idea of tome one moving in the garden, which took our attention for a moment from the real cause of the tragedy, emanated from him. He had a motive In misleading us. Finally, if he did not throw this substance 1 into the fire at the moment of leaving the room, who did so? The affair happened immediately after his departure. Had anyone else come in, the family would certainly have risen from the table. Besides, In peaceful Cornwall, visitors do not arrive aften ten o’clock at night. We may take it, then, that all the evidence points to Mortimer Tregennis as the culprit." “Then his own death was suicide!" “Well, Watson, it Is on the face of It a not impossible supposition. The man who had the guilt upon his sous : of having brought such. a fate upon his own’.family might well be driven by remorse to inflict it upon himself. There are, however, some cogent reasons against it. Fortunately, there is one man in England w r ho knows all about it, and I have made arrange-

“You Sent for Me, Mr. Holmes.”

ments by which we shall hear the facts this afternoon from his own lips. Ah! he is a little before his time. Perhaps you would kindly step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale. We have been conducting a chemical experiment indoors which has left our little room hardly fit for the reception of so distinguished a visitor.” I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic figure of the great African explorer appeared upon the path. He turned in some surprise towards the rustic arbor In which we sat. “You sent for me, Mr, Holmes. I had your note about an hour ago, and .1 have come, though I really do not know why I should obey your summons.” “Perhaps we can clear the point up before w<e separate,” said Holmes. “Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous acquiescence. You will excuse this informal reception in the open air, but my friend Watson and I have nearly finished an additional chapter to what the papers call the Cornish horror, and we prefer a clear atmosphere for the present Perhaps, since the matters which we have to discuss will affect you personally in a very intimate fashion, It is as well that we should talk where there can be no eavesdropping.” The explorer took a cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my ; companion. “I am at a loss to know, sir,” he said, “what you can have to speak about which affects me personally in a very intimate fashion.” “The killing of Mortimer Tregennis,” said Holmes. For a moment I wished that I were armed. Sterndale’s fierce face turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted,- passionate veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang forward with clenched hands,towards my companion. Then he stopped, and with a violent effort he resumed a cold, rigid calmness which was, perhaps, more suggestive of danger than his hot-headed outburst. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

Miles, Long and Short.

Considering the size of Switzerland one might expect a mile to be about as far as one could throw a ball, but the hardy mountaineers think 9,153 yard* the proper thing, even when, as it generally is, it is very much up hill. The Swiss is the longest mile of all, being followed by the Vienna post mile of 8.296 yards. The Flemish mile is 6,869 yards, the Prussian 8,237 yards, and in Denmark they walk 8,244 yards and call it a stroll of a mile. The Arabs generally ride good horses and call 2,143 yards a mile, while the Turks are satisfied with 1,826 yards, and the Italians shorten the distance of a mile to 1,766 yards, just six yards more than the American has in mind when the agent waves his hand and blandly remarks, “About a mile.”

They Are the Goats.

Griggs—lt's a mystery to me how Jones can set such a splendid table on his salary. Briggs—Huh! It is no mystery to his butcher and greoec.

PERIL IN “MOVIES”

Actors in Animated Pictures Continually Risk Lives. Being Kicked by Horses, Attacked by Bedouins and Falling From High Places Some of “Stunts” Enacted During Day’s Work. London.—Acting in front of the camera for moving pictures isn’t quite as soft a job as people not in the know are apt to imagine, says a London correspondent. Grave risks have to be taken, and more or Jess serious accidents are quite common. Sometimes these even result fatally. The other day, for example, a man named Bittner descended in a parachute from the Column of Victory in Berlin, with a view to being cinematographed as he was falling; but something went wrong with his apparatus, and the unhappy parachutist was dashed to death. Similarly, a picture player named Dums was killed on the railway last year while acting a part. The unfortunate man was only supposed to be run over by the approaching train, it being the intention to substitute a dummy Hgure at the last moment./Ilut the rails were slippery, the drived was unable to pull up the engine in time and the actor was mangled to death beneath the wheels. No viewing on the screen the superb riding of pretty Alice Joyce, the famous exponent of "cowgirl” parts in western dramas, would suppose that any horse qould ever succeed in throwing her. As a matter of fact, however, she was met with several accidents. Miss Gene Gauntler, of Kansas City, has been exceptionally unlucky. Only quite recently she was attacked by Bedouins in the Sahara, and had to fight hard to get away. In Florida she was nearly engulfed in a quicksand. In a battle scene in “The Girl Spy” she kicked by a horse and nearly killed. In another war scene there was a premature explosion of a caisson that hurled her unconscious, but ft made a great picture. A naval lieutenant is another picture player who has had many narrow escapes, his latest exploit in this

