Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1899 — Page 6

CHAPTER XXL “John D. Lloyd!” The words fell from the lips of not only the judge on the bench, but from those of •very lawyer within the bar. ••John D. Lloyd!” echoed the voices of many in the court room. “Mr. Sheriff,” said the judge, ‘‘place a dudr beside me and assist my old friend . Lloyd to a position here, if the Lord has mercifully spared his life.” Sheriff Cobb looked very gloomy, but he obeyed the order of the court with alacrity. “Yes, judge and friends,” said Mr. Lloyd, as the sheriff, after shaking hands with him, assisted him to the judicial bench, “the sea has given up its dead—the asylum its mental wreck. John D. Lloyd la with you once again. Nor has he yet greeted his own family. He is in the hands of the great detective.” “I can well believe you, old friend,” said the judge as he grasped his wasted hand. “But if you have not visited your family, we must not long delay you.” "Mr. Sellars has made me acquainted with the contents of the will, said to be the banker’s last and final one,” said Mr. Lloyd. "If such is the case, and my name and that of my lost friend Elliott appear as witnesses to the same, there has been a forgery committed.” A groan burst from the breast of Herman Craven. He sat the picture of abject terror—a living, breathing wretch. Miss Deßosette sat with pale face, clinging to the arms of her companions. "Your names signed to the will constitute the forgery?’ asked the judge. "No, your honor, the signatures, I presume, are valid; but in the body of the will Herman Craven was left but the aum of five thousand dollars. I am told that the will now shows that fifty-five thousand dollars was the banker’s bequest to his nephew. There was no administrator named in the will. A space was left vacant with the understanding that if I returned safely from my trip to Europe my name was to be filled in. At Mr. Deßosette's solicitation 1 had consented to act, should I survive him. Neither was there a guardian named; but the understanding there was the same. He desired me to constitute that guardian and my name would have appeared there but for my trip abroad.” “Miserable wretch, what have you to gay?” asked the judge, turning his gaze on the features of Stephen Craven. “What can I say. judge?” was the sneering reply. “Except that Sellars has got me dead to rights. 1 knifed the banker, and my delectable son there—the Craven coward —forged the will. That is all there is about it. A Craven need not die a coward! Die game! Be a game sport to the last; that’s my motto, aud It’a all I have to say.” “Are there any here who recognize this man as Stephen Craven, the man who married Alvin Deßosette’s sister?” asked the judge. “I do, your honor,” said Attorney Dobbs. “I never saw him but once. The marriage was an elopement. Miss Deßo* sette was a school girl, airri this villain eloped with her from Hillsborough, where she was attending school. At Alvin DeRokette’s request I visited Richmond, to which place Stephen Craven at first conveyed his bride, anil there begged his wife to abandon him and return to her brother ‘with me. She would not do so, however, and Stephen Craven, entering the house and surmising my object, ordered me out. I cannot be mistaken in the man.” "No, you are right, old duffer!” cried Stephen, with another sneer. “This man is a monster!” exclaimed the judge, shuddering. “No, no! You are wrong, judge, wrong. I am nothing if not a dead game si>ort! Life is a faree —a field in which we each play our part, then make our exit to be seen no more. There is no hereafter. This is the end of life; that is all, and I will die as 1 have lived —a dead—game—sport! Yes, without a fear for the present or the future; but look at that livid, woe-begone picture! That is my son. Ain’t he a beaut? He denies his own father, now that a day of peril is at hand.. He put up this job. He forged the banker’s will and was too cowardly to remove his uncle from his path. I willingly aided him. Look at him! The bell-ringer of Wilmington. His hand from the stairway pulled the wire that drew Robert Campbell to the door, leaving the coast clear for me. I thrust the blade of the sheath knife home, secured the bag of coin and ran upstairs and secreted myself. During the commotion below I secreted the gold where Sellars found it not an hour ago. Herman bad provided me with a key to the attic, and I remained there three days and nights. When I took my departure I left the coin behind, beneath the hearth in Miss Deßosette’s room. You have everything dead to rights now. What are you Why don't you get a move on yoarself? Let Campbell get out of that box and put my sneaking son and myself in it! Do something!” “This man must be an incarnate fiend!” exclaimed the judge. ‘Tm a beaut, 1 am!” ejaculated the assassin. “But I’m not a coward!” “Gentlemen of the jury,” said the judge, turning to the twelve men in the jury box, “the court instructs you to render a verdict of ‘not guilty’ in thegfase of the State against Robert Campbell, and no one can more regret than does the court the unfortunate position in which an innocent man has been placed, but through the efforts of Mr. Sellars an honorable name has been Vindicated and the murderer of our old friend and his accomplice are before you.” “What say you, gentlemen of the juryguilty or not guilty?” asked the clerk. “Not guilty!” responded the foreman, in a loud voice. A cheer went up that resounded through the building. "Order! Order in court!” cried the . Sheriff. “Robert Campbell, you are discharged from custody,” said the judge.

