Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1849-12-19

would have given a body to earth, water
and air, in thirty hours, leaving no trace Of
guilt visible, he spends horrible week
roasting and burning, without destroying
the body. Is it likeIy-is it possible, for
o chemist to have so bungled. Does not
the manner of the work itself clear him from
suspicion. If he was calm enough to lee
ture, and visit his friends cheerfullv, he
must have been calm enough to have played
the chems. in hiding a murder Ga this
single ground, we are forced at present to
believe him guil,less Of murder.
But to the body. Who is satifed that it
is Dr.. Parkman's? All crisped, and mangIed,
and half destroyed, has i. been satisfactorily
identified ? We think not. 1t must be re-
membered that hat, found on a Boston
wharf, was identified by Robt. G. Shaw, Or.
P's brother in-law, as the Doctors, and
search in the river made in consequence
also, that Mr.. Shaw wished the finding Of
the hat to be kept secret We have, in
former article said that The desire to identi-
fy the body, or some body, as DR.. P's, was
not strange, for otherwise the immense es-
tate of the Doctor could no, be soon and
readily administered upon. We hold to tina,
impression still We have also alluded to
the possibility of conspiracy to get rid Of
Dr.. P. TO secure his property, and saddle
the crime upon an innocent person. We
did not apply that suspicion to any relatives
of DR.. Parkman. We asked, and still ask,
why DR.. P's rent collector was so sudden
ly excited to suspicion agains, Prof Web
bo In thot h. do 100
note was taken up? and did he think
Prof. w. would commit murder for $3.50?
We ask, also, why Litlefeld, with his bun
die of keys, and means Of access to every
room in the College, should work two days
in breaking wall, to get at Prof. Webster's
laboratory Was that natural process,
or an artificial one, calculated to remove
suspicious from others than Prof Webster?
The excitement manifested by Prof. Web
ster, on his arrest, is altogether in favor Of
his innocence. Had he, nervous, timid
man, Of fine suscep,ibilites, appeared stolid
and unexcited in view of the monetary
ignominy even, attached to an arrest under
such suspicious, we should have thought it
the studied and forced device Of guilt But
he was true to his nature. Arrested for a
heinous crime, he felt the full force Of his
posi,ion-he thought of his wife, his family,
his friends, and that he should cry my God
can this be or ! am ruined is but natur-
al. Blu. there is fact of vast importance,
spectacle man swears positively that he saw
Dr.. Parkman on Boston Common, at half
past P. NJ. Of the day on which he disap-
peared. He went TO the College at halfpast
l 2. NJ, and therefore must have left it,
Others swear to having seen him that afer-
con. and these facts, joined TO the finding
OF Inc nav nr. Parkman on Bos.an wharf,
form strong and aImvs. conclusive tesr1-
mony in favor Of Prof. Webster.
We now ask, if it is not possible that 9TH
er parties than Professor Webster might not
have kept up those night fires, and consum-
ed the barrels of ''kindlings''--parties who
knew not the decomposing nature Of quick
lime and acids. Might not the evidences
of the horrible work have been kept from
Professor Webster's sight, and finally brol'
to the positions in which they were found
when those parties thought concealmen.
could 60 no further Would Prof Webster
have colored blood spots on the floor of his
laboratory with vermilIon red, TO make them
look bloodier' Does not this look like the
work Of bunglers, who would have fastened
their guilt upon an innocent man And it
is also to be remarked that there was re-
ward Of $1,000 offered for the discovery of
Dr.. Parkman's body So long as the reward
was for catching Dr.. Parkman alive, there
were no suspicious of DR.. Webster but SO
soon as the reward was for his murdered
remains, then strange rumors were set ahoat,
and finally the "horrible" denouement of
finding fragments of human body in the
vault under Pro-. Webs,er's laboratory.
1.-THE fragments had been disinterred from
graveyard, or under tree in Boston Com
months too probableit would no. have been
recognized as parts of the body Of Dr.. Park
man. If that $1,000 had not been offered,
DR.. Parkman's whereabouts might yet have
remained mystery. But we will not pur-
sue the suggestions that rise thick ,hrong-
ing to our minds. Let public judgment not
be rash. There is room here for damna-
Bile conspiracy, which time may unravel,
and God grant that the guilty alone may
suffer. All we seek is that justice may be
done-thus far it has not been done by the
Press and public opinion to Prof. Webster.
CIRCUMsTANTIAL EvIDENCE.-A negro
man was tried in Prince Georges County
Court three or four years since, on the charge
Of poisoning lady in Piscataway District !;
and the evidence, which was altogether cir
cumstanlial, was considered so strong that
several Of the jury were in favor of bring