Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-04-18
A QUEER CASE.
A WASHINGTON DETECTIVE STORY.
CHAPTER I,
The NIGHT ofthe Serenfeenth of Februnrn.

| Between Iotn ana l4In streets, on ii street
| northwest, opposite the New York avenue
church, is a dingy brick building, f,anked on
| the one side by livery stable and on the other
by an alley. This is the Columbian Medical
school, and its fame is great that of it's
| neighbor across the street, although the church
| is the more imposing of the two.
The two work together The one deals with
| the soul, the other cares for the body They are
alike in one respect. They both study the con-
| dition of humanity after death.
Long after the congregation of the church
| have gone home, light shining through the
| white glazed window shows that the students
| still remain at the school-in the dissecting
! loom.
| Medicine Is more attractive to living man
than religion, and a sick man sends for the doc
! tor before he sends for the clergyman although
| the doctor costs more and Is more deadly
| The dissecting room is great leveller-it is
| the mainstay of Pantheism. tits like the poets
| sin. AT first repulsive, then endurable and
finally captivating: or like an olive to appre-
ciate it requires perseverance and habitude.
| The dissecting room of the H-street school is
in the rear of the building. 1t is reached by a
| flight of stairs very suggestive of those leading
| to the loft of any butcher-shop.
| 1t is on the 18th of February, 1SS-, that our
story begins 1t was about eleven o clock at
| night, and heavy snow storm was filling the
| streets of Washington with piled-up snow-drifts
The street was dark, and the lights in most of
| curtains
| shutters. Only two lights were visible in the
| block. One shone out from the office in the
stable, and one in the dssecting-room, where
| two or three of the students were working The
gas jets f1ared from the currents of air rushing
about the room, and the Pickering lights showed
| six dull brown cOrpseS on the tables underneath
| The three on which the students were working
| were uncovered and the sheets lay beside them.
one lay untouched except in the face, where
| the muscles had been cut away, showing the
skull beneath. Another had his viscera torn
out, ana was minus an arm, ard his face was
hideously contorted The three which were
rigid arm or leg protruded. The shaky table
which was nearest the window bore corpse
whose bent arm was the only part visible, and
| while the work went on in silence and the wind
rushed around the building, now shrieking now
moaning. the table creaked and the arm swayed
to and fro, reckoning with its stiff, long pallid
| fingers.
One of the fellows looked up. His eye caught
| the weird, beckoning arm. He chucked:
O.. Look there, sgd The old fellers in hurry
| Albert Sydney, a dark-faced student. with
dark shadows under his eyes, looked up and
| smiled mechanically as he light sight of the
| slowly-beckoning arm.
The movement of the arm seemed as natural
as If 1t belonged TO living man. It beckoned
beseechingly, necessarily, grotesquely
! drunken one.
The other student had not ceased his work
| for moment, but kept on carving away steadily
the course OF the facial nerves of his subject and
was TOO busy to notice anything else. He was
puiflng mechanically at pipe long since gone
out. He paused at last with a sigh of exhaust
| ion and turned TO the others.
I'm through for tonight, boys" he said
scratching match on his coat.
The cadaver kept reckoning earnestly and
| the gas fared uneaSily.
AS he opened the door the cold air rushed in
| almost blowing out the gas.
lney heard him tramping down stairs. Bill
hailager always dropped his foot like a forty
pound du1nb-bell. He had hardly gone out be-
fore they heard him tramping bac k again He
came IN, this time bearing bundle over his
shoulder a brown sack, with the outline
| OF a body showing through.
| w no s Is this? Yours. Syd?"
IN" al. - such lucb said Sydney, sorrowfully.
~ haven't paid for my las yet" said the
young student addressed.
Its darned careless to leave it outside in that
| way, Whosever 1T is" growled Hallager Il
found it near the side gate, almost covered with
Garry it ID down to the injecting room, Bill"
| suggested Blackwell.
Garry it down yourself" replied the ox-foot-
| ed one opening the bag.
he stan ted back in establishment.
| Great heavens! boys, it's a white woman" he
| exclaimed in excitement.
AS Hallager laid the sack out on the table,
Albert sydney caught sight of the face of its
occupant. He turned pale, and his face
twitched, in spite of the fact that he tried to
suppress all signs of emotion. He stood there
| grasping table with iron grip, but he could
| not Keep himself from trembling
| manager was busy unlOOSing the sack pre-
| paratory to drawing it off the body.
The other student observed Sydney's evident
| excitement and asked
why, Syd What's the matter?"
IN Nothing replied Albert Sydney. "It's the
| first white subject ever saws
| A white subject is "a very rare occupant of a
| dissectng-room in Washington.
me Two hurried to Hallagers side while he
drew OF the bag which inclosed the stiff corpse,
Entirely nude, dead and lifeless as the table
lence.
From a month after they had entered the dis
secting-room, they had ceased to think of their
SUBJECTS as individuals, and merely considered
them inanimate matter but somehow this beau
tiful woman seemed SO different from the
brown, contorted negroes who occupied tables
near her.
veins underneath The full, rounded limbs and
D0dy made curves, charming in their symmetry.
t tine small hands half opened, showed slender,
painter. Though the pink blush had fled from
her cheeks, her paliid face, with its halfopened
lips, and coquettish chin her black brows and
lashes and her broad forehead somewhat OBJ
scured by the black hair which clustered around
and over it in little ringlets, her cheek, half
d1mpled, made 80 pure and innocent a picture
that 1t abashed the three young men, who stood
over her heart.
There was no need to ask the cause of this
beautiful girls death.
No post-mortem examination was needed to
show that she was murdered!
That clOt of blood obScuring the gaping wound
showed that conclusively.
But murdered by whom, and for what? Who
beside God and her murderer knew?
The rest OF the world? Probably as ignorant
in the matter as the corpse by her side which
still beckOned increasingly at her.
well, III "a! What shall we do about this
AFFAIR."" This from Hallager.
Need we say anything about it?" asked Sgd
ney, hesitatingly.
What! You don't mean"
"NO, street! quoth Hallager. "The girls been
murdered. If she hadn't been murdered of
course we could keep quiet about it. But
now"
"Hallager's right, Sgd. We can't let her muir
derer Off,"
swell, perhaps you're right Brother George
is on the detective force, you know. and he's
down at the Fifth precinct tonight. Will you
come down with me and report the case"
They put OH their coats, turned down the pas
locked the door, and went Gathering down the
stairs. ~
And there, in the deserted, dim room Law the
dead girl, and the shapeless beckoning mass
beside her. And the shadow of the slowly
swinging arm fell across the bosom of the eiri
like a sooty hand caressing white half-opened
rosebud. y
While the spirits of the others fioated ahout
the room shrieking aloud in cries which NO
man heareth for restoration to their plum
dered graves, the spirit of the girl sat at her
head and stared mutely at the clot of blood on
her breast.
And the spirit of the sheet-covered one
beckOned to her and said: Mistress tell ms
your story. Come, tell us your story"
And the other spirits stopped their wailinp
and echoed ''TeL US your story. Come, tell us
your story"
But the woman answered them not She
was looking at the clot of blood on her breast.
yUbop tho fhroo cfudant, rooob.a