AUNT HANNAH'S SECRET.

The young man arose to his feet, and with a happy smile on his countenance passed within the bar, where his first act was to grasp the hand of the great detective. “My preserver!” he cried. “May God bless you, Lang Sellars!” “And he will,” were the words that fell from the lips of the Widow Campbell. Hattie Deßosette had arisen to her feet as Robert approached. Her face was marble-like in its whiteness, and she had sat throughout the proceedings as one in a trance. The effort had been too much for her, and with the word “Robert!” she fell forward, to be clasped in the arms of the man she loved. Another cbees-went up from thejjgs of the vast throng in the court room. “Order in court!” cried the sheriff. “Conduct your prisoners to the box, Mr. Sellars,” said the judge, “that they may be arraigned for a trial that will speedily follow. I judge its duration will not be long.” “First,” said Sellars, “I will shackle this scheming villain,” and with a pair of steel bracelets in one hand he reached towards Herman Craven. A shriek burst from the white lips of the bank president, and the loud report of a revolver followed it. Herman had held the weapon concealed in his hand, and it had been instantly directed at the detective, but as unexpected as it had been, Sellars had reached the arm of the assassin in time to divert the messenger of death from himself, and : it found lodgment in the bosom of Stephen Craven, who tor a moment stood motionless, then tottered and fell forward to the floor. Sellars had secured Herman’s weapon, and ere the father had been raised to a chair had him securely shackled. The ladies present screamed in terror, and the court room was in commotion. “Order in court!” Cried the sheriff, who was bending over the form of Stephen Craven. The detective literally carried the manacled form of Herman to the prisoner’s box, where he placed him, shrieking, on a seat. “I'm done for!” presently gasped his father. “Murdered by my own son! The cur! It was your life he aimed at Sellars. Well, better so. There will be but one victim at the hanging bee. I—l might have escaped and carried him with me, coward though he be. Better so! Better so! It was a fatal shot, boy. I—l have nothing to regret—no favors to ask. No, no, nothing. I die as I lived —a —a dead game sport!” And with his head on the sheriff’s arm, the soul of Stephen Craven passed before its maker, “Court is adjourned for the day,” announced the judge, and a half hour later the court room was untenanted. The body of Stephen Craven had been conveyed to the morgue. Herman Craven, the president of ‘The Cape Fear Bank,” occupied a felon’s cell in the county jail. John D. Lloyd had been accompanied by Judge Fowlpr to his residence, where there was joy over the return of one who had long been mourned as dead. Sellars was captured by the mother and sister of Robert Campbell, and accompanied them home. Leaning on Robert’s arm with the same party was also the young heiress, whose form still trembled with emotion. “I always distrusted Herman Craven,” said Hattie, when the party were seated in the Campbell home, and Aunt Caroline had placed before them an urn of tea, of which the good soul thought the ladies stood sadly in need, “but I little dreamed of the villainy in his nature. In receiving him into our home my dear father received——” “A viper!” exclaimed Sellars. “But under the tutelage of Stephen Craven he could not have been less.” “Oh, dear Robert, how you must have suffered,” said Hattie. “I was never alarmed ns to the outcome, my love, from the time that our noble friend Sellars assured me that I should not stand upon the gallows trap.” “You could pay me no higher compliment than that conveyed by those words,” said the detective, grasping the young man’s hand. At this time Arthur Dobbs and his father joint'd the party. “All honor to the man who has vindicated a noble name; unraveled a double mystery, and brought to justice a father and son, who for coldblooded villainy have never been equaled in America!" exclaimed the senior man, as he approached Sellars. “There was one quality a man could respect in the father, notwithstanding his villainy,” said Sellars. “Bravery. He was not a coward! In the Character of Herman there is not one redeeming trait!” “Not one!” exclaimed the banker's daughter. “If he had never entered our home, dear father would not be in his grave to-day.” Before the residence of Sellars two negroes were seated on the grass, and they were happy Africans, to judge by appearances. “I spec’ you feel mighty proud now, Adam, an' to-night you jes’ ’bout make dat gal Cindy tink yous de debbel hisself.” “G’long, Calban! How I gwine win dat gal, if she tink I’s de debbel? I Is suah 'nuff gwine blow my horn mighty hard. I’s gwine tell her ’bout my trip up to Baltimore, on de ’ralroad wid Mars Lang, an' how I says in dat spress office ‘Dat's de man, Mars Lang.” "G’long, nigger! You didn’t do nothin’.” “What you do? Now tell me dat!” “Adam, you’s a fool! Didden I keep dese yere two eyes on Herman. Craven night and day? Yes, even when he was in he bed. Whar is he now?” “Dat’s so, Calban. You’s had more sperience dan I is.” “Now ya’ talkin’! Say, Adam, I spec yo’ misses will buy dat gal Cindy for you now, an’ you ken mek her yo’ lawfully wife.” “Golly, Calban! Does you reckon so?”

