Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1874-05-28
WOODSTOCK, VT., THURSDAY, MAY %, 1874.

from the face OF the earth not only the
stomach OF his miserable wife yonder,
but also, my dear Professor-I'm sorry
to be obliged to say it, for helievey you
were my brothers teacher and friend
yourself as we'll"
| saw that he was in deadly earnest
"Your death must apparently result
from accidental least. so it will seem
to the authorities. My brother is in
Jail; they will not suspect him, and
they certainly will not suspect me-"
He took me in his arms, placed me
in chair, and bound me to it and then
from a side pocket he produced an
other rope.
Was it myself who was to hang in
stead Of Joe johnson?
No-Yes. He placed the line pully-
like, over an arm Of the chandelier.
This was too slight a support even
for one of my slender frame. 1t was
not to be hanging, then.
To one end of the rope he attached
a weight, and raised it by pulling the
other end six or eight feet from the
floor The loose end he secured to
the sink. Was he mad?-Did he
mean to draw me under this weight
and send me out of the world in nov
el way, by letting it fall, and dashing
my brains out?
To the sink end he attached a long
yellow string.
Under the weight on the floor he
placed the can of nitro-glycerine. |
recognized the yellow string-it was a
fuse, and would burn sixty minutes.
1t would burn across the marble slab
there was no hope ofits igniting any
substance that might warn my friends.
"Do you begin to see through it? ?"
ASKED Joe Johnson's brother.
l believe l cursed him with my eyes.
| could only breathe through my nos
trils, and the great veins were swelling
and growing hot in my forehead.
Drawing match from his pocket,
he lighted and applied it to the fuse
that little tyrant that gave man an
hour to live, and killed him at the end
of it-that little irresponsible terror
that, less merciful than Providence,
told man the second he was to die,
if fright and horror spared him.
Slowly the flame crept, snake-like,
around the twine.
Sin one hour" said the prisoners
brother "you will be in eternity! l
will watch with you for half an hour
the other half you will spend alone. "
He sat down some minutes in a
chair, watching the flame. Then he
arose and took the piece Of porcelain,
with the murderer's mark thereon,
from the table, and shook his head
gloomily.
81 am chemist enough to know it is
arsenic" he said. eyes, those bright
metallic eyes, betrayer of the guilty !!
Science, thou wouldst kill my brother.
Thou shalt save him. Let us see in
whose hands. thou art most powerful.
Let the good Professor use his chemi-
Gals; the bad brother only asks-a
little can of nitro -glycerine."
l heard this speech indeed but,
geratheaven's my eyes and not my ears
were busiest then; from beneath the
table, covered by the crimson cloth of
which Ihave before spoken, and which
l faced, appeared the head ola child.
The hair was rumpled, and the blue
eyes were just open from sleep. The
intelligent forehead was wrinkled
strangely.-It was my boy Billy. I
was afraid he would cry "Papa| If
he did, the implacable man would add
the murder of the child to the murder
Of the father.
But my boy did none of this. He
had, l suppose, crept under the table
unknown to me, and fallen asleepthere.
| tried to tell the little fellow to hide
again, and wait for the final half hour
when my tormentor would be gone.
Whether he understood me or not,
aided by what he had heard, did not
know but he quickly withdrew his
little curly head, first kissing his hand
lightly at me, and then shaking his
fist at the schemer watching so bellig-
erently his dumb fire agents.
The half hour wore slowly away.
Oh, heavens what agony did suffer
not for myself, but for my child. A
slight noise might discover his pres
ence; the match might run its tether
sooner than was expected. He might
be murdered or blown to atoms.