The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-08-02

This was the substance of the facts re-
lated to me. II seemed strange that the
Sheriff should have gone to my house in
stead of after the body, and [ was about
to express myself, when he stepped for
ward, and, laying his hand upon my
shoulder, said
81 arrest you, John Blanchard, for the
murder of Charles Smith, stage driver"
If he should have struck me, [ should
net have been more surprised. J. tried to
reason with him, but although very civil,
he was equally firm, aud the result was l
spent the remainder of the night in the
county Jail, which building was situated
IN l., that being the shire town. The
examination the next morning elected the
| following curious facts:
When the sheriff searched my person,
he was surprised to find no keys, and in
deed no wallet or memorandum book. -
Sending to my assistant, he obtained the
door keys, but the safe keys could not be
found, and my clerk declared that | al
ways carried them with me. Upon en-
tering, they found that the letters were all
gone, the money drawer empty, and few
stamps, which tie clerk informed them we
always left out of the safe at night, mis-
sing. And no trace could be found of
the safe keys. Supposing that [ had dis
posed of them in order that the traces of
my guilt, which it was taken for granted
| had concealed in the safe, could not be
discoS cred, they brought iocksmith, aud
after much labor forced the lock. This
labor served only to show them that the
safe had been completely rifed, and the
sum of three thousand dollars, which had
been 10 it the night before, was gone.
| found that the causes which led to
suspicious being fastened upon me were
the three following:
First, the revolver with which the deed
was committed had upon the butt a silver
plate, on which was engraved ny rame.
The clerk took oath that the weapon was
mine, and that | always kept it in the
office. When they produced it, | conId
not doubt for a moment that it did belong
to me. Second, that the bag was unlock
ed and not cut open, showing that it must
have been done By some one having in his
possession United States mail key
Third, that [ had not been at home dur
ing the evening, and that when summon
ed at the post Office, ] delayed SO long in
dhIuS my dppearance
To combat these facts, argued that the
state Of the Office proved concusively that
1t had been. robbed and without doubt
the keys and revolver had been taken at
that time. Also, that 10 trace of any OF
the stolen articles was found about NE, my
house, or my Office and that further, if
had desired to rob the mail I might have
waited until it bad arrived at the Office,
and thus saved myself the crime of mur-
der. Against the third statement, told
the reason of my remaining n the Office
so late, and brought forward witnesses to
prove that [ often did so on W ednesdav
evenings, in order that the mail might be
delayed as little as possible. Further,
that the reason of my remaining SO long
in the Office was that | could not open the
door, and brought forward the fact that
the keys were missing, to sustain my dee
laratioa.
Although these arguments were by no
means fully. satisfactory to those who took
the ground that | was guilty, still they
were so far believed in that | was released
on bail of FIVE thousand dollars, which l
readily obtained. BY consent of the
Postol1ice Department, [ turned the af
fairs Of the office over to my assistant. |
was thus lett free to pursue every means
to prove my innocence, which felt could
only be done by discovering the guilty
party.
/ accordingly placed the best detectives
at work, with orders to communicate to
Me the first suspicion that they enter
tanned, for | found that iG was anything
but comfortable to be looked upon as .
murderer, although knew that was in
nocent.
Thus three weeks passed without any
thing OF interest occurrifig, and at the end
of that time [ could endure the suspense
TO longer. Therefore [ wrote to old
friend of mine, who was then on the de-
tectiYe force of p, at L., aud together
we set about the search.
A week passed without bringing more
to light, and causing US to despond, tor
we feared the murderer had SO covered
his track it would be impossible to discov-
er him. We had necn at work two days
in the city of G., aud being about to
leave, entered the hotel Office to settle.
Having no small bills, there was consider
able change handed back, and among 1t
ten dollar bill, which had been torn in two.
AS | turned it carelessly over, l found
that the parts had been fastened together
with the margin of couple OF postage
stamps, which had printed upon 1t ''No
I5-Plate," but the "No." and "Plate"
had been crossed out, aud substituted In
their place was "Mar" aud 1864" max
ing it read "Mar. 15-1S64," which was
H. dow hafore tho rohberv ard murder