Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1899 — Sherlock Holmen 300 Years Ago. [ARTICLE]

Sherlock Holmen 300 Years Ago.

Dr. John Donne, the famous English divine and poet, who lived in the reign of James 1., was a veritable Sherlock Holmes In bent of mind. One of bls exploits is as follows: He was walking in the churchyard while a grave was being dug, when the sexton cast up a moldering skull. The doctor idly took it up, and in handling it, found a headless nail driven into it. This he managed to take out and .conceal in his handkerchief. It was evident to him that murder had been done. He questioned the sexton and learned that the skull was probably that of a certain man who was the proprietor of a brandy shop, and was a drunkard, being founu dead in bed one morning after a night in which he had drank two quarts of brandy. “Had he a wife?” asked the doctor. “Yes.” “What character does she bear?” “She bore a very good character, only the neighbors gossiped because she married the day after her husband’s funeral. She still lives here.” The doctor soon called on the woman. He asked for and received the particulars of the death of her first husband. Suddenly opening his handkerchief, he showed her the telltale nail, asking in a loud voice: “Madam, do you know this nail?” The woman was so surprised that she confessed, and was tried and executed.