Wichita eagle., 1889-07-16
THE FATAL POTATO.

"One of the queerest cases l ever had,
Baid the old detective, occurred some
thing over twenty years ago. Then I
still had much to learn in my business,
and, fortunately for me, knew that l
had. 1t was memorable as an illustra-
: tion of the Importance Of small things,
and have pigeon hoied it in my memory
as the affair of the fatal potato
"a red headed servant girl, so scared
that her eyes stood out like lobster's,
rushed into the station house early one
morning, bowling that all the police
were wanted around at Mr.. Morton's.
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 a whoop of 'murderr that
raised his hair and startled every one in
the station. The idea of murder in the
aristocratic mansion 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 as we could.
"Sure enough, there had been muir
der. The cook, a sturdy built, middle
aged Englishwoman named Harriet
Wardrop, lay On the kitchen floor, in
the back basement, with a 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.
"The last seen of Harriet alive was at
near 10 o'clock the night before, when
the two upstairs girls left to go to their
room in the attic. Her room 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 wen and made no con-
fidantes. 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
plunder in the still richer field up stairs
Why had she been killed? 1t was mys-
terious. One of the cops with me was
SO puzzled that he declared it must be a
case of suicide.
II saw that she had been strangled,
and 1 wondered what strong fellow the
murderer must have been to have twist
ed, with fatal effect, so soft a band as a
handkerchief about so big and solid a
neck and to do it so deftly and power
fully as to prevent an outcry or even a
struggle 1t takes a good deal of pres
sure to squeeze in a whole neck SO tightly
as to cause death.
But when | came to examine more
closely found that a novel and inge-
nious device had been employed to make
the Job easier. Folded into the handker-
chief and placed so that it would press
directly upon the windpipe, was potato
about the size of hens egg. While
turning the tuber over in my hand, !
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 l thought nothing
of that, for l knew that some potatoes,
such as the Neshannocks, have delicate
skin Of violet tint under the white out
side. But when / looked more carefully
/ saw that this potato was not Neshan-
mock, but an Early Rose, which-as l
soon proved by scratching it-had no
such colored second skin, and | observed
that the blue color seemed to go deeper
than merely the surface.
"Who, l asked myself, would be like
ly to habitually carry under his finger
nails such an abundance of color as
would leave deposits like these? Well,
DIVER, for one. Yes, of course, q dyer;
but there were moro dyers in the city,
for aught know, than one could shake
a stick at. and it would be ridiculous TO
seek blue handed dyer, since hands
that were blue one day might be red or