Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-12-25

only intensifes this dreadful inability |
to grasp and comprehend what is. alas, |
| so sternly true.
Yesterday. Mario Delaro. in the warm |
glow Of perfect, healthy manhood: to-
| day. soulless corpse. CHASTITY and
Hvid!
1t took Anton some moments TO re-
cover from the shock. but when he did,
his first thought was to look for the
| cause of this terrible spectacle.
He examined the breast of the dead
man. but found no wound; then he
noticed that the blood had flowed from
| that Mario DeIaro. the beloved of all
| who knew hinA the man who never
feared to FACE his enemy, had been
| struck from behind.
| He was mystiied, and the terror with
which Ais soul was filed prevented him
From ections so thae 1ox many moments
he Snelt staring at che corpse, as
| though he expected to see it come to
| Aife.
| At Vast, however, he awakened to the
necessity of the hour and arose to look
around. There was not being in
sight, so withous stopping for further
selection he FASTENED in the direction
OF the cellars. che entrance to which
was scarcely a stones throw from where
Ae stood. There he expected he would
Ana some one. He was not disappointed,
FOR Swo of the cellar-men soon appeared
end in q short Sime he had told them
the dreadful news, as we'll as. his ex-
cited state would permit, and they all
three made their way 90 the victim of
foul and, at present, mysterious crime.
They were all Germans and with
natural Teutonic caution each refused
90 touch the corpse until some person
of authority was present. One OF them
was an old man who had worked around
the vineyard and cellars for years and
the other a tall, gaunt young fellow who
was a recent acquisition to the. place.
Neither of the three could advance
any reasonable theories. The old man
1 knew everybody for miles around. but
could not remember that Mario had an
enemys Anton had known the dead
> man tor more than two years, and had
never heard . bitter word spoken of
him, while the youngest man of the
three only knew chat during the short
!. time he had been there he had received
his pay regularly, and had heard his en-
!, ployer spoken Of as good fellow.
The other two looked to Anton for
. some suggestion, and he gave the
only one of which he could think. 1t
; was that the young man should make
!" all haste into the town of San Paola
and inform the authorities Of what had
= happened, without letting any more
u people know Of it than was absolutely
|. necessary.
The messenger was hardly out of sight
when the two watchers fell to talking
!, Of the excellent qualities in the char
= acter of him who had met with such g
. violent DEATH
d With tears In his eyes and voice
:, thick with emotion, Anton told of the
y !. tender regard he had for his dead en-
u ployer; he mentioned the many little
= kindnesses he had received from Delaro
u and said that he had seldom heard {
4 harsh or unkind word from him since the
!. first day they had met.
= The old man could go further bacl
"a into Mario's history than Anton, and he
= told of deeds and acts Of charity which
all redounde1 TO the credit of the vim
" lager.
II seemed IS though neither of then
q would ever tire of talking about him
- and when they ceased for momen
% 60 eulogise his character they woul.
endeavor to speculate on the probable
% cause of the murder, but no tangible
: theory presented itself to either of thei
- minds. In the space of half an hour tn
:. messenger was seen returning up tn
- road followed by two uniformed officer
= (the only two of which the little tow
- could boast) accompanied by anothe
- man in civilians clothes.
- As they neared the spot where th
* dead man lay. they were overtaken b
. a doctor who had received instruction
!" to follow them and had done so, calm
- into service the wagon and horse of
ID grocer, with the grocer's boy for driver
s. The sight of these people gave Anto
y infinite relief, and he breathed NOR
az easily when he felt that the care Of hi
CHASTITY charge was being shared
III l others.
N The first of the officers to approach tn
Up body was the marshal. He took care
Or full survey of the surroundings, br
found nothing that aroused his curiosit
in an unusual degree; nothing tina
would serve Sc clew, or indicate tia
shere had been struggle. The docto
with the assistance of the others, e.
amined the body, and found only tn
one wound Immediately below the le
8 shoulder blade, though that was eviden'
3 Is very deep.
e Rlainly the blow had been struck
b strong arm ana hand, which had NJ
N erred in its purpose. It was useless
y surmise; there was nothing to say
4 the matter except the plain, horribl
81 truth that it was a cold-blooded mu
e der. though whose hand had dealt II
\ blow no person could imagine.
" The officers noted all the particular
f which they possibly could, and the do
a tor, having taken diagram of the e,
e act position of the body, there W:
Fl nothing left to do but to remove it.
They carefully carried the remains
the wagon and covering it up with son
* empty bags the melancholy little pr
as cession started for the town They ha
an not gone far when they were met by
e'S man on horseback. His appearance d
ed noted that he was person of especi
of Importance in the community. He W:
ad tall but rather thin and had very pc
ceptible stoop. although being on hor:
ad back it was not easily noticed II
tie eyes were jet black and were covere
ad | by heavy bushv eyebrows: his bea,