The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-11-18

jury, and the corpse was inferred with
becoming solemnity
A large reward was offered for any in
formation which might lead to the ap
| prehension of the guilty person. and the
Lord Lieutenant of the county specially
interested himself in the matter, and
caused expert detectives to be sent from
/ London to investigate the matter thor
| oughly. 1t will be remembered that Kate
Coulter disappeared on the night of Feb
ruary Q. The detectives accidentally
came across one Robert Johnstone, a
| shoemaker, who said that on the day
mentioned, about o'clock. he was at
work in his shop in Brompton, which was
on the direct road to Coulter's when q
/ young man. stranger, put his head in
at the door and asked for light. 1t was
very cold night, and the shoemaker
asked the man to come in and shut the
| door. He did so and stood with his
I back to the shoemaker while he got a
light. Johnstone asked him whether he
had come by the train from Carlisle, and
he said he had. Johnstone remarked
that it was going to be sharp night,
and the young man replied that he judg-
ed So and abruptly quilted the shop.
What did he light his pipe with?' the
officer asked, after pause.
nat more Lnan l. can say, JOln-
stone replied, thought it may be he took
bit of paper from his pocket.
"How often do you sweep your shop ?"
the detective asked
The shoemaker laughed and said:
"Once year, maybe"
Then the detective, very much to the
surprise of the shoemaker, went to work
examining the floor carefully all over.
| Then he began in one corner and lifted
everything from the floor, replacing it
where he found it. After he had been at
work over ten minutes he came across a
fragment of an envelope. burnt at one
end. This he carefully scrutinised, and
putting it in his pocket, departed.
The same night consultation was held,
and the detective exhibited his scrap of
paper As before said, it was part of
an envelope, and on it was writing The
writing was blurred and almost illegible,
but the words private john could be
deciphered.
Whether the writing was a mans or
woman's it was hard to say, but the gen.
eral impression was that it was wo-
mans. Coulter instinctively associated
the latter with young Armstrong, Kate's
former lover who, as before stated, had
been driven from the house by her father,
and had, as was supposed, enlisted. The
ieerlng words of Armstrong; mother
came up fresh to Coulter's memory:
''Ah, Mr.. Coulter, so you've lost your
pretty miss Now we're even. You
drove away my boy, and the devil has
driven away your girl.
The officers resolved to search Mrs.
Armstrong; cottage, as there might have
been some indication of her sons having
been recently there. They went down at
ha IL Il h.
was doing by the fire.
What dye want with me and mine p
she asked querulously; this is no time
o'night to disturb a body
On being informed that officers of the
law demanded admission. she opened the
door and boldly confronted them.
Take what you can fnd, she said,
that belongs to other than me-
The officers began careful search of
the place, and were rewarded by finding
a pair of boots slowed away under the
floor, bearing on them the traces of the
peculiar black mud found on the borders
of the black Tarn, from which, and the
sjngularly dark hue of its waters, it de-
rived its name.
Whose boots are these p the officer
asked
They were my sons replied the old
woman, before they drove him away
from home"
when did he leave home ?" the de-
tective inquired.
"In November, "A" the old woman an
swered, quickly.
Did he put the boots under the fioor?7
the officer asked.
Deed did he the very day he left
home" Mrs. Armstrong replied.
You saw him do it?' the detective
inquired.
''Saw him with my own eyes" was the
reply.
asked
"The very day he left home, November
rs, "A" !" Mrs Armstrong answered.
"And he wrapped up the boots then as
they were when l found them, and put
them under the floor p the officer said.
$50 help me God, that's what he did,
sir, the old woman answered.
This is Carlisle newspaper, in which
! the boots were wrapped, and it bears date
February 9, lS75-the very day on the
night of which Kate Coulter was mur-
dered."
Before the officer had finished the SEN
tence, Mrs. Armstrong dropped to the
ground in a swoon. A neighbor was
called to attend her and the officers left.
| There was no doubt on their minds that
| Armstrong was the man who visited the
| shoemaker's in Brompton, that he was
| the Private John" whose name had been
on the halt-burnt envelope. and that he
was outrager and murderer of Kate Coul.
| ter.
But how had he communicated with
| his victim, as he must have done? And
! how had she been enticed to the Black
Tarn2
These were questions to which the off
| GERS sought an answer in vain. They went
to work, however, immediately to hunt
down the perpetrator of the abominable
crime.
Mrs. Armstrong refused stubbornly to
answer any questions, although it was
| Judged proper to arrest her as accessory
after the crime. All that could be got
out of her were those bitter words:
HE drove away my son, and the devil
drove away his daughter! y
1t was easily ascertained that one Pri
vate John Armstrong had deserted from
the 45th Regiment of Infantry stationed
at Manchester, in February and thai
nothing had been heard of him since
His description answered to the person
of young Armstrong, Kates former lover
in every particular. What puzzled the
detectives most was that nobody haC
seen Armstrong on the road or in the vii
lage before the murder, and that although
he had evidently been home to his moth
ers after the crime was perpetrated, ht
had been seen by no one Descriptions
of the man had been sent by telegraph al
ever England, and the officers awaited il
Carlisle some information that woult
give them q clew to his whereabouts
That information came in an unexpected
manner