The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-09-20
TRACED BY A POTATO.
Queer Means by Which a Muir
derer Was Discovered.
His Untrimmed Nails Left Accusing
Mark Behind Him-Confronted with
tho Evidence of His Crime He
Commits Suicide.

"One of the queerest cases 1 ever
had" said an old detective, occurred
something over twenty years ago,
when still had much to learn in my
business, and, fortunately for me, knew
that | had 1t was memorable as an
illustration of the Importance of small
things and | have pigeon-holed it in
my memory as the affair of the fatal
potato
"A red-headed servant girl, so scared
that her eyes stood out like Holsters,
rushed into the station-housee early one
morning, bowling that all the police
We're wanted around at Mr.. Morton's.
The sergeant at the desk, supposing
there was probably just some row
among the servants, grInued at the
sight Of her and asked what was the
matter.
She gave a whoopof 'Murderr that
raised his hair and startled every one
in the station. The idea OF murder in
the aristocratic mansion of Mr.. Sam
uel Morton, on Fifth avenue, within five
blocks of the station, naturally rather
excited US. Two detailed men and my
self-I was then ward detective-ran
around there as quickly as we could
Sure enough, there had been n
murder. The cook, a sturdily-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 employers coffee, which
no was accustomed 10 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 ten o'clock the night before,
when the two upstairs girls left to go
70 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 per-
fectly correct habits Really, how
ever, not much was known about her,
farther than she had come there from
Philadelphia seven or eight months
before with good references, had be-
haved herself well and made no con-
tidauts- But she must have admitted
10 the house the man who choked her.
There were no signs Of any struQ-
gle and there had been no robbery.
Her gold watch was on the kitchen
table, two months wages in her pock-
ct, and no attempt seemed to have
been made at plunder in the still
richer field upstairs. Why had she
been killed? 1t was mysterious. One
Of the cops with me was so puzzled
that he declared it must be a case of
suicide L saw that she had been
strangled and / wondered what a
strong fellow the murderer must have
been to have twisted, with fatal effect.
so soft a band as handkerchief about
so big and solid n neck, and to do it so
deity and powerfully as to prevent an
outcry or even n struggle. 1t takes a
good deal of pressure to squeeze in
a whole neck so tightly as to cause
death
But when L came to examine moro
closely found that a novel and inge-
nious device had been employed to
make the job easier. Folded into the
handkerchief and placed so that it
would press directly upon the wind
pipe. was a potato about the size of a
hens egg. While turning the tuber
over in my hand, / noticed that there
were two deep curving cuts in its
smooth, creamy skin, such as would be
made by finger nails clutching it, and
each showed n thin line of blue color.
At first thought nothing Of that, for
| knew that some potatoes, such as
the Neshannocks, have a delicate skin
of violet tint under the white outside.
But when l looked more carefully l
saw that this potato was not a Neshan-
lock, but an Early Rose, which-as 1
soon proved by scratching it-had no
iuch colored second skin, and / OBJ
erved that the blue color seemed
o go deeper than merely the sur
ace.
who, l asked myself, would be
likely to habitually carry under his
lnger-nails such an abundance of color
IS would leave deposits like these?
Veil, dyer, for one. Yes, of course,
. dyer; but there were more dyers
n the city, for aught / know, than /
ne could shake n stick at, and it +,
would be ridiculous TO seek blue hand /
d dyer. since hands that were blue