The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1879-04-22
WHO KILLED THE JUDGEp

" tor of the court mouse Oh
entered the judges private room for the
purpose of making a fire, and was
frightened almost out of his wits at
finding the honorable dignitary lying
motionless on the floor.
The janitor was about to retreat and
raise the alarm by ringing the court
house bell, when he bethought himself
that the judge might have but fit
and that he could render the needed
assistance
Therefore he hastened forward and
tried to lift the prostrate man, who lay
on the floor with one hand partially hid
In his bosom, while the other, lying
near his head, held his penholder, the
gold pen of which had its nib broken.
But as the judge was large man, given
over, to some extent to obesity, and the
janitor cadaverous fellow, who had
been denominated Bones by the at
taches of the court house, he found his
attempts useless and soon gaveit up as
futile.
At that time an unusually interesting
court was in session at B, presided
over by Judge Blackely. A large num-
Der of criminal cases had been disposed
of, and but few remained which were of
more than passing Importance.
The session just drawing to close
had attracted many people from the
rural districts, and the several hotels
were nightly taxed to their utmost
capacity. Attorneys from q distance
were in attendance, and many friends
of the prisoners still remained in town.
Therefore the wild ringing of the
court house bell, fully three hours be-
fore the opening of the court, startled
everybody who heard it. There was
catastrophe in its unwonted tones, and
while Jabez Throck, the janitor, still
held the rope he heard the patter of a
multitude of feet on the stone corridor
below. Releasing the rope, he planted
himself at the top of the stairs and for
bade the crowd surging up, saying that
the judge was dead, and that the coroner
was needed.
The report of the judges death spread
like wildfire, and the court was soon
surrounded by the most excited crowd
ever seen in B.
After some delay, caused in a great
measure by the extraordinary excite
ment, the coroner, a slow but precise
man, announced himself ready for busi-
ness, and, accompanied by the sheriff,
several surgeons, and the janitor, pro-
ceeded to the judges room, the door of
which was locked hehind them, in or
der to keep Intermediates out.
Judge Blakely was found in the man.
ner in which the janitor had left him,
and the examination was begun.
The surgeons, who had come before
hand to the conclusion that apoplexy
had taken the judge off, were forced to
abandon such ideas, for brief examina-
ton told them that an assassin had been
there. The crushed skull over the left
ear and four dagger stabs in the region
of the heart were the proofs of the MUIR
der Lying in its accustomed place by
the coal stove was seen one of the in
struments of death-a short iron poker,
to which adheared both hair and blood.
But the dagger was missing.
The assassin, whoever 1t was, had first
struck the judge from behind with the
poker, while he sat in his great arm
chair at his desk, as the position of the
chair and body indicated, and then dealt
the blows with the dagger.
In bearing off the sharp instrument
of death, it was at first believed that the
murderer had left no clew behind, but
after the surgical examination a dis
covery was made that startled every one
present
Lying upon the desk, and almost en-
tirely concealed beneath a mass of
legal documents, was apiece of legal cap,
upon which was traced, in spasmodic
hand, these words:
Jason Bowers did this ~
Below this brief but startling sentence
which seemed at once to fix the identity
of the assassin, was what appeared to
be an attempt of the writer to affix the
signature, but after y the pen made
long mark, which the beholder could
follow across the desk to the very wal
nut edging.
1t seemed that death had suddenly
stricken the writer in the act of signing
his name, and the broken pen in the
judges lifeless hand pointed almost