Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-07-09
THE ELEMEN TARY PILL.

morning at ten o'clock.
.-
THE ELEMENTARY PILL.
A Million of Dollars or Ill Set
the Pacific Ocean in Flames!
More About the "Man With a
Secret"
Under caption of GA Dead Secret"
there was given in these columns, not
long ago, the substance of what the
Sacramento Union had published as the
written confession of ''the late Leonidas
Parker" lawyer of said city, purport-
ing to have been found amongst the pa
pers of the departed attorney, and reveal
ing his agency in the death of one Greg
DRY Summe1tield, who was supposed to
have fallen accidently from train Of
the Pacific Railroad, eastward bound, at
q precipitous point known as Cape Horn,
| in Placer county, near the town of Au-
burn, California. 1t may be in the read
u lllSb ll4O Nb44ASGoiOh Ii HASo-
ton while coOlly setting forth the writer's
guilt in pushing his unsuspectiDg victim
from the platform of the car, justified the
act upon the broad ground of the physi-
! cal salvation of the human race. Sum
meIfeld, mystic and lifelong student
of elemental chemistry, had finally de-
vised the composition of potassium
coated spill" which, upon being cast into
any body of water first took fire from its
| igue aqueous coating; and then, dissolv-
ing the waves and decomposing the same,
liberated the oxygen of the latter to
maintain combustion capable of involV-
ing ultimately whole ocean! Through
| Parker, who had been friend of his
youth, the inventor of this diabolical
compound offered to sell the unhOly secret
of the composition, and his own right TO use
| If, for an exoTbitsnt sum of
money. Under pledge of secrecy,
committee of eminent citizens,
scientific men and churchmen, en-
deaVored to raise the required amount.
| Failing in this, and rendered desperate by
thought of the fearful calamity likely to
befall all mankind should Summerfeld be
left at liberty to use his dread power as
ne threatened, the committee finally re-
solved 10 compass the early death of the
incurable foe of humanity; and, by draw
ing of lots, Parker was chosen to execute
the resolution. Under pretext of coming
to our Eastern cities with SummeIfeld to
secure what subscriptions could not be
raised in California, Psrker-as his ''cOn-
fession" reads-induced the composer of
the Elemental Pill'' to 60 out upon the
car platform at Cape Horn, and from thence
pushed him over fearful precipice to his
death. Twice tried by the law upon sus-
picion of having committed the murder,
and twice escaping through lack of trust
worthy evidence against him, the muir
deIer allowed ''the world, which he had
saved from destruction by fire" to wait
until after his own death before it should
know the fearful truth. Such were the
material points of the ingenious original
story, as condensed here two or three
weeks ego from the Sacramento Union:
and now that same respectable journal
adds a sequel equally worthy reproduc-
lion and credence. From this it appears
that when Parker's confession was pub
hshed in California, It's suggestion that rbe
body Of Summarized had never been recOv-
ered-uever sought for, even, apparently
awakened the curiosity of one Charles
p. Gillson, of Auburn, who thereupOn de-
termined to descend the precIpice at Cape
Horn, place on the north fork of the
American River, and search for the skel-
eton, at least. Upon such quest this man
left q saloon of which he was proprietor,
in Auburn, on the morning Of Sunday,
May II, and at late hour of the same
afternoon was found, with pistol shot
through his body, on the edge of what
had been before considered an almost in
accessible IaVlne, heading down to the
rocky cavities of the fatal Cape Horn.
F rst discovered by Mrs Adams, wife
of q miner of the adjacent Thompson's'
Flat, who was seeking fuel for
her cabin at the time, he was sub
sequently helped into the cabin by persons
answering the cries of the woman, and
there, finding himself MORALLY wounded,
demanded that notary public should be
summoned to hear his accusation of his
murderer. An Auburn correspondent of
the Union, after relating the above facts,
seeks TO prove them (as well as the state
ment before the notary, fOllOwing) by re-
scripts of the sworn statement of Mrs.
Adams as to her discovery of the mortal
ly wounded man, and of q proclamation
of Ii. G. Nicholson, Secretary of State,
offering reward for the arrest of the al
legged murderer. Not to pause, SoweveT,
upon these antiCipatOry credentials OF au>
thenticity, the reader is invited 10 consid-
er chiefly what, in legal phraseol0gy, is
called \the Statement and dying
confession of Charles p. Gill
SOD, taken in articuLO morris
by George Simpson, notary public" Ac
cOrding TO this--his alleged confession
the now dying ellison, having in his ear
lier days mined on Thompson's Flat, at
the foot of the rocky promontory known
as Cape Horn, was familiar with the dizzy
zigzag paths leading dOwnthe awful preci-
pice, and found little difficulty in reaching
the rocky bed of the canyon, not less than
one thousand feet below the grade of the
railroad. Cautiously then he began his
search for the CHASTITY object he had come
to find. The dense underground of shrubs
lining the inteEsticss of the granite rocks
obscured all vision beyond few steps,
aAu al uoI Dsllieu INC 6tdICu6T
but presently, upon pushing aside tall
and dense manzanilla bush, he came
not only upon all that remained of Gre
CORY Summerfsld, but also upon the
figure Of living man bending over the
Wondering skeleton At his involun.
tary cry of astonishment the other hunter
of the dead looked up, and was revealed
as one Bartholomew Graham, OF ''Black
Bart" as he was called, an eccentric
vagrant of Auburn. The same motive
had drawn both men to the unhallowed
spot-they had hoped to find upon the
body of the murdered chemist some key
to the terrible "secret' supposed to have