The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-06-13


That reverently and with love
l hold it In my trembling hands.
And that tits so dear to me,
With its old fragrance, far and faint,
Because my mother wore it, She
On earth my love. in heaven my saint.
Citizen.
OUR LETTER FROM BROADBRIM.
ofCrfmes and Acciilenss-Frank Mayo's
New Playa Rival of Mary Anderson
Two Expert Criminals Convicted.
New YORK, June g. 1885.
EDITOR CHIEF: /
How many people who sit down in the
morning and carelessly scan the newspaper
while they sip their coffee and MUNICH their
toast, ever pause to think what a wonder-
full thing q Modern newspaper is? Go
through the offices of the great aailies here,
and in them you encounter scores of young
men, keen, bright, enthusiastic, who have
cast their lives With the press. Hundreds
drift into reporting from the different pro-
fessions; few ever leave it alive. They unite
in themselves all the attributes of Briareus
and Argus, the gods of a hundred eyes and
a hundred arms. They are a strange lot,
these reporters, wild, daring, dashing fell
lows, with no more sense Of danger than a
wooden Indian. All that you have to do to
New York reporter, is to- say "news,"
and at that magic word, hunger, thirst. fa-
tigue and suffering are forgotten-and if
it were necessary to go to the North Pole,
he would start at moments warning,
without packing his gripsacsE if he
happened to have one. There is nothing
your genuine reporter loves so much as a
good, knotty subject, the tougher and hsbi'e
mysterious the better. Some years ago
when Chastine Cox murdered the landlady
of fashionable boarding house, by chok
ing her to death, there was absolutely no
clue left; the murderer seemed to he one of
those unfathomable mysteries that the
judgment-day alone coMd unravel. The
entire detective force of the city was turned
upon the case; theory after theory was
woven and exploded. 1t seemed as if the
authorities had made mp their minds to
hunt down the lady7s husband, a kindly old
gentleman, who, in addition to the grief of
losing his wife, was subjected to the igno-
rinp of being branded as her murderer.
After days of suspense, a young Boston re-
porter with only the faintest shadow of
clue, followed it up SO successfully that he
Eid wkat the assembled detectives of the
United States could not do, and hunted the
murderer to tie foot of the gallows. A few
years previous to that, we we're thrown into
the widest excitement one day by beau
,tiful young woman throwing red pepper
into the eyes of large manufacture, down
town, and when he was biinJed, cowiidng
him within an inch of lns life. Shte de-
clared to the applauding eiowd that the
miserabte wretch had employed her ri his
factory, and had there attempted to wreck
her virtue. The wretched man, blind and
helpless, could not escape, whichever way
he turned tho crowd pushed him back, till
his facewas covered with Welts and his
clothes wet5 ett III pieces with tie rawhide.
The scandal became so public that his Gus
toners all left him, and the man WAS
ruined The loss of property was bad
enough, but tile loss Of friends and char
:acter was more than lie Sorld bear. When
all seemed lost, the ubiquitous reporter ap-
peared ON the scene and he gave him some
clues to the lady's history. They followed
State to State, and across the ocean to Eu-
rope, from there to the penal colony in Van
Dieman's Land, and back again TO San
Francisco, and finally to New York, where
this innocent virgin was assaulted. And it
vas discovered that this poor, young, I'M
sophisticated cfaatdte hsd lived with seven
different men-tllat she was the lnother of
four illegitimate children, and young IS
she was, had passed seven years of lfer time
in prison for theft and blackmail, and the
poor injured creature, who had enlisted the
sympathies Ct the entire community, and
had engaged herself as an Innocent young
maiden to be married to an excellent and
Worthy young man; was safely landed ii
States prison for four years.
A case in many respects similar Occurred
this week where female adventurer tried
to blackmail lawyer: reporter again
came to the froet and the syreh took to
flight, thus saving herself a long term of
Imprisonment and the lawyer number of
ducats. The untiriny energy of the report
er was never better illustrated than In the
case of Miss Bedient, who committed sui
dido If tha a lrerd Cantral Hotel. not q ff,inf,
was known aboat her; she had taken pains
to destroy every cffte; all the letters were
cut from her undercldtAes-there was ab-
solutely nothing to fouae 4 theory upon;
and yet, inside of thirty six hours the re-
porters had located her in little town II,
the interior of the State: and IL forty eight
hours had set up for publication every ma
terial incident cf her life from th6 hotf Of
her birth. Another remarkable case ef re-
portorial enterprise is the discovery Of
Maxwell, the ,ntrderer of Preller. He kills
his man, packs him up and then gets safely
off to TIE .ntipodes; tHt tie avengiag Meme
Bis, the press, is on his traJk, and f5ag be-
fore he gets ashors en- the other side of the
wo+id, the history Of his crime has preceded
him; and in due time he will doubtless be
brought back and made to suffer the pen
atty of his assassination.
What strange fatality is it that brings n
succession of like crimes aud like acci-
dents? Since the death of Prof. Odium