The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-07-30


I know that it spoke, and moved, and
looked as that man spoke, and moved,
and looked in life; that I heard, or
seemed to hear, things related which
[ could never otherwise have learned
that I was guided, as it we're, by that
vision on the platform to the identif-
cation Of the murderer; and that,
passive instrument myself, l was des-
tined, by means Of the these mysteri-
GUS teachings, to bring about the
ends Of justice. For these things I
have never been able to account.
As for that matter Of the cigar-case,
it proved, on inquiry, that the carri-
age in which I travelled down that af-
ternoon to Clayborough had not been
in use for several weeks, and was, in
point Of fact, the same in which poor
John Dwerrihouse had performed his
last'journey. The case had, doubt
less, been dropped by him, and had
lain unnoticed till l found it.
Upon the details Of the murder I
have no need to dwell. Those who
desire more ample particulars may
find them, and the written confession
Of Augustus Raikes, in the files Of the
'Times" for 1856. Enough that the
under-secretary, knowing the history
Of the new line, and following the
negotiation step by step through all its
stages, determined to waylay Mr..
Dwerrihouse, rob him of the seventy
five thousand pounds, and escape to
America with his booty.
In order to effect these ends he OBJ
tained leave Of absence few days be-
fore the time appointed for the pay
ment of the money; secured his pas
sage across the Atlantic in a steamer
| advertised to start on the twenty
| third; provided himself with a heav-
ily-loaded ''life-preserver,' and went
down to Blackwater to await the arri-
| val Of his victim. How he met him
on the platform with a pretended
message from the board; how he Of
fered to conduct him by a short. cut
across the fields to Millingford; how,
having brought him to a lonely place,
he struck him down with the live
preserver, and so killed him; and
how, finding what he had done, he
dragged the body to the verge of an
out-ofthe-way chalk-pit, and there
flung it in, and piled it over with
branches and brambles, are facts still
fresh in the memories Of those who,
like the connoisseurs in De Quincey's
famous essay, regard murder as a fine
art. Strangely enough, the murderer
having done his work, was afraid to
leave the country. He declared that
he had not intended take the direc-
tors life, but only to stun and rob
him; and that, finding the blow had
killed, he dared not fly for fear of
drawing down suspicion upon his own
head. AS a mere robber he would
have been safe in the States, but as a
murderer he would inevitably have
been pursued, and given up to justice.
So he forfeited his passage, returned
to the office as usual at the end Of his
leave, and locked up his ill-gotten
thousands till more convenient op-
portunity. In the mean while he had
the satisfaction Of finding that Mr..
Dwerrihouse was universally be-
lieved to have absconded with the
money, no one knew how or whittier.
Whether he meant murder or not,
however, Mr.. Augustus Raikes paid
the full penalty of his crime, and was
hanged at the Old Bailey in the
second week in January, 1857. Those
who desire to make his further ac-
quaintance may see him any day (ad-
mirably done in wax in the Cham
ber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's
exhibition, in Baker Street. He is
there to be found in the midst of a
select society Of ladies and gentlemen
Of atrocious memory, dressed in the
close-cut tweed suit which he wore on
the evening Of the murder, and hold
ing in his hand the identical life-pre-
server with which he committed it.