Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-06-24
ssory of the saratoga Trunk.


The st. Louis Globe-Democrat
draws attention to Robert Louis
Stevenson's STORY of the Physician
and the Saratoga Trunk, apropos OF
the Maxwell-Preller case. The tale
deals with a young man who was done
to death in strange room at ahotel,
occupied by one sllas Scuddamore,
and goes on to describe the scene when
Silas and DR.. Noel are alone with the
body and seeking to conceal the evi.
dences Of the crime. 1t is there that
the following passage occurs, begin
ming with the doctor speaking to Scud.
damore:
Your case is desperate upon that
side, and for the narrow eye of the
authorities you are infallibly the
guilty person"
He turned toward the bed and pro-
eeeded to examine the corpse.
"Quite dead" he murmured; Eyes,
as had supposed, the pockets emp
ty. Eyes, and the name cut off the
shirt. Inoted little while ago that
you have there in the corner one oil
those monstrous constructions which
your fellow-countrymen carry with
them into all quarters of the globe
in a word, Saratoga trunk. Until
this moment / had never been able to
conceive the utility OF these erections,
but now begin to have a glimmer.
One thing / see plainly-the object OF
such box is to contain human
body"
The Saratoga trunk was soon gut
ted, of its contents, which made con-
siderable litter upon the floor, and
then--Silas taking the heels, and the
doctor supporting the shoulders-the
body OF the murdered man was car.
ried from the bed, and alter some diff
ficulty doubled up and inserted whole
into the empty box. With an effort
on the part OF both the lid was forced
down upon this unusual baggage, and
the trunk was locked and corded.
Now said the doctor, "the first
step has been taken on the way to
your deliverance. Tomorrow, or
rather to-day, it must be your task
to allay the suspicious OF the porter,
paying him all that you owe.
The story then proceeds to describe
the horror of Silas, alone in hotel
with the dead man in q trunk, and
says:
f'He skunk down to dinner about z
at night; but the yellow coffee room
appalled, him, the eyes of the other
,J,naY~ ,aa,,s,I = n ,os+ ~, biS ypit u ct,o,o,
eion, and his mind remained up stairs
with the Saratoga trunk. When the
waiter came to offer him his cheese his
nerves were already so much on edge
that he leaped hall way out of his
chair and upset the remainder OF a
pint OF ale upon the table cloth"
"In reading this, one can see Max
well furtively slipping into the South
ern ordinary on that fateful Sunday
night, talking wildly to the waiter,
Arlington, and finally nervously push.
ing away the wine he cannot drink.
1t is an almost perfect companion
picture. The singular parallel is con-
Guided in the description Of the vigil
in the hotel room that night, the body
of the murdered man in the trunk in
corner.
"There all night long, prey to the
most terrible imaginations, he watch
ed beside the fatal boxful of dead flesh.
Midnight had sounded some time
when, impelled by uneasy suspicious,
he opened his bedroom door and
peered into the passage. 1t was dim.
ly lighted by a single jet of gas, and
some distance / he perceived man
in the costume of a hotel under SER
want"