The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-11-02


and fallen from the window while try.
ing to close the shutters during the
storm. | saw the body. 1t was that
! of medium sized woman, twenty-four
or twenty-five years of age, with fea-
lures of the ordinary American type.
Her light brown hair must have been
i hanging loosely down her back when
she met her death. In life she might
have been thought A rather attractive
! looking girl, despite an uncommon and
unpleasant thinness of the lips, but,
lying there cold and dead, the face was
/ not an agreeable sight, and L gladly
| turned away. There was nothing
about her To show her identity, the
loose wrapper which she wore having
no pockets, while her undertaking
was unmarked and she wore only one
plain gold ring on her right hand; so,
as | could gain no further information
from the police, and the lodging house
was tightly closed for the night, | SIM
ply wrote out a few lines describing
the occurrence as an accident, took
them to the office and then went to q
neighborIng hotel 10 sleep.
There was evidently something i'm my
wife's story, after all, and determined
to look into it further while saying
nothing to the police until / had some
definite clue to work upon. In the
morning, therefore, / took my way to
the lodging-house. The landlady was
q respectable lrishwoman who readily
answered my questions without, how
ever, telling me much more than 1 al
ready knew. and willingly offered to
show me the girls room.
but snothing yell find, she said,
as she led the way up stairs. Its all
just as she left it. poor thing; but
there's never letter or a. much a. a
scrap of writing TO tell where she came
from or where her friends live"
1t was Il hall bedroom on the third
floor, plainly furnished in the usual
way, with bed. withstand, bureau,
small table and single chair The
bureau stood between the window and
the side wall of the house. At the cor
ner nearest the street was a doorway
into the next room. The door was
closed. There was not the faintest
sign of any thing like struggle. The
water pitcher upon the stand was
filed to the brim. Upon the table
stood an ink bottle. and beside it lay
in order, some paper, envelopes and
pen. The few toilet articles on the
washstand and bureau were also neatly
arranged, except a comb and brush,
which Law apart and askew before the
glass, among some scattered hairpins,
and which, with the position of the
chair before the bureau, suggested the
idea of woman interrupted while
brushing her hair, and turning. per-
haps, to talk to some one who had
entered On the foot of the bed, too.
close by the chair. it was plain that a
person had sat; otherwise that had not
been disturbed. On pegs behind the
door hung a hat and two neat, dark
gowns. The pockets were empty.
The bureau was fairly filed with plain
Undertaking, and in 4 upper drawer
was box containing a few sOber-col-
ored ribbons and necktieS, two or three
little cheap trinketS and a purse with a
small sum of money. But nowhere in
the room conld | find card or note or
address. Plainly the woman had, taken
great pains to conceal her identity-or
some one else had done SO for her.
Z While was noting these particulars
my landlady chatted increasingly. L
learned that she had spent the whole
of the preceding evening, up to the
time of the accident, in the parlor i'm
position to command q view of the
staircase, and that no stranger could
have gone up it without her knowl-
edge; also that the room next to the
one in which we stood was occupied by
a quiet middle-aged gentleman who
had oeen there but a few days, and who
was so sound a sleeper that he heard
none of the confusion, and had not
known of the accident until she told
him that morning As he went out to
breakfast. According to her account,
too, no one had since been in the hall
room except a police officer, herself and
the locksmith whom she had called in
TO open the door.
Reminded by this of the communi-
eating door between the rooms, |
stepped carelessly along and glanced
over it. 1t was locked and the key
hole empty. There was bolt as well
as the ordinary lock, but it was not
shes. and the part which would have
fitted into the socket was dark with
rust, while the whole door, including
the rest of the bolt and the socket, had
evidently been lately painted. Then
by little judicious questioning | as
certained that the landlady always
kept possession of the key, that she
had not used it for months past, and
that the painting had been done not
week before. So, within q week, that
door had been unbolted by the dead
girl, or, at least, by some one in her
room.
1t was not much of a clew TO found a
theory upon-still, it was something.
and L felt encouraged. Search as |
would, however, through the room, /
could discover nothing else to aid me,
until l picked up, mechanically, pair
of well worn kid shoes which stood be-