Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-01-16
flterarp 5eIeftions.
TWO HUNDRED POUNDS
REWARD.

h'ahS me- can they Besides
am innocent. But what does
that matter More innocent men than
have been hung for less crimes than
murder before this. / will not tell you.'
8 Murder r. said I, with unfeigned as
tonishment. ssMurder, Charlton ?'' For
this man was attending in my capacity
ashouse-surgeon of the Henborough work
house. / had known him for years, and
of all my present patients he had seem
ed the simplest and least violent, his
anxious eyes which closed so lightly
even in sleep--his averted looks, when
spoken to, his nervous timidity, at the
sight of any strange face, l had set down
as the outward signs of a broken spirit
and a waning brain, for he had had
enough Of sorrows to shake a stronger
mind than his. ] could remember him
with wife and children about him. in q
respectable, if not an extensive, way of
business and why it suddenly fell off
and was given UP, and what misfortune
had changed the couple who had been
before 50 blithe, l had often wondered.
Their son, Robert was in the Crimea. a
sergeant; their daughter, Clara, a mil
liners apprentice in the north; Mrs.
Charlton had died few months after
the failure Of their trade, of a lingering
and somewhat strange disease; her hus-
band was, indeed, as he had said, upon
his deatIl-bed. / had offered to send for
Clara at my own charge, but he would
not hear off.
" l would not have a soul at my bed
side. save you, doctor, for worlds" he
said.
He was quite friendless, too. His
chamber was common to five other work
house folk but it was a July day, and
they were summing themselves in the
paved court outside. The sick man Law
upon his little iron bed, and was sitting
upon the wooden stool beside it his hand
lay upon mine, and his face was turned
towards the door, listening. 1 rose, and
locked it; and it was then that he began
as I have said, to speak of murder. and
his innoeense-to ask if it would be dan
gerous to confess all. said, mo :;
nothing can harm you now. What you
say to me is a secret as long as you shall
live; you may speak as if was the
clergyman whom he had refused for
some reason, | knew not what, to see.
"Ifit viii ease your mind to tell me any
thing, say on"
You have known me doctor this
twenty years and you will easily believe
me when / say that I no more expected
to become dependent on the parish and
die in this workhouse, than I dreampt of
the possibility of my committing-any
very terrible crime. was young to the
world then, and foolish; and my wife
was not older or wiser. We were not
strong-minded folk-nor, alas even
straight forward though a plausible
story Of dear times coming-which may
yet have been partly true-we sold manv
pound of butter and ounce of tea and
If IT was not always pound nor ALWAYS
an ounce It was never over the lust
weight, but under. Spirits, also, there
being no public house close by-which
we Of course had no license to sell. we
would let our best customers purchase.
and drink in our back parlor. which ap-
peared in their weekly bills under the
head of candles or what not; so that
speaking before our own children, we
had to fabricate strange stories, and give
things their wrong names and many
other devices we had, which though they
got Us little gains, seemed not much on
the whole to benefit US. 1 have purpose
ly told you the worst of US, because it
will'explain our future conduct the more
easily but you must not suppose that
we we're thieves, or very wicked people !;
We scarcely knew what wrong we were
dong e others, and far less TO ourselves;
and don't think in other respects we
were bad pair. I know Sarah loved
me, and her and our two children. dear
ly. Our shop, as you remember. was he
tween Marlborough and Swafbam. which
were then quite seperate towns. with
struggling houses and long lines of rail-
ing to connect them. Our house was
the farthest of the last row, not detached. .
Here the sick man raised himself on his
hands, and whispered: "Are you sure
there's nobody at any crack or Granny,
nor At the skylight ?"
] assured him there was not; and then
tie wFetehed creature pulled out from a
sort ef possum pocket in his very skin.
and 4astrar h;s aou..u1 -. II