Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-10


gion by rail. By chance he was in the car
which the prisoner and her husband entered.
They took seat next in front of him. He
recognized them, for he had once stayed
day or two at the tavern they formerly kept
at Hoosac He would have spoken to them
but for the fact that Dawers looked troubled
and perplexed, and the woman gave him
the impression of nature eonvulsed and
shaken to its very core. He saw the fine
hands clenched beneath her shawl, the
splendid eyes blind to all save some awful
inward sight, and he recognized that a
tragedy had been or was to be enacted. He
watched her, with entire unconsciousness to
herself, for mile upon mile. His vigilance
was Unexpectedly rewarded. She moved
abruptly, searched her pocket for a hand
kerchief with which to wipe her damp brow.
and pulled out with it small box, that fell
into Dawers' lap. The blank horror in her
eyesslowly quickened with omereeolleetion.
She stretched her hand to take it, but be
drew back, and with astonishment in his
face lifted the lid and found the contents to
be white powder. Into this powder he
thrust his forefnger and instantly applied
it to his tongue. On the moment he cried
out that his tongue was burning, then that
his throat and stomach were on fire, and
violent nausea completed the symptoms of
.
"You have taken arsenic,' cried the
stranger, whereon the prisoner shrieked out,
snatched the box from Dawers' hand, and
threw it far out of the window.
The stranger took the exact bearings of
the spot where it must have fallen. They
were then close to a station. There be got
out, having watched these two until the last
moment. They were so agitated and ab-
sorbed that they did not identify him as
their former guest. Dawers was urging
questions on her, but beyond that one shrek
the stranger heard no sound issue from her
white lips from first to last Only his physi-
cal pain moved her, and as the other closed
the door, he saw her lean forward, and press
his hands with a passion of tenderness that
startled the gazer. Clearly the poison was
not intended for the husband; therefore for
whom?
The stranger bade the conductor watch the
pair and telegraph to him. Then he re-
traced the distance he had come from a GER
tain point, and with very little difficulty
found what he wanted. The box was three
parts full OF arsenic. He locked the box
away, said nothing to anybody, but
watched the papers carefully. He had not
long to wait. On the fourth morning he
read how in buttery, or well, dug deep for
the sake of coolness, under the house where
L06 pflSOu6E udO 1lf6u3 udu Detn IOuuQ LQe
dead body of a man whose appearance gave
rise to suspicious of foul play, and who, on
examination, was found to have in his Wis
cera sufficient arsenic to kill three or four
men. The man was well clothed, we'll nour-
ished, and in his pockets was plenty of
money. He was identified as Henry Mer-
Ger.
We shall introduce witness who will
testify to seeing man enter the house at
o'clock the evening before the pair left, but
he saw no one come out, though his work
kept him near by till g, when Dawers him
self came home. He was not close enough
to hear voices, though he could easily have
heard cry had there been one. He peeped,
as would be shown in his evidence, but
could see nothing. With what superhuman
swiftness and strength must this woman
have overcome her victim, SO that not even
a moan or cry reached the spy without
What selfcontrol must have been hers.
that she could meet her husband with a
smile, and sit at supper with him that
night, however absolutely she might
break down on the morrowI In one short
hour she had done as much and
more than man could do, and she
had done it thoroughly. Secure BY
her hearth, the murdered man hidden at
her feet she sat with undaunted front, not
had visited her. Without that hollow cave
below, she might have murdered, but could
not have concealed him, but as it was, this
hiding place favored the swiftness and sub
tleness of the crime to an extraordinary de-
gree For who could believe that he walked
of his own free will to the disused trap-door,
and deliberately elected to be lowered BY
rope to a cold, noisome dungeon-for this
unusual buttery had not been used for a
long time. Mol 1t was for Albert Dawers
to quail, to stink out of sight as a defrauded
man, or if Mercer showed himself moved by
his wife's entreaties, and actually con-
sented to leave her to her happiness, would
he not have left, as he came, by the house
door?
We see no such scene when in imagina-
tion we project our gaze upon that bare, dis
mantled room. We see q man who, what
ever be may have been to her in the past,
had since possibly repented. He had re-
membered the woman he had once loved and
returned to share bis prosperity with her.
He found her more beautiful than ever and
probably, the very thought of taking her
away from another man enhanced her value
in his not over fastidious mind. He meant
to have his rights, and told her so, while the
miserable woman only half heard him in
straining her ears for her present and be-
loved partners step without. She must
have acquiesced to all appearance in his de-
mands, or he would not have taken from her
hands the ,eup of milk with which she
steaIthily mixed the poison. AND, strangely
enough, she must have also been possessed
at the time of strong narcotic, since traces
of one were found in the stomach, so that
the cool, firm hand, doubly doctored the
draught she handed to the unsuspecting
man. Let US picture her then, watching his
unayailing struggles and agonies, till the
opiate deadened the effects OF the poison,
and he sank down in stupor that she knew
must end in death-nay, that may have
ended abruptly IN death, as she stood by and
watched him.
Her crime is accomplished, but how to
hide it? See, her eyes wander hither and
thither over the walls-the tioor-upon the
door through which she might drag this
heavy weight, but that She may meet Daw-
ers on the Threshold Her glance falls on
discolored ring level with the floor, and
scarcely visible, save 70 those who know
where to look for it. She creeps nearer and
nearer to 1t. She kneeIs down and drags at
the rusty ring. A square door, about the
width of a strong mans shoulders, rises
toward her; beneath is a black void, and
that void is to be the hiding place Of her
husbands body. Close at hand lies coil
of cord. She deliberately cuts it in hall,
and kneelmg down beside him makes one
portion fast around his body below the arm
pits. then with the two ends drags that
huddled, helpless body easily enough along
the floor, until the open square Is reached.
Ara uow comes the most difficult part, /