LOVE JAILS YOUTH

Hears of Jealous Girl’s Deception and Returns to Cell. -. \ v A. B. Spain, Formerly of Albion, Ind., Violated Parole When Told Young Woman Spurned Him —Located at Memphis, Tenn. Jeffersonville, Ind. —Love for a girl and a desire to right a wrong he had done her through a misunderstanding, has prompted A. B. Spain, twentythree years old, to return to the state reformatory here to serve the remainder of a term from which he was paroled after a violation of that parole. Spain’s story came out the other day in Memphis, Tenn., where he had been working for some time. He said that he was reared on a farm near Albion, Noble county. Several years ago, In a prank, he, with others, stole several bushels of corn from a neighboring farmer. The latter failed to see the joke, caused the arrest of the hoys and some of them sentenced to the reformatory. Spain, who was one of those sentenced, served three years and two months of his time, and was then released on his promise, among others, not to leave the state. He returned to Albion and continued at the trade of a tailor, which he had begun to learn in a local institution. There was a girl. Spain loved her, and finally proposed and was accepted. Life seemed to hold nothing but joy. The wedding was to take place as soon as he had saved enough money to furnish * a comfortable home, j Then one day another girl came to him with a letter which she said was written*’by his fiancee. It was as follows: “Dear Bessie: lam going to look for a new flame and I want you fid help me. That jailbird still thinks I am crazy enough to marry him. Ho doesn’t have sense enough to know I have been laughing at him in my sleeves all the time.” Spain took the first train for Indianapolis. Then he jwent to Louisville, Ky., knowing he was violating hU promise not to leave the state, bast .caring not. Finally he reached Memphis and obtained employment. Recently he received a letter from his brother, with whom he had kept up a correspondence. This told him that the girl he had left web grieving for him, and that the one who showed him the note had acknowledged that she wrote It because of jealousy for her more fortunate friend. “I am going back and se'PVe my time,” said Spain. ‘‘Tt'S the square thing to do.”

$25 FOR CALLING MAN A LIAR

When Jury Cleared Gerry’s Grandson of Charge -His Counsel Objected, and Verdict Is Returned. ° New York. —Elbridge Gerry Snow, Jr., grandson of Elbridge T. Gerry, was defendant in the supreme court in a suit brought by George Michell, a solicitor for a storage warehouse, to recover $15,000 for slander. The plaintiff alleged that Mr. Snow had

TURKS FLEEING FROM PERA

Inhabitants of Pera, the chief residential section of Constantinople,, are here seen loading their household belongings on boats preparatory to fleeing, while others on the roof are watching the smoke of the conflict at Tchatalja.

direction being a fall from a high cliff near Brighton. Once, too, he was badly wounded in .a sword duel with a picture player antagonist. Of course the injury was quite unintentional and accidental. Alfred Brighton, a clever young American picture player, lost his life in the Hudson river a year ago. He had to leap into the water and rescue a girl who was supposed to be drowning. While swimming toward

called him “a dirty thief And a liar” in the presence of another employe of the warehouse. Mrs. Snow, whom the clubman married a few days after hi 6 divorce from his first wife, testified that soon after her husband had sailed for Europe in the summer of 1910 Mrs. Mitchell agreed that the warehouse which he represented would move her furniture and statuary for $360. When she found her furniture In the house at 185 Riverside drive she was so much pleased with the work that she presented Mitchell with a gold tie clasp and gave five dollars apiece to his men. She and her husband were not so pleased when the bill came, for it amounted to $660. Mitchell explained on the stand that the increased cost over the estimate was because he had received orders originally to pack the furniture for storage, and had had several men busy for 20 days doing the work. The jury at first brought In a verdict for the defendant. Counsel for. both sides admitted that the plaintiff was entitled to a verdict, and asked that the jury be sent back. They returned a few minutes with a verdict of $25.

