Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-12-17
THE MURDERER,S ORDEAL.

THE MURDERER'S ORDEAL.
was fond of the science of physiog-
nomy. From nay youth up, was noted
for my proclivity for reading the char
scter of a man from his face and /
finally became such an adept in the art
shat could occasionally guess the very
thoughts of the individual whose coun-
teuance / was studying.
Soon after the gold fever broke out
came to California and here must
confess, among what else there was to
interest me, had grand opportunity
for exercising my skill upon all sorts of
faces, and under all sorts of circum-
stances, from the highest success to the
deepest despair of failure. first tried
my luck at digging, myself, but soon
bred OF that, and. believing could get
money faster and with less labor, /
opened a kind of grocery and provision
store, and went regularly into the bust
ness of trade, buying most of my arti-
cles at Sacramento, getting them hauled
to my quarters, and disposing of them
at fair advance to the miners and
others.
My store, as I dignifed nay place of
trade, consisted of a rude skeleton of
poles with sufficiency of cheap mus
lin drawn over them and pinned down
to the earth, and was stocked only with
the most salable articles, of which
-four. pork and whisky found the most
ready market, especially whisky. In
she dry season il WIS very dusty, and
every body seemed to be dry with a
thirst which mere water would not
quench. Ii a man was successful, he
wanted whisky to bring his body up to
the altitude of his spirits if unsuc-
cessful, he wanted whisky to bring his
spirits NJ to the altitude of his body: if
it CHANGED to be little cool, he wanted
whisky to warm him; if it was very
hot, he wanted whisky to cool him he
needed whisky in the morning to make
him bright and active; he needed
whisky at Light to rest him and make
aim sleep well he wanted it when he
bought, and when he sold; when he
won, and when he lost j; when he stood
up, and when he sat down in short,
whisky was the great regulator of all
human feelings-the genuine ELIXIR vit9
and consequently / did an immense
business in whisky.
Now this, though somewhat irrele-
want, brings me to my story.
NV store being the headquarters of
that locality for whisky and provisions,
L was brought into contact with nearly
every specimen of the genus homo that
ventured in that region and such an
other conglomeration of white, black
and red-such another mixture of gen.
tlemen, laborers, mountaineers gam
blers, thieves and assassins-it would
be hard to find outside the limits of
California. OF course / had chance
10 study all sorts of faces to my hearts
content, but having, as l have said, be-
cone an adept in the art, an ordinary
corotenance, or man governed by or
binary passions, whether gentle or
british, did not interest me. / wanted
to get hold of what is termed charac-
ter, or one whose external would give
no indication of Lis internal to any but
. connoisseur !; or one that would real
ly puzzle you to tell what to think of
him.
Among the many, such / at length
found. At first did not notice him
did not think of him. At casual
glance there was nothing to distinguish
him from the herd. He came in quiet
~, unobtrusively, purchased a quantity
of -four, pork and tea, paid for the
same in gold dust, and went out about
his business. He repeated his visits at
different intervals, perhaps some half
dozen times. before he attracted my at
tention to anything peculiar in his ap-
pearance, and then / should have been
ut loss to say what I saw more in him
ut last than at first.
He was apparently about twenty-five
years of age, of medium hight and slen-
der figure, of dark complexion, regu-
lar features, with dark, straight hair.
lower part of his face-in all of which
there was nothing remarkable nothing
striking He was quiet-not laxative;
had nothing to say except about the
business he came on, got what he
wanted when was diseDeaged, paid for
what be got like gentleman, and gen.
orally retired with an ordinary "Good-
day." or some similar civility. And
yet, IS I have said. he began to attract
my attention at last, and / began to
wonder why. Was it because he was
SC quiet, reserved and gentlemanly, and
did not purchase whisky like the rest,
and occasionally get excited and bois-
ferrous? At ali events, he had begun to
interest me in some way; and the very
fact, perhaps, that I could not tell how
or why, led me into closer scrutiny,
deeper study of the man.
After this / prolonged his visits as
much as I could without causing him to
suspect I did SO Intentionally. The