Litchfield enquirer., 1881-09-08
' WHOLE NO. 2S83l

COVereu tHc ueau DOuy ana aIter these were
 one or two others who were present at the
 time, including the medical men who examin-
 ed the corpse.
 The coroner summed up with great ability,
 and the jury, without a moments considera-
 tion, returned a verdict of wiful murder
 against some person or persons unknown.
 The next day the body of the murdered
 man was buried, and the police renewed their
 search ;; but everybody saw that after little popular indignation and a little fuss on the part of the newspapers, the tragedy of the
 Bellair stage would most probably become one
 of those mysterles which wait for elucidaton
 and punishment until the day of doom. Strang to say, however, the perpetrator of
 the crime was discovered, and convicted on
 his own evidence, and the very means which
 he adopted to hide the dreadful deed were, sl the occasion of it being brought to light, us
 shall now briefly explain. ''4 '''."'
 The town of Belair was about forty or fifty
 miles from Woodley and the stage ran be- Il tween the two places. A few miles from ! Woodley was another small town called Oak-
 bourne and in Oakbourne lived widow lady,
 named Conway, and her daughter.
 Mrs, Conway had brother who was deaf
 and dumb, Ills name was Thomas Ellwo0d.
 His affiction as might be supposed was a
 source of great trial to his family, and had his
 parents been poor, it would probably have
 made his course in life much harder than 1t
 really was but his father, old MT. EllwoOd, had but two children, the eldest a girl-who | married while young certain Mir. Conway,
 and Thomas of whom am about to speak. After Jane Elwood became Mrs. Conway
 she saw very little of her own family, for her
 mother was already dead and in less than year after her wedding day she lost her father,
 and now her only surviving relative was her
 brother Thomas -.- E .tu#.. | To Thomas Ellwood his father left almost all that he possessed, saying that his daughter being married, wanted little, and that poor
 Tom could do nothing for himself. "Poor
 Tom, however, at the time of our story, was
 now no longer boy, for he had reached his fortieth year, but he had never married. His
 sister, Mrs. Conway was older than himself, | and had an only child, a daughter now about
 seventeen years of age, called after her motIl- | CT, Jane ..... | NOW Jane had great expections, fo: not on- | ly was her widowed mother well tO-do in the
 world, but her uncle. Thomas Ellwood had
 declared that as he was, on account of his. in.
 trmity, likely to spend his days in bachelor
 hood he would leave alt his property to her.
 Jane had, moreover, lover, a right good
 young man, to whom her mother had promis- ed that she should in due time be united
 which meant whenever Uncle Ellwood found l opportunity, as he had promised, to settle n certain large sum upon her. But Uncle Ell
 wood had hitherto neglected doing so, chiefly on account of an innate dislike which ne had l for doing business with lawyers. But time
 and love would allow of no longer delay | Uncle Tom had promised his sister and niece | that he would arrange about the property ear | ly in the month of August, which had already
 begun; but when, two days after, he called at | Mrs. Conway's house, he allowed that he had | totally forgotten all about it. This confession
 was. of course, all made by dumb show, as from his birth he could not utter word gnd Mrs. Conway's discourse, as she scolded hi h | fell upon deaf ears. Tn omas was a good.nl- tured soul, and his sister carelessy thought it | did not matter how she rated hin; but al- | though he heard never q word, poor Tnin's l heart gri0yed, for he knew that he had ,vexed | his sister.
 Mir. Ellweod of course could not reply, a- I though with the usual tact of afflicted peupie l he made shrewd gusss at what his sister said. He carried little tablet and pencil al- ways about with him, and now he wrote: q "l'll go to Woodley tomorrow, Jane. The stage from Oakbourne to, WOodley starts at six, and I'll go over. 2"
 Mrs. Conway read the sentence, and then smiled and nodded assent. Thetwo were rec onciled and the rest of the evening passed of pleasantly enough. James lover. Fred, had | to go early, but Uncle Tom stayed to supper. Jane and her mother went with him to the SdLc anu IneTc nttle nun gDOu nlpnJ.
 MT. EllwOod then went straight hoEie to his lodgings and after arranging with his landla- dy to arouse him the following morning, he went to bed. When the morning came he packed up q few necessaries, directed his lug gage to Woodley- for he was very punctual man and then, after telling the landlady that he was going to tbat town for a day or two, he left. He booked from Oakbourne by the six o'clock stage, aud arrived early in Wool- loNy ThoT VI Hn hic oicE ter from that town stating that after seeing his lawyer he found it necessary to go on to Belair, but would return the next day
 The next day and the next day came, but Thomas Ellwood never came back again In his letter he stated that the business in Ques- tion might have been done by an agent. but that Mrs. CoDway's impatience and angry words had so agitated hn that he had resolv- ed to go on at once and to do everything hin-' self. He finished his letter with sn expression of love, but Mrs. Conway never forgot or for. gave her own hasty words to which he allud- ed. , ... I. ...1 ...
 AS day after day passed, Mrs. Conway, finding her brother still mysteriously absent from home. and that, as far as she could learn, he had not only been away for a much longer time than business could require but had never been seen since, began to be much agitated, especially as every one was talking Oi Illo uOITlule InuIucT Ill tue DelldlF CDdCua
 At last she went to Bellair, and when she learned how the victim had said this and tlfii, Id sine thought little about it, for sue knew pnor Tom had no power to speak One evenifig however, she saw drunken man rolling home. Like other fools of his class he scat tered all he had about him, and Mrs Conways eyes fell upon small letter case which sle knew belonged to Ellwood. She picked ilup, followed the drunkard, saw where he lived, and tnl ls,ln drunkard was arrested. Heproved to be none other than the eoachman, Jchn Rush, who D, could not, however, account fairly for the case. Drunk as he was he was too sensible to betray himself. He was however, held to bail, which, as he could not give, he was of course locked up.
 The next day he was brought before tie magistrate and examined. Mrs. Conway s swore that tue letter case belonged to heI missing brother. The coachman swore that he boughtlit, with some othertrifies of ped- dler whom he met ln the street, and as there was no evidence to refute this statement, he was at once discharged. Rush now saw that he was likely to become the object of suspi- cion,. and prepared to fee.. ...,...s .....
 Meanwhile the detective police, having at last clue which even blind man could not help but follow, set to work again in earnest. They saw Mrs. Conway, and suggested to her that it was her brother Eliwood who had been murdered, and perhaps tine cOachman knew more of the affair than he chose to allow. This suspicion she at once declared to be groundless, as her brother, being deaf and dumb, could not have spoken as the coacI- man asserted. A war ant. however, was n'' tained for exhumng the body of the murder. ed man. Mrs. Conway at once recognized her brother.
 Rush was now again arrested, although ihe magistrate was greatly opposed to the procced- ing, as he justly stated that there was not slIT- ficient evidence to justify an arrest. A we'll known lawyer, Mir. Chancery, however, can.e forward and clearly showed that if Rush, hay. ing every faculty for forming a proper jud9- ment, had sworn sOlemnly that the deceased q