Girls Wear Gaudy Hose.

Marshalltowh, la. —Thirteen high school girls who went to class wearing hosierj of gaudy hue, intending it as a joke, were sent home to make a change to more somber shade.

MAN HAS $500,000 STOMACH

Diamond Jim Brady of New York Content With a Thirty-Cent Meal. New York. —Diamond Jim Brady, the world’s only possessor of a $500,000 stomach, eats 30-cent lunches. Sometimes, just to remind himself of the old days, he goes to- the Astor house and,spends from 80 cents to sl. “But,” he said, “I can get all I want for 30 cents.” This fact became known when an Investigation into the amounts spent by rich men *-for meals was undertaken following the complaint of a “much .worried wife” that her husband spent $65 per week for luncheon. Brady recently gave to Johns Hopkins university endowments and funds approximating $500,000 in grateful acknowledgment to the surgeons for giving him a new stomach. Previous to that time he had been as famous for his gastronomical achievements as for the blazing diamonds that adorn his waistcoats, shirts and underwear. Asked what he spent on an average for luncheon, "Diamond Jim” answered with alacrity that the amount was from 80 cents to $1 when be went to the Astor house. “If I send out for something to eat,” he continued, “I can get all I want for 30 cents. I am spending more today because I am entertaining three friends. This meal will probably cost $6.50, and it’s a good one. "I think that a man can get all he wants for six dollars a week —that Is,

her he was observed to throw up hi* arms, sink once or twice and struggle frantically on coming to the surface. The spectators on, the bank applauded wildly, imagining it to be part of the performance, and the operator kept turning the handle -of his machine, while shouting to the drowning man to ‘‘Keep it up!” Only when he had sunk for the third and last time did anybody even begin to puspect that anything was wrong.

LIVING HIGH 1,800 YEARS AGO

Greek Manuscript Also Tells of Bad Trusts That Existed at Theadelphia. Philadelphia, Pa. —According to the authorities at the University of Pennsylvania museum, the high cost of living and excessive transportation rates were as much a problem in Theadelphia, a small city in Egypt, 1,800 years ago as they are today in the United States. In an ancient Greek manuscript just deciphered by the museum’s experts a collector of internal revenue tells of the graft and excessive profits demanded by the trust magnates and political leaders of those days. He believed there would be little hope for future generations in fighting the combination.

FORM “STAY AT HOME CLUB”

A. G, Vanderbilt, Philip Lydlg and F. O. Beach Among Organization’s Members. New York. —The Stay at Home club, which aims to prove to the world that the wealthy New Yorker really loves his home and desires to pass as many evenings as possible at his own fireside with his wife and family, has just been organized here with Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Philip Lydig. Sidney Colford, F. O. Beach and other well known young millionaires as charter members. The club came to life, It Is said, as the result of a dinner party argument as to whether the modern man found more pleasure at his club than in his home.

all that’s good for him. With a dollar luncheon I feel better than the man who spends ten dollars for a midday meal. If I send out from my office I get a sandwich and a glass of milk. That’s a pretty good luncheon even for" a man as big as I am.”

DOG’S DOCTOR BILL $3,000

Pug, Twenty Years Old, Dies Despite That, and Real Funeral Is Held— Neighbors Send Flowers. Cincinnati, O.—A funeral that would have been appropriate fo>r any human being in more than moderate circumstances wad accorded Monkey, a pug dog owned by Mrs. Harry Jackson of this city, which was buried in a lot provided by a humane society of this city. The dog was laid, out in a beautiful coffin in the best room of! the Jackson home. It was twenty years old and had traveled nearly 50,000 miles with Its mistress. During the last twelve years Monkey had been in ill health, and during that time Mrs. Jackson spent over $3,000 trying to restore her pet In later days four veterinary surgeons were in almost constant attendance. Mrs. Jackson was preparing to send for a specialist when death ensued. Flowers were sent by neighbors to the dog’s funeral The body was conveyed in a hearse to the cemetery and four carriages followed.