The National tribune., 1882-04-01
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE: WASHINGTON, c.


about the tavern for some years past, and
had dproved himself to be honest, faithful, and
oblging, and indeed he had always borne
that reputation in the neighborhood, where
he had lived with his aunt for ten years or
more. His testimony, when called to the
witness stand, was substantially as follows:
/ That his name was Charles Hodgson he
was eighteen years Of age, and lived with the
accused, Jacob Hildebrand, by whom he had
been employed for some three years past at
the hotel. That some months previous-he
could not remember the exact time-a young
man came to the hotel at about dusk in
quest of lodgings. He had small leathern
portmanteau, which, as he dropped it on the
floor of the office land bar-room combined)
struck heavily, as if it contained something
other than clothing. This valise was i'm
mediately taken in charge by Hildebrand.
! The young stranger, who appeared to be a
gentleman, possibly about to invest in oil
lands, after having eaten supper, sat in the
bar-room smoking cigar by the dim light
of the wood fire, and at length strolled oEt
at the back door to look at the weather, which
was threatening. At this moment complain
ant, who was standing out-of-doOrs by the
! front window of the barroOm, heard a sup
pressed cry and a scufling of feet, and turn
ing quickly, looked through the window to-
ward the rear door, and saw Hildebrand
Just as the stranger was attempting to enter
the house, strike him terrific blow on the
head with a billet of wood, killing him in-
stantly. That Hildebrand and tall pale
young man, whose face, seen in the dim
light, he could not describe, but who be
thought might be q nephew of Iildebrand,
TOOK the body out iD direction due west
( from the house, and buried it In piece of
! plougheG land, near stump; and on re-
! turning to the house Hildebrand, who saw
| that complainant had witnessed the deed,
seized him, and threatened TO kill him too
if he ever disclosed what he had seen, and
that fearing for his life, he had kept silent.
After sharp cr0ss-examination by Mr..
Burns, which failed to shake the boys tes-
| timony in any particular, Hildebrand was
! sworn in his own behalf and hatly denied
| the whole story from beginning to end, in
which denial he was cOrroborated by his
wife, who was positive that no such guest
had taken supper at the hotel at or near the
time rather vaguely fixed by complainant.
Hildebrand in fact had nephew, but he
was in California, where he had been for the
past ten years. My friend then produced
two witnesses, who testified that they had
made a most searching examination Of the
hotel premises, and no trace of the stranger
or his luggage could be found. Moreover,
nobody else appeared to have seen the
stranger, nor had any inquiries been received
from any quarter in regard tosuch man, and,
so far as could be learned, no one answering
his description had disappeared. To dispel
any remaining doubt in the mind of the
magistrate, the boys aunt was called, and
testified that he had been at times "queer,"
as she called it, from infancy, and on several
occasions, when under the in fluence of one
of these "queer" turns or fits, he had told
her a similar story, but that when he was
well he never alluded to anything of the
kind and disliked to have any reference
made to what he had said OF done when in
his queer" state, all of which he would
seem to have forgotten entirely. To shorten
long story, the man Hildebrand was dis
charged from arrest, and the decision of IL
magistrate in his favor was generally regar
ed as just one, although there were maj
who doubtless continue to think that eve
coat of paint Hildebrand puts on his house
to this day has been paid for out of the
IL
tended to invest in oil wells.
I congratulated my friend upon his vic
tory. "But," said I, "do you think the
boy was honest, or was he hired to make
the complaint, or how do you account for his
strange fabrication of such plausibly told
story SO consistently maintained?
"That is what puzzles me-" said he;
have no doubt of his sincerity and general
truthfulness. He has been brought up by
his aunt, pious, church-going women, who
brought him with her from England when
mere infant. l know nothing of her or his
antecedents excepting that his name was
Bauer, which she had changed to her family
name when she adopted him l see no way
in which to account for his groundless and
gratuitous tissue of falsehoods, unless it be
upon the theory that it is the result of some
singular hallucination which follows him."
We were sitting in Mr. Burns's library.
/ arose and walked to the window, and
gazed vacantly down the street until
recalled to myself by my host good-humor-
edly remarking "You must find the out
look pleasant one. You have been for the
past five minutes looking out at the window,
utterly oblivious of my suggestions of din
ner What do you see that SO interests
you"
II.-Q. E. D.
The following week Ireturned to England
but before leaving Pennburg took occasion
to look up Mrs. Hodgson, and learned that
she was an Enelishwoman, and, as I had
surmised, came from Boroughton, whence
she had emigrated to the States some fifteen
years previous, and had married and settled
in Pennburg. Her sister, the boys mother
was the wife of Bauer. The pair had not
lived happily together; and just before the
boy was born she had a sudden and violent
attack-a ft or something of the sort-but
Just what it was the poor woman never
would disclose, and died in giving him birth
The boy was a puny infant, and seemed