Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-05-26
An Arkansas mystery.

town tamping a charge of blasting
powder into a hole in the rock be-
meath his feet. He had worked
four years as a lineman for a tele-
graph company, saved $40, mar
ried and settled down, and now he
was blasting for the cellar of
house which he proposed to build.
AS he pounded away with the tamp-
ing iron he merrily sang that most
beautiful of native ballads, 'The
Suwanee River, somewhat obscur-
ing many Of the words and sylla-
bles, but still keeping rhythmic
time with the blows:
Yam down up jam the jam-nee Jam VIZ.
Jam, far a-jdm,
jam where my Jam is jdnl-inR jdm.er,
Jam where the ja-l
"Two weeks later, Col. Horace
Featherstock, the veteran editor of
the Eagleville Tri-weekly Toma-
hawk and Mirror, sat in his sane
tum calmly smoking a regalia cab
bago-disinfectro maduro, and in the
intervals when the cloud of smoke
lifted he scanned the columns of his
exchanges. He was surprised, more
than that, panied, to note the start
ling story of murder that disfgur-
ed every paper. Their columns
seemed to reek with gore, and when
he closed his eyes he found it easy
to imagine that they were printed
with blood. No man more than
the Colonel had commended the
promptness Of his fellow-citizens in
resenting affront, himself had con-
tributed no mean share to the NOR
tuary statistics Of the State but
brutal murder for base plunder or
any other ignoble purpose shocked
him. In every instance the victim
seemed to have been cut to pieces; /;
and in all his wide experience the
Colonel had never known any of
his friends, however skilled in the
use of the bowie, to so completely
carve up an opponent. In fact,
many of the murders would never
have been discovered but for the
apparent carelessness of the muir
derers, who had left here and there
in the woods, the roads and the
swamps, a hand, or foot, a piece
of a leg, or an arm, which they
seemed to have been too reckless to
secrete with the rest of the body.
"Anothep two weeks later, the
citizens of all the counties for many
miles around were in an uproar
over their Coroners' bills. All over
the country the Coroners were sud-
denly growing rich, and the Vigi-
lance Committees that were hunt
ing the mysterious assassins were,
as the charges for the inquests
rolled up, almost moved to turn
their wrath from tbe murderers to
the Ooroners. At. last the outcry
| grew too strong to be quieted, and
| investigation was resolved upon.
By common consent Eagleville was
the place appointed, and one day
in the month of July q great
| throng of the inhabitants and all
the Uoroners assembled there.
Each Coroner brought with him,
as proof of the legitimacy Of his
| action, the remains upon which his
linquests had been held, and there
were some remarkable exhibits.
One enterprising man had held an
inquest on q foot, and another,
whose crimson clarion proclaimed
his bibulous propensities, had put
lin o big bill for sitting on an ear.
"Not many of the coroners had
contributed to the collection when
the surgeon in charge noticed thai
some Of the pieces seemed to b(
counterparts of Others and al
more coroners laid down their frag
ments, further similaritieS served
to deepen what in bis mind prom
ised to be an even more startling
and wonderful mystery than th'
,,n,rdn,.c u fh nr,asaluas When thl