“Bush I does.” “Well, I gwine hint ’roun’ ’bout It mightily, directly she get ober dis flustration. 1 spec da hang Mars Herman now.” . “Fer suah da hang him!" “Da cam hang he daddy!” “G’long home an’ tell Hannah and Millie. I seed Unc Duke at de court house. You’s a fool! What da gwine hang a dead man fer?” With what he intended as a withering look, Calban left his sable companion and entered the house. At 2:45 p. m. on the ninth day of November, a terrible scene was enacted within the county jail at Wilmington. Twenty persons—the number allowed by law—were gathered before a grewsome structure that occupied a position at the east end of the room of execution. The grewsome object was the gallows, and when Sheriff Cobb approached from an iron door that separated the room from the lower tier of cells, followed by Jailer Filyaw and an assistant, who between them were fairly dragging along a whiterobed, shrieking figure, a pallor overspread the faces of those assembled. Two clergymen followed the main actors in this fearful drama. The scaffold was reached. The frantic, shrouded form was bodily raised and carried upon the platform. More, he was placed in a standing posture on the very, center of the trap. "If you have words to speak, speak .them now,” said Sheriff Cobb. “Mercy! Mercy!” screamed the abject, horror-stricken wretch. “You all know 1 did not strike the blow!” The condemned man’s hands were shackled together behind him with a leather strap while he was speaking, and his lower limbs were securely bound together with another. One of the clergymen stepped to the side of the trap and uttered a short, fervent prayer, closing the same with the words; “May God have mercy on your soul!” A wild wail broke from the lips of Herman Craven as a knitted noose w’as passed over his head. Another! Still another. jgut the last, half muffled, came from beneath the black cap that now Concealed his livid features. Jailer Filyaw was supporting the criminal on one side, his assistant on the other. .■ The clergymen had stepped back from the prisoner's side and the sheriff had disappeared within a small enclosure to the left of the trap, and through which passed the rope that held the trap in place. “Mercy! My God, mercy! I will not die! I ” The clock on the market tower sounded the first stroke of the hour of three. The blow of an ax resounded from the box that concealed the sheriff. The trap fell. The shrouded figure followed it, leaving the jailer and his assistant with their arms extended over a vacant space. The taut rope creaked. The body spun round and round. A movement or two of the limbs, and then —a pendant figure, hanging lifeless. The murder of Alvin Deßosette had been avenged. John D. Lloyd was appointed by the court as administrator of the late banker’s estate and guardian of his daughter; but the term of his guardianship was short, for on the twentieth of the following June the fair heiress became the bride of Robert Campbell, and the same day saw sweet Jennie Campbell the wife of Arthur Dobbs, the young attorney. The two weddings occurred at midday in the Deßosette residence, and a large number of friends were there present; but the one whose good wishes to both brides and grooms brought the most fervent pleasure, it is safe to say, was a certain detective, and tears filled the eyes of the two happy brides when they bade him good-by to start on their wedding trip. "May your trip through life be as happy as the one before you promises to be,” said Sellars, “and may there be no thorns by the roadside.” “That all here are happy to-night,” said Attorney Dobbs, “is owing to the vigilance of one man, and that man Lang Sellars, the great Southern detective, who fulfilled his pledge. Robert Campbell did not stand on the gallows trap.” Sellars passed a hand before his eyes to hide the tears that had gathered as he turned away. And he thought what might have l>een had he not traced down the man with three names. (The end.)

