The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-11-15

order to preserve their bones to the
present time.-Cor. Eugenc city (Ore.)
Guard.
ssThe Black Museum"
1.-THE Black Museum is a room at
the London Police Headquarters i'm
which during the last three years pieces
dc conviction have been arranged and
labelled, forming q CHASTITY, squalid
and suggestive show. The London
Spectator thus describes it:
"Along the wall on the right side OF
the room is ranged choice collection
of guns, crowbars and jimmies'
latter are implements of the house:
breaking industry, which admit OF
great variety and are susceptible OF
highly artistic handling; and among
them is apair of tongs, unevenly rusted,
and with dirty paper book, written
all over with incoherent sentences at
tached to it. The tongs are those with
which man named Macdonald killed
his wife about two years ago. The:
book is, it seems to the visitor, record
of the various phases of the mans in.
sanity. They hanged him though, and
also the greater number OF the proprie-.
tors of the horrid, labelled assortment
of hammers, knives-including the
bread, carving and pocket varieties
razors and pistols, which suggest cut.
ler's booth in fair. There is dried
blood on all the knives and razOrs, and
on some of the hammers, and every
one of them stands for murder or q
suicide: in terrible number of cases,
for the murder of wife by her has-
band. Several of the pistols, mostly
beautiful weapons, are the instruments;
of suicide, and each is labelled with the:
name, date and place. The simple
suicides are almost all among the high
er class of society, and when the visitor
asks how the pistol with which a gen
tleman of wealth and station shot HIM
self has come into the keeping OF the
Museum, he is told: The family
mostly do not like to have it, and SO
they ask the police to take it away.
In corner hang the clothes OF the
Rev. j. Watson, who murdered his
wife at Stockwell; the horse-pistol with
which he shot her, and the heavy ham,
mer which he bought to knock the nails
into the chest in which he proposed to-
hide her body. SO carefully had the.
murderer washed his trousers and his
coat sleeves that the blood-stains
could only be discerncd with diff
Guilty at the time of the in
vestigation. But since the coat and
trousers have been hanging on the
Black Museums walls the stains have
come out close and thick. We many
times notice that here the visitor is
told. The frightful weapons used ny
the 'Lennie' mutineers are here, neatly
ranged under the photograph at the
ringleader, French Peter, and =
group of the whole gang of ruffians-
with red-ink mark on four heads;
among the number, to indicate those:
who were hanged. Hard by is bundle:
of letters forming the correspondence
which furnished much of the evidence
against Margaret Waters, the baby
farmer. How much sin, shame, sOr-
row and cruelty that small dusty bundle
represents! A small billycock hat,
with mask fastened inside the front
rim. into which is packed q purse, &
comforter, a small lantern and a life
preserver with a terrific knob of lead on
it, is quite cheerful object to turn to-
from all these grim relics Of worse
crimes, though the burglar who form
erly owned the life-preserver informed
the police who seized, but also rescued
him-having come up on hearing his
cries when he was caught between the
iron bars of window through which
he was escaping-on false alarm,
that he had thoroughly intended to do
for any one who should interrupt him,
with that convenient weapon. A
bundle of flash notes, Bank of Elegance
issue, for which there is fixed price,
and brisk sale on race-cOurses among
bettors who can only read imperfectly
or not at all; the conjuring book of
Prof. Zendavesta, which always opened
at the same page, the only one on which
there is worked horoscope; the
wretched cheats ill-spelled accounts,
which reveal the stupendous credulity
of the people, for they record an aver
age of five hundred visitors a week;
and the letters addressed to him, chief
ly by women, at least sufficiently
educated to know better-these are al
most amusing, after all that has been
seen before. A forged betting ticket,
which got the forger in trouble at the
Nottingham races, is curious and in
genious example of perverted clever
ness. The forged ticket is identical
with the real one, to all appearance.
On very close inspection, one sees that
it is better printed than the genuine
article. A large assortment of burg
lars tools is not the least suggestive
object here"
L