Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1870-09-08
Eingu1af. Detection Of a
Murderer.

4 0AA ~@40A 4OSO1OAOA " g
Murderer.
As illustrating perception and
rare presence of mind, Chambers
journal vouches for the truth of
the following story, which was
originally published in the -guise
of fiction:
Caroline c., a good loCk-
ing, finely proportioned young
! girl, lived as a lady's maid with
"a fashionable young widow, rather
passe. One evening, after having
assisted at her mistress toilet for
dinner party, she amused herself
before putting AVA the various
articles scattered about the loom,
in trying on a pair of silk stock
ings and dress shoes belonging to
her mistress, and having done so,
she viewed her well-turned limbs
with eomplacency, saying aloud
''There's a leg for stocking. and
there's foot for a shoe" Hav-
ing satisfied herself as to their
symmetry, she divested herself
of her borrowed plunTes, 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 murderedin
her bed, .he jewel case and plate
chest broken open and robbed
The robber and murderer left no
trace by which he could be cap
tured. Three years after Caro-
line was engaged in a similar ca
pacity by lady who took her to
Paris. She had almost forgotten
the murderer, and, if she thought
of it. it was not with any hope Of
discovering the criminal.
1t happened that she was walk
ing in one of the public prone
nades one afternoon, when, as she
passed a group of men, she heard
these words:
"There's a leg for a stocking
and there's foot for a shoe" In
a moment the events of the eve-
ming before her mistress was MUIR
dered flashed on her memory
And now for her marvellous pres
ence 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 un-
decided manner, and finally
turned back, and walking up to
them, she asked to be directed to
a certain street. AS she expected
all of them had a word for her,
and among the voices she easily
recognized the one that had Just
spoken. Their language and
looks were both 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 a.
verted suspicion if they watched
her speaking to policeman. The
next difficulty was how to inform
a gendarme what she wanted;
she had only been a fortnight in
France and knew scarcely a word
Of French. She, however, car
ried pocket dictionary with her.
to assist in making purchases and as
a means of acquiring a little French.
Going over to a bench she sat
down, and scratching through the
dictionary found the words she
and she then wrote them
with a pencil on the fly leaf of
the dictionary. The sentence
ran thus; "Gendarmds je aUoir
beSOsR Uo1ts d7Teter atp Bourterier." A."
The grammar was not very cor
rect, as dictionaries do not teach
'yntax, but the gendarme under
stood it, and in another minute
leld the murderer in his grasp
He was afterward convicted and
hung On the girls testimony.