Can Make Diamonds by Dynamite.

“Diamonds Made by Dynamite” would be a queer sign on a jeweler’s window, but queer things are bound to happen in an age of electric furnaces one the one hand apd liquefied hydrogen on the other. After close study of the South African diamond fields scientists formed the theory that diamonds were made In nature's laboratory from carbon liquefied by enormous heat and pressure, and dissolved in iron, from which they crystallized out in cooling. By calculation It was found that his would require a temperature of about 4,000 degrees centigrade (7,232 degrees Fahrenheit), and a pressure of 15 tons to the square inch. Molssan, of Paris, and other experimenters have produced crystals by imitating this process as closely as possible, but they were too small and Imperfect to have any value as jewels. Some other process must be discovered whereby carbon and iron can be subjected to an enormous heat and pressure before we can hope to produce diamonds on a commercial scale. In this condition Professor Crookes has suggested to the Royal Institution that "in their researches on the gases from fired gunpowder and cordite Sir Frederick Able and Sir Andrew Noble obtained in closed steel cylinders pressure as great as 95 tons to the square Inch, and temperature as high as 4,000 degrees centigrade.” Here, then, If the observations are correct, we have sufficient temperature and enough high pressure to liquefy carbon, and If the temperature could only be allowed to act a sufficient time on the carbon there Is little doubt that the artificial formation of diamonds would soon pass from the microscopic stage to a scale more likely to satisfy the requirements of science, industry and personal decoration.—Chicago Inter Ocean. Mournful spectacles are seldom arranged in tiers.

politocs of Day

POLITICS ANO PROMISES, When the Republican National Convention at St. Louis constructed Its platform on which to make the Presidential fight in 1890, It was engaged In making promises. Among other things It promised that McKinley would protect and expand the civil service law, and McKinley solemnly asserted that he would keep the promise made for him. * But after the Republican candidate for President was elected the reign of promises ended and the rule of politics began. With due regard for timeliness, the attack on civil service was left until this year, when a hoard of new officials would do the most good, and then civil service was joyously ripped up the back by McKinley. That was politics and Senator Quay of Pennsylvania is now reaping his share of the benefit. The Pittsburg Post, in referring to Quay’s actions in regard to this matter, says: “It is an established fact that Quay Is now using offices put at his disposal by McKinley's spoils oilier to further his re-election to the Senate, and if any man in the country knows better how to do this than Matthew Stanley Quay he is not visible to the naked eye. “It is publicly advertised that the twenty-odd census supervisors just agreed on were handed over to Penrose and Quay to promote the latter’s reelection. Several thousand enumerators are held in a position of promise

Uncle Sam—-There’s a new bug in the Philippines.-—Bluepencilotis.-—St. Paul Pioneer Press (Republican).

