Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-02-14
s0MNAMBULIsT.
singular Discovery Of stolen Proper,

singular Discovery of stolen Property
: From the Milwaukee Wisconsin, Feb. 8.
Deputy Sheriff Peterson, of New
Stockholm, Iowa, was in the city
yesterday, in seach for a Young
man named Casper Schmidt, who
was wanted out in his section on
suspicion of having committed a
robbery there some three months
ago. The robbery and the attend
ant circumstances are of peculiar
nature, and we have them from
Sheriff Peterson as follows:
| Some few. months ago a farmer
named Knuteson, living few miles
from New Stockholm, went away
from his house, leaving at home
daughter about thirteen years of
age, and the only occupant Of the
house. Upon the return of Knute-
son he found his little girl lying on
the bed in .half-insensible state.
From marks about the girl meek it
appeared that she had been severely
and sadly frightened. AS soon as
she had in a degree recovered, she
told her father that shortly after he
had left the house a man came in,
went to a bureau, in drawer of
which was pocket book contain
ing two 500 and one $50 govern
ment bonds and papers of value,
and took the book with its contents.
Upon securing these the man grasp
ed the girl by the throat and made
her swear by all the solemn oaths
he could think of not to tell her
father or anybody else who he
was, or give a hint which might
lead to his detection. Aside from
the bonds, the book contained
papers which were of Importance
to the farmer, and the loss of which
he severely felt. The girl acknowl-
edged that she knew the man we'll,
but she could not tell who he was as
she had promised not to. She seemed
to feel the greatest regret at the
sorrow of her father over the loss of |
papers so valuable to him but
despite all this she could not be in
duced to give the name of the thief. |
Whenever urged to do so, with |
tears she said she could not-she |
had given her promise and she
could not break it.
The grief Of the girl at the sor-
row of the father, and the excite
ment through which she passed,
were the means Of throwing her
into a severe fever, and for many
days she was quite out of her head.
In her delirium she talked inces
sanity of the robbery, but the only
word she uttered that in any way
gave clue to the robbery, was an
occasional appeal to Casper to
spare her, and she would not tell.
As Casper Schmidt was a young
man who formerly worked for her
father on the farm, and was well
known by the girl, suspicion turned
towards him, and as he had been
tracked from New Stockholm to
this city, the officer came here in
search for him. As it was shown
that Casper had remained in Nil
waukee but a few days and left, the
search was Intellectual.
When the child had nearly re-
covered from her illness, and was
able to walk about a little, its
mother, who slept with it, awoke |
just at daylight one morning 20
find the bed empty. Calling, and
receiving no answer, the mother
gave the alarm to the father, who
arose and FASTENED out of the house.
In the light snow that had fallen,
he saw tracks of the child's feet
leading to the barn, and followed
them. Entering the barn, the faith
er saw a sight which paralyzed
him. A single timber stretched
from a scaffOlding to a small plat
form high up, and on this timber
the girl was slowly working her
way along. The position was a
dangerous one, and the father was
aware that few persons, even with
steady nerves, would care to take
it, as misstep would cause a fall
of at least twenty feet. The father,
not daring to speak, and fairly
his breath from fear,
watched the girl as she made her
way across the timber, and breathed !
easier when he saw her at length
reach the platform and secure a firm
foothold. Then she reached among
some old boxes, and drew out the
lost pocket-book. As she did so
she uttered cry of joy, and i'm
after cry of alright,
The farmer did not stop, but
reached the platform by a ladder,
and when there found the girl hold
ing the lost pocket book in her hand
and trembling with fear. The girl
was in her night clothes, and was
soon taken from her position and
into the house and to bed. She
could give no account of reaching
the platform, only that she had
been thinking very hard of the
fathers loss, and had dreamed one
night that the thief had gone
to the barn, and up to the scaffold-
ing and across the timber, and had
hid the stolen articles among the old
boxes. She had dreamed, too, of fol-
lowing him and recovering it, and
it was understood that she had
made the perilous trip in her sleep.
The pocket book was found to
contain all the papers lost, except
ing the bonds, and the finding was
to those about, another evidence of
.he guilt Of the young mau Casper,
he having frequently walked across
.he timber, preferring the danger
0us route to the more easy one of