The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-03-02
attention was in fair way of recovery.

1 retired.
''But the watchman died l read of
the fact in the newspapers, but found
that no suspicious attached in the case;
poison was not even hinted at. | re-
member only entertaining surprise at
the time, but as the time went by the
affair grew upon me to such a degree
that / was constrained by curiosity,
which amounted to partial mania, to in
vcstigate. One day happened in to the
health Office, where the record of deaths
and their causes are kept, and turning
to the proper name found that the
watchman's death was attributed to the
intense heat which prevailed upon the
night when he was found writhing upon
his beat.
'sIt instantly occurred to me that DR..
c., whom 1 knew, must have known
from the mans general condition, as
well as the medicine which I prescribed
that it was case of strychnine poison
ing, and l must confess that it struck
me with a suspicion, which / instantly
repelled, that the doctor was in some
way particeps criminis. / made it
point, however, to casually throw my
self in his way, and to raise the question
first few words which the doctor dropped
convinced me that he was in no way
mixed up in the mysteries of the death.
He stated briefly that when he was
called the man was dying, with only a
few breaths left in his body. The wife
had informed him that had been gone
but a short time before he was called,
and that 1 had said her husband had
been overcome by the heat and some
thing the watchman had eaten, which
disagreed with his stomach. The fact is
DR.. 9. had not been called in until the
afternoon. On comparing notes DR.. g.
became interested, and knowing the
people in the neighborhood, where he
was often called, began a course of eau
tious inquiry, and in the course of time
gave me the following facts:
"When the watchman died, and while
the preparations for the funeral were GO
ing on, the widow gave great scandal to
the neighborhood on account of her de-
pertinent Her face was absolutely
radiant with the happiest of expressions
and the sound of her voice was as Joyous
as the expression of her face. She talked
glibly on the most trivial of subjects and
welcomed people as though a wedding
instead of funeral were going on. No
ticing finally that some of the callers
were shocked at her actions, she became
demure and silent, and called up an
affectation of sudden grief, but it did
not last long; the old radiance came
back, and it seemed that the short time
of her simulated grief redoubled the in
tensity of her broadly apparent happi-
ness when her natural feelings tri-
umphed.
''In due time after the burial of her
husband she drew $4,000 insurance
money from life insurance company,
and, disposing of such effects as she had,
bought tickets for herself and family OF
three children to England. It was only
after her departure that Dr. c. learned
that the medicines which / had pre-
scribed had not been administered, but
had been thrown in a closet, where they
were found intact subsequently. She
told neighbor that her reason for doing
this was that she was a Catholic, and
would not give her husband Protestant
doctors medicine.
Having started into the investigation
together, DR.. c. and myself extended it
to the subsequent career of this woman.
On her arrival in England, where, as it
transpired, her girlhood's lover lived,
she sought him out, and found that he
had entered the British army as COM
mon soldier. But, nothing deferred by
this, she few to his arms, and they
were married, although she knew him
to be common drunkard, only saved
from a drunkard's grave by the rigid
discipline of the army.
'tAnd ere long she also knew that she
was Indifferent to his selfish egotism and
swinish character. She loved him and
she was near him, and that was all she
cared. He beat her. but she loved the
hand that rained the blows upon her
head. He squandered every dollar of
the money which she possessed, and
when his regiment was ordered to the
West Indies he left without even taking
farewell look at her as she lay, not
only in bed of sickness but in bed of
poverty, with her three children in the
poorhouse. She only wept, but never
upbraided her hearts love when she
heard how he had bruta11y deserted her. =
AS the doctor ceased the cynical mer-
chant hummed the line, ''I"Tis love that
makes the world turn round. u. w.
w. in Detroit News