or ‘come and get’ for the same laudable purpose. Quay and Penrose will use these offices to buy up the weak and disaffected.” The people were fooled by the politicians through the old Republican trick of promises made to be broken. They were foojed as to civil service and they were fooled as to the alleged sympathy of the Republicans for oppressed Cuba, These facts are well knowm, and they are mentioned here to point a warning which should be heeded in the next Presidential campaign. The Republicans will make promises to control the trusta If they succeed In electing their candidate they will break those promises with as little honor as have shown In the cases cited. Will the people allow themselves to be fooled once more? McKialey’n Dilemma. If Otis Is not recalled by the President the inference will be that the general has acted under instructions from McKinley In the matter of the press censorship. But if Otis Is recalled that fact will be a confession of judgment on the part of McKinley, who has kept Otis in power and removes him simply because the truth has been told by the newspaper correspondents. It makes little difference what the administration does concerning the correspondents* round robin. The dilemma is there just the same and either horn will gore to the quick. Press censorship, when enforced to keep the knowledge of military movements from the enemy, is allowable, but there has been no sort of excuse for the censorship exercised by Gen. Otis at Manila. Even the Boston Herald, which is not especially hostile to McKinley and is generally very conservative in its remarks, can find no excuse for the censorship. Commenting on this matter before the revelations were made by the correspondents, the Herald said: “The whole Philippine archipelago, with, the realm of China added, would be a dear purchase at the price of tame submission to this kind of domestic oppression, this exercise of imperial prerogative by the President of a free nation.” Never before in the history of the United States has such a tyrannous assumption of authority been assumed as that which has characterised the censorship of the news from the Philippines. No free government should be

guilty of sueh an act. It Is character Istlc of an absolute monarchy and has no element of freedom In It. Rebate* Go On. The Iron Age attention to the great temptation to freight rate rebating which the trusts put upon the railroad managers. There Is nothing new In this. In fact the Interstate commerce law was principally intended to correct this evil, which it made a misdemeanor, but It Is alleged that It still, takes place in various disguises, and the trusts will soon become expert at it, as they have been in various other ways of crushing out competition, which are barely within the bound of legality, If not of morality.—Pittsburg Post. Let the Troth Be Known. The suggestion of ex-Senator George Edmunds that more light be thrown on our relations with Aguinaldo before the surrender of Manila is well taken. What promises did our representative make to him, and did they keep them? Has Aguinaldo had any more cause to be suspicious of Americans, and to doubt that they would live up to what they say? says the Indianapolis Sentinel. Let the country know the truth and the whole truth. Free Trade. It is difficult to tell just what Senator Depew of New York means when he talks for publication. The Senator has acquired a reputation as a joker, and one is not always sure that he Is not

springing one of his peculiar witticisms when he appears to be the most serious. Recently the able and humorous Chauncey announced that he believed the time had come when this country needed no longer the protective tariff. The Senator alleges that the tendency is now in the direction of free trade. But surely Senator Depew, who has had wide experience as a trust manager, knows that the trusts will never consent to the adoption of free trade, as that would kill many of the largest of the existing combines. Knowing this and being aware that the Republican party Is bound by the trusts, Depew’f talk about free trade is farcical. As long as the Republican party is jn power the protective tariff will be maintained. For the sake of making political capital the Republicans will talk about curbing and controlling the trusts. Resolutions will be placed in the Republican platform against trusts, but nothing will be done that can in any way injuriously affect the trusts.— Chicago Demotrat. Worse than War. War is one thing and chasing Filipinos through the jungle is another. The latter pastime does not seem to appeal to the American volunteer, and the country Itself is becoming rather sick of it, too—Detroit Tribune. He Was Fired Just the Sane.

*1 will never retire under fire.”—Be* cent utterance of B. A. Alger.—dries* go Chronicle.

Absent-Minded Man's Feast.

