Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-01-29

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He unlocked his desk, took out the bottle
removed the stopper and smeled the deadly
liquor.
Enough to poison half the town." b
said. wei, the stir it viii make viii b
just as great as II il had done it,"
Then he replaced the bottle in the desk
opened the window, sat down in an easy
chair, and neither spoke nor moved for
long time.
Presently he rose, closed the window, and
paced the room, then sat down at ms desk
and did a very unusual thing-began talk
ing to himself in a loud whisper.
"No, John, not tO-night-to-morroW-let
me say tomorrow. You must put things
straight for your brother, and write some
l~etters-you must see Nolan, too"
Nolan was a confidential friend and
solicitor.
care YOU going mad, joint No, coming
to your senses, ehl You have been mad
for five years, mad and miserable. Now
you are to have rest and peacs. All, John,
If poor men only knew the bliss Of an
honest life they would never desire to be
rich. Ii | had my time to come over againl
Why couldn't | have had a dream years
ago, like that old man in the story. and
have awakened in time to turn back, to re-
form. to follow the other roadf"
he arose n looked at himself in a mir
ror, sat down again, began to write, then
leaned back in his chair to whisper again to
himself like one in a dream:
Tomorrow night, John, when they are
all abed%-midnight You can walk to
Hampstead or take a cab. Somebody will
find you the next morning when tho bells
are ringing for church. Why not here, in
your WI house! No, on Hampstead heath
/ walked there one day last week to think
it was very peaceful, and thu air was sweet
walked TO think and think, and saw the
end-the end as it will be tomorrow night,
and Sunday morning. Now, pull yourself
together, John, and b. q man."
He paced the room again, then sat down,
and wrote letters for an hour, sealing each
letter with black wax. When he had fin
ished he did not place them in the box for
post, but locked them in an iron safe that
was built into the wall of the room.
This was one of the letters which he locked
away with the rest,
my DEAR BRoTHER-To what a slough
Of infamy have my steps directed me, and
now there is no going on or retreating. l
am a criminal of the worst class, the cause
of the ruin of thousands, many Of them
widows and orphans, all of them persons
who have trusted to my honor.
''At this moment land indeed for a
long time have I felt iA l am deeply
sensible Of the misery AMI wretched-
ness / have caused and shall cause. l
could bear any punishment, but not the
~wretchedness Of b3ing a witness of all
the trouble that is about to fall on my
dupes. Il is best that | should not live; for
though | might escape to some foreign
country l should die Of remor5e, 60 mad per-
haps; l certainly could not live, my crimes
being ended and discovered.
II am alone guilty. / have had no con-
Tolerate. have cheated and swindled on
my own account. Nolan and the others con-
nected with me have no knowledge Of my
receptions, my false deeds, my forgeries,
all committed in the hope that l might re-
trieve my losses.
"Ah, my dear brother, it was a sad day
fer all OF us when | came to London.
'You and my first political friends will
now know why l threw them over and tool
Office; it was a last desperate chance to re
irieve myself. and if I dared nave waited
and been patient it would have succeeded.
If l could have lived my embarrassment:
Gown until l had become secretary Of the
treasury my frauds wonll never have been
known; | should have put all straight. Now
It will be with difficulty that l can even
leave sufficient information behind ME to
let you all know the extent Of my defalca-
lions and robberies.
II authorize you to take possession of all
my papers, and you will find written mem
oranda that will help the solicitors to SOM
kind of understanding of them. When ]
have written this letter, 1 shall go round to
the club and take my dinner in peace for
he first time for years. l remember the
pride with which l first walked into the Re.
form Club, the false pride; 1 have dined
there every day these last two years when
town, and having no private engage
nents at home or els ewhere, and tonight ]
20 to take leave Of it and my friends-some
Of them already look askance at me. After.
wards l shall come back to my room to make
my last notes for your guidance. l an
writing to Nolan to meet me here to-mor
row at twelve for a last conference will
him; then If L could go to chapel and to con
~fession, and if the psnitent thief on the eros.
could be forgiven, surely l can; surely,
surelyI
ooh, that l had never left Irelaudl Oh
that | had resisted the first temptation t.
speculate! Oh, being in financial Difficult
ties that | had had the courage to stop ant
contest Oh, the folly, the misery of tb,
first fraud! Oh, the difficulty there is to q
back! Once launched in crime the devil hat
the power to hurry you on and on, as he ha.
hurried me.
eff l had had more solid flrmness, les
talent, less ambition, l might have been al
honest, happy and prosperous man, ad
mired and beloved Of you. l might have
lived to bless my father and mother in
their old age, instead of bringing down
their gray hairs to the grave and blasting
forever the wretched name of
John NEEDHAM.
ITO my brother, Henry Needham, of The
FRS, County Mayo"
When the writer of this '1ast diving
speech and confession returned from his
"last dinner at the club" he was in a
different frame Of mind to that in which he
had designed the means and manner of bis
own death, fixing it to take place Oh the
following night.
'HopeE' he said to himself, as he smoked
a cigar in his writing-room prior to going
10 bed. "Wnat a horrible idea to associate
with Hopel And yet it leaped into my
mind the moment l spoke to him; leaped
INTO my mind ready armed, as it were; not
beautiful like Venus starting up from the
froth of the sea, but like a tiend %springing