The Columbus journal., 1889-07-31
THE FATAL POTATO.

said the old detective. occurred some.
thing over twenty years ago. Then
still had much to learn in my business,
and. fortunately for me. knew that ]
had. It was memorable as an illustra-
ton Of the importance Of small things,
and I have pigeon holed it in my memory
a. the affair of the fatal potato
"A red headed servant girl. 60 scaned
that her eyes stood out like Holsters,
rushed into the station house early one
morning, bowling that all the police
were wanted around at Mr.. Notions.
The sergeant at the desk, supposing there
was probably just some row among the
servants, grinned at the sight Of her
and asked what was the matter.
"She gave . Whoop Of 'mufdefP that
raised his hair and startled every one In
the station. The idea of murder In the
ar~istocratic m4nsion Of Mr.. Samuel Nor
ton, on Fifth avenue, within five blocks
Of the station, naturally rather excited
US. Two detailed men and myself
was then ward detective-ran around
there as quickly a. w could
"Sure enough, there had been q muir
der. The cook. . sturdy built, middle
aged Englishwoman named Harriet
Wardrop, lay IN the kitchen floor, in
the back basement, with q dirty cotton
handkerchief twisted and knotted about
her neck, stone dead and quite cold.
When she had not sent up her employ
er's coffee, which he was accustomed to
taking in bed, or answered the bell, the
red headed girl came down to see what
was the matter, and that was the plight
she found her in.
1.-The last seen Of Harriet alive was at
near 10 O'Clock the night before, when
the W. upstairs girls left to 60 to their
room in the attic. Hex DON was in the
basement, and she said that she was going
to bed in a few minutes. She had had
no visitor. never, indeed, had any, was
perfectly sober, and seemed to be always
a woman Of perfectly correct habits.
Really, however, not much was known
about her, further than that she had come
there from Philadelphia seven or eight
months before with good references. had
behaved herself well and made no con-
idantes. But she must have. admitted
to the house the man who choked her.
there were no signs of any struggle,
and there had been no robbery. Her
gold watch was on the kitchen table, two
months wages in her pocket and no at
tempt seemed to have been made at
plumber in the still richer field up stairs.
Why had she been killed. It was mys-
ferrous. One Of the cops with me was
90 puzzled that he declared it must be a
case of suicide.
II saw that she had been strangled,
and I wondered what strong fellow the
murderer must have been to have twist
ed, with fatal effect, 30 soft q band as q
handkerchief about 90 big and solid q
neck and to do it 50 deity and power
fully as to prevent an outcry or ever .
struggle. It takes a good deal Of pres
sure to squeeze In wholeneck so tightly
as to cause death.
But when I came to examine more
closely I found that q novel and inge-
NOUS device had been employed to make
the job easier. Folded into the handker-
chief and placed 90 that it would press
directly upon the windpipe, was a potato
about the size Of q hens egg. While
turning the tuber v in my hand, l
noticed that there were two deep curv-
ing cuts in its smooth, creamy skin, such
as would be made by finger nails scratch
ing it, and each showed a thin line of
blue color. At first I thought nothing
Of that, for I knew that some potatoes,
such as the Neshannocks, HAYES delicate
skin of violet tint under the white out
side. But when I looked more carefully
/ saw that this potato was not q Neshan-
mock. but an Early Rose, which-as I
soon proved by scratching it-had no
such colored second skin, and I observed
that the blue color seemed to 60 deeper
than merely the surface.
"Who, I asked myself, would be like
~ to habitually carry under his finger
nails such an abundance of color as
would leave deposits like these? Well, q
dyer, for one. Yes, Of course. a dyer;
but there were more dyers in the city,
for aught I know, than one could shake
q stick at, and it would be ridiculous to
seek a blue handed dyer, since hands
that were blue one day might be red or
green the next.
THE newspapers, the next day, in
their sensational treatment of the incl
dent, characterized it As q profound
mystery. and said that the police had
absolutely no clew to the murderer
AS l had hoped, that encouraged
some person who had known Harriet
Werdrop to come forward. A small,
neatly dressed, respectable looking, mid
die aged man, with keen, furtive eyes
and an habitually ~deprecatory manner,
presented himself at the inquest. he
came to see il the woman, whose death
he had read of in the morning paper,
was his wife, from whom he had sepa-
rated in Philadelphia . year before, and
had not seen or heard from since. His
names John Wardrop. His occupation?
Dyer. Where did he work. With Henri
Detaille & Co., Partisan dyers. On
Blocker street. Yes, the dead woman
was his wife. He recognized her per
fectly. and the sight male him weep.
Poor woman, she wa hard to get along
with, but she had . good heart.