The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-06-17

he could not get in, though he came and
thumpcd at the door, The witness in the
meantime directed Anethe TO hide, and she
climbed out of the window, where she was
found by Wagner and killed with an axe.
Before he struck her she recognized him,
and cried out, "Louis, Louis, Louis" Mrs.
Houtvet, the witness, also recognized
Wagner, after he got outside, though she
brimmcd hat on. He stood moment by
the window, and then cent array.
This would show that the
robbery of $145 had been perpetrated be-
fore this last murder, and that the robber,
as yet nnrecognized, had gone out of the
back door and around the house, to perpc-
trate an entirely useless assassination. In
deed, the circumstances seem to have oc-
CURED with such rapidity as almost to com
pei the opinion that the robbery was cont
pleted before Karen was disturbed.
In his statement to the court Wagner
said that he had worked for stranger till
ten o'clock the night of the murder, and
had then gone to beer shop to obtain a
glass of beer, which made him so sex that
he fell TO the ground. When he walked he
went to his boarding house in Portsmouth,
entered at the back door, proceeded to his
room. threw himself on the sofa, slept till
five o'clock next morning, arose and took
the morning train for Boston.
His landlady says the back door was
fastened by her tina. night, after 10 that
next morning she unfastened ii ut six.
Wagner came into the back gate at half
past six with sno,c on his clothes, telling her
he had got into trouble and was afraid he
would be taken. She thought he looked
queerly, and asked him where he had slept,
as his bed was not tumblcd lie said on
the lounge.
A witness testified. that in March Wag-
ncr told him he was out of money and
would have some in less than three months
If he had to commit murder for it. On
cross-eXamnation he said Wagner had
told him this ON the Goth of December.
In his statement Wagner denied the al
legged conversations, and looked the OPP
posing witnesses in the face. A shirt with
blood ON it that had been found and
claimed to he his, was tried on him in
court. and it was found that it would not
meet around his wrist by half an inch.
1t may he that Wagner got the snow on
his clothes after his early rising on the
morning of the 9th; if the back door was
fastened he may have gone out at the
front door when he spoke of trouble and
being taken. he may have referred to the
trouble from the beer and the fear of being
taken ill; and this sickness may have given
him his "queer look.
The circumstances are very peculiar. 1t
is singular, for instance, that Mrs. Hout-
vet, who escaped, should have staid in her
bedroom till she saw the assassin go away,
and should then have left the house, un-
deferred by the danger of meeting him
outside, after seeing the fatal result of such
a meeting to Anethe. She says she ex-
pccted to get dory with which to leave
the island. but hid in the rocks till half an
hour after sunrise. A woman wild with
terror might do just as she did, and might
leave the house with the crying of her dy-
ing sister in her ears, and Mrs. Houtvet
may feel fully persuaded of the identity
of Wagner, and he may be the man, but
doubt enough has been thrown on the
case to serve as another caution against the
mob practice of hearing but one side and
proceeding to rash extremities. The courts
are the safest for the people as well as the
accused, though justice may sometimes
fail OF victim whose sacrifice is honestly
her due.