The celebrated French composer, Mellhac, who died lately, was one of the absent-minded geniuses. He was also a man of simple tastes in the matter of food. It is related of him that, on an occasion when one of his operas was being presented, he entered, in evening dress, a fashionable restaurant and threw himself down at a table, thinking earnestly about the musical event of the evening and about nothing else. A waiter brought him a bill of fare, and Monsieur Mellhac quite abstractedly indicated with his finger the first dish on the bill that his eye had struck. It happened to be the most elaborate and costly dish on the bill, and when the waiter went to the kitchen with the order there was commotion there. The proprietor himself arrived and he and the Chief cook devoted themselves to the preparation of the costly dish. One man was sent for this choice Ingredient, and another for another. Meantime Monsieur Mellhac waited, absorbed. At last the dish was brought with a great flourish, and the proprietor stood not far away to observe the result. When it was deposited on the table Mellhac looked at it with an expression of melancholy, interest. •.‘Did I order that?” he asked. “Certainly, Monsieur!” ‘‘Do you like It?” “But—but yes, monsieur!” “Then please take it away and eat it yourself,” ordered Mellhac, “and bring me two fried eggs!” The order was canted out, and the proprietor wondered if he had a madman to deal with. —Youth’s * Companion.

Greeley’s Rebuke.

Apropos of the proposed “AngloAmerican Alliance,” the story of Horace Greeley’s neat rebuke of the Englishman who once agreed with him too literally, may be worth telling. Mr. Greeley was discussing, in a general company, the faults and needs of his own nation. “What this country needs,” said be, Jn his piping voice and Yankee accent, “is a real good licking!” It happened that there was an Englishman present, and he promptly said, with unmistakable English accent: “Quite right, Mr. Greeley, quite right The country needs a ‘licking.’ ” But Mr. Greeley, without glancing in the Englishman’s direction or seeming to pay any attention to the interruption. went on in the same squeaky tone: “But the trouble is, there's no nation that can give it to us!”—Youth’s Companion.

Connecticut Judges to Wear Gowns.

A committee of Judges from the Supreme Court of Errors and from the , Superior Court, consisting of Judge Baldwin, Judge Robinson, and Judge Prentice, have been at work for some little time revising the rules of court procedure, and at a meeting of the Judges in this city printed slips of the revision, some 150 rules, were distributed and the tenative scheme was commented upon, but not adopted. The revision provides, among other things referring to the court, that all Judges of the Supreme and Superior Courts shall wear gowns while presiding at a term of court, and that the sheriff and deputies of all the counties, in attendance upon court, shall wear a prescribed uniform, probably similar to those that are worn in the Hartford County Court.—Hartford (Conn.) Courant

Called For a Cab at Sea.

The English artist, Vai Prlncep, Is an enthusiastic fisherman, and often takes his friends out with him on salt water. A short time ago he went out to fish in Penvensey Bay with a young friend of his, who was an indifferent sailor. For a time ail went well, but presently the tyro felt qualms of the approaching mal-de-mer. Strugge as bravely as he did against it, he could not overcome the feeling of nausea, and at last he was conquered. In fact, so severe was the attack that he became fran»'<’. Presently he gasped: “For gooduess sake fetch a cab and take me home!” At the time the boat was three miles from the shore. However. the unhappy victim was brought to land in a state of semi-collapse and assisted to bed.

Whale Tooth Coin.

Whales’ teeth form the coinage of the Fiji Islands. They are painted white and red, the red teeth being worth about twenty times as much as the white. The native carries his wealth round his neck, the red and white of his coinage forming a brilliant contrast to his black skin. A common and curious sight in the Fiji Islands is a newly married wife presenting her husband with a dowry of whales’ teeth.

Man of Many Marriages.

Tuan Syed Mahomed bln Abdulla alHadad, of Singapore, has arrived on a visit to his co-religionists. The has seen some seventy-eight summers and is accompanied by his harem, which consists of four wives and two slaves. We are told that he never allows the number of wives to fall short of the figure given‘above, and that he has altogether contracted no less than ITT marriages.—Terak (East India) Pioneer.

Clever Animals These.

A friend of mine kept three dogs, and one night, on returning borne, found them all asleep on his sofa. They were whipped and expelled. Next night he found them before the fire, but, feeling the sofa and finding It warm, he punished them again. The third night be returned earlier than tisual, and round them sitting in front of the sofa blowing it to cool It— Windsor Magazine.