The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-05-28
Appearances Against Him.


few more startling judicial tragedies
than that to which the statute against
murder owed so much humane amend.
ment as to make the5fnding and posi-.
tive Identification of the slain person
essential to the conviction of the mur.
dererer and as the same remarkable
case had a peculiar moral and social
significance for the young lovers of all
times, who, in their passionate devo.
tion to each other, are altogether toe
apt to disregard the fortunes of every.
body else in the world, it may be re.
called appropriately for modern read.
ing.
Upon the death of Mr.. George Per.
kins, widower of considerable prop.
erty in London, it was found that his
will appointed brother of his, living
near Epping Forest, the sole guardian
of his only daughter, and directed that
said guardian should inherit the whole
fortune devised in case his young ward
should die either unmarried or without
children. Implicit confidence in his
brother, who was a middle-aged bach
of limited means, had, of course, in
spired the dying man to make such a
will but q number of family relatives
pronounced the document an extra
ordinary piece of servile fatuity, and
darkly limited that harm would ensue
from it. This feeling caused an alien
alton between the occupants of the
Epping Forest residence and the afore-
said prophets, and made the latter the
bitterest prosecutors of the dead mans
brother in the. strange and tragic sue
xuhi 4
scribed as follows:
Uncle and niece were both seen one
day walking together in the forest, but
the young lady suddenly disappeared,
and the uncle declared that he had
sought her as soon as he missed her,
and knew not whittier she had gone or
what had become of her. This account
was considered improbable, and ap-
pearances being clearly suspicious, he
was arrested and taken before magis-
trate. Other circumstances, hourly
coming to light, rendered his position
serious. A young gentleman in the
neighborhood had been paying his ad-
dresses to Miss Perkins. It was stated,
and generally believed, that he had
gone, few days before she was miss
ed, on a journey to the North, and that
she had declared that she would marry
him on his return. The uncle had re-
peatedly expressed his disapprobation
of the match, and Miss Perkins had
loudly reproached him with his unkind-
ness and abuse of his authority over
her as his ward. A woman named
Margaret Oaks was produced, who
swore that about II o'clock on the day
on which Miss Perkins was missed she
was passing through tho forest ana
heard the voice of young lady earnest
ly expostulating with gentleman. On
drawing nearer the spot whence the
sound came, Margaret Oaks testified
that she heard the lady exclaim !:
"Don't kill me, uncle, don't kill me -
The woman was greatly terrified, and
ran away from the spot. AS she was
doing so she heard the report of fire.
arms. On this combination of circum-
stantial and positive evidence, coupled
with the suspicion of interest. the uncle
was tried, convicted of murder, and
almost Immediately afterward-accord-
ing to the customs of those days-was
hanged.
About ten days after the execution
of the sentence upon the uncle, the
niece reappeared, and, stranger still,
showed by the history she related, that
all the testimony given on the trial was
strictly true. Miss Perkins said that,
having resolved to elope with her lover,
they had given out that he had gone on
journey to the North, whereas he had
merely waited near the skirts of the
forest until the time appointed for the
elopement, which was the very day on
on which she had disappeared. Her
lover had horses ready saddled for
them both, and two servants in at
tendance on horseback. While walk
ing with her uncle, he reproached her
with her resolution to marry o man of
whom he disapproved, and after some
remonstrances, she passionately ex-
claimed:
81 have set my heart upon him. If
1 don't marry him it will be death to
me and don't kill me uncle, don't kill
mep
Just as she proclaimed those words
she heard gun fired, at which she
come from among the trees with a
wood-pigeon in his hand, which he had
shot. On approaching the spot ap-
pointed for a meeting with her lover,
she formed pretence to induce her
uncle to go on before her. She then
fed to the aims of her lover, who had
been waiting for her, and they both
mounted their horses and Immediately
rode off. Instead, however, of
going to the North, they re-
tired to Windsor, and about a
week afterwards went on on tour of
pleasure to France. There they passed
some months SO happily that in those
days, when newspapers were scarce,
when there was no regular postal COM
munication and no telegraphs, they
never heard of their uncle's sad fate
until their ratl1rn TO ENGLAND