The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-08-26
Singular Detection OF a Murderer.

~ = II
As Illustrating quick PERCEPTION and
rare presence of mind, Chambers
journal vouches for the truth of the
following story, which was originally
published i'm the guise of fiction:
Caroline O., gOod-looking,
finely proportioned yonng girl, lived as
a iady's maid with a fashionable young
widow, rather pdssc. One evening,
after having assisted at her mistress
toilet for dinner party, she amused
herself, before putting away the vari-
GUS articles scattered about the room,
i'm trying on q pair of silk stockings
and dress shoes belonging to her mis-
tress, and having done so, she viewed
her well-turned limbs with complacen-
cy, saying alound There's a leg for
a stocking, and there's foot for q
shoe" Having satisfied herself as to
their symmetry, she divested herself of
her borrowed plumes, put the room to
right, and awaited the return of her
mistress, whom she saw into bed. That
was the last time she saw her alive.
She was found in the morning murder
ed I'm her bed, the jewel case and plate
chest broken open and robbed. The
robber and murderer left no trace by
which he could be captured, and in
spite of the most dilligent search, es-
capped. Three years after Caroline WAS
engaged i'm a similar capacity by lady
who took .her to; Paris. She had al
most forgotten the murder, and, If she
thought of it, it was not with any.
hope of discovering the criminal. -
hnv ,o6 t.nf oh Ii, i'm,
one of the public promenades one af-
iternoon, when, as she passed group
of men, she heard these words 4 =
There's a leg for a stocking and
there's foot for Shoe" Ina moment
the events Of the evening before her
mistress was murdered flashed on her
memory. And now for her marvellous
presence of mind. Pretending not to
have heard anything. she glanced
sideways at the group of men. She saw
there were three, but she could not tell
which of them had spoken. She
walked slowly past them, then she
stopped in an undecided manner, and
finally turned back, and walking up to
them, she asked to be directed to GER
tain street. AS she expected, all of
them had word for her, and among
the voices she easily recognized the one
that had just spoken. Their language
and looks were both very free, but she
only told them that they were very i'm
pertinent, and that she would get the
information she wanted from the first
gendarme. She thus averted suspicion
fl they watched her speaking to pO-
liceman. The next difficulty was how
to inform gendarme what she want
ed; she had only been a fortnight in
France and knew scarcely word of
French. She, however, carried a
pocket dictionary with her, to assist i'm
making purchases, and as means of
acquiring little French. Going over
to a bench she sat down, and searching
through the dictionary found the words
she wanted, and she then wrote them
with pencil ON the fly leaf of the die
tionary., d, The sentence, ran, thus:
"'Ge,sdWmtes je dvoir 6esoin t0sts urre.
ter ma mcurtcrier." The grammar was
not very correct, as dictionaries do not
teach syntax, but the gendarme under
stood it, and in another minute held
the murderer in his grasp. He was a.
terward convicted and hung on the
girl's testimony.