The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-27
ONE DREADFUL CHRISTMAS.

ONE DREADFUL CHRISTMAS.
1t II Brought About by the Dlsappearan CO
Of = Washington Official.
FAInHAvEN, Wash, Dec 2G.-[ Special. l.
What IL known about the disappearance OF
w. Il. Parker, tbs city marshal OF Fair
haven, WASH, embodies one OF tho most
curious stories Of mystery of modern times.
Mr.. Parker disappeared ON about Thanks
giving day. Everybody knew him and his
personality Was SO peculiar that the sim
plest description of him would mark
| him anywhere. Yet nothing has been
learned about him from that day
to this. Lie was OF the build of George
Washington, several inches above sir feet
in height yard ia width at the shoulders,
and altogether a muscular, forceful, viRor-
ous man who would be marked among ten
| thousand. He was collecting the yearly
taxes and he turned in the bulk of them,
somewhere between $4,000 and $4,000.
Then he received telegram and at once
sought his superiors In the town govern
mont. and still holding the telegram in his
hand, said that he had "a chance to make
q stake'' and wanted a few days of absence.
His wife and children were then away visit
ing her people in the Palouse country near
Spokane. He had closed his house and
taken room In the city.
After several days passed and no word
had been heard Of him, cursory glance at
the books served to spread alarm lest he
had run off with some $4,000 of collected
taxes. The books seemed to show that
nearly everybody had paid their taxes ana
that some of tho accounts marked ''paid'
were several hundred dollars more than the
amount turned in. To those who jump at
conclusions the case instantly turned from
one of mysterious disappearance to one of
flight and theft Mrs. Parker was tele-
graphed for and came, leaving her children
behind her. She laughed at the idea that
her husband had run away. She knew how
he loved her and his children, and, for that
for he had been the most domestic man
there, and it was q very rare night that
found him anywhere else except at his fire.
side. But very short talk with her showed
that like too many husbands he made the
mistake of not confiding in his wife about
his business affairs. Where other men
took their wives about Tairhaven saving,
II own this lot, or that building, or these
blocks, and have 80 much money in the
bank" he told her nothing, and she knew
but little more. Inquiry soon turned aside
from her and left her in her desolate home,
where for four weeks she has remained,
refusing solace and seated by the telephone
waiting from dreary morning until laRgard
night for her husbands expected call upon
the instrument. And every day she got
letters from her little ones telling what
they wanted their papa to buy them for
Christmas. If any woman in America
spent more wretched Christmas, God pity
her.
One town official, utterly devoid of
humanity, inflicted upon that woman an
interview in which he charged her husband
with being thief. But there are few who
think so now. Man after man has turned
up and acknowledged that he did not pay
his taxes though they were marked paid"
in Parker's books; that Parker marked
them paid to save the creditors from being
fined. The landlord who boarded Parker
in town says that one night the city marshal
took out of his pocket clump of papers
There's over thousand dollars in taxes
that have marked paid to oblige men who
cannot pay" A young expert accountant
who has been set to work upon the books
now declares it to be his conviction that if
there is any money owing it will be to
Parker instead of to the town. Of'course,
there are demoralized and corrupt men who
will try and hide behind Parker's kindness
and say that they have paid their taxes, but
they are pretty well known.
The theory that parker was thief is
abandoned. Two theories remain. He
was constantly in receipt of kilograms from
all over this country and Canada telling
him of rewards offered for fugitive crimin-
ais. A theory is that he had located
criminal, had attempted to capture him and
had been killed. The second supposition
is far less creditable to him. 1t is that the
contagion of smuggling, which runs riot
over the Puget sound country and has de-
moralized some of the leading citizens, had
made him it's victim. The theory is that,
acting as an agent for many of his town
folk he collected large sum of money and
made a journey to the watery frontier of
that country to exchange his money for
smuggled opium, and that when the desper-
ate and reckless smugglers knew that he
had this large sum OF money they knocked
him on the head or shot him and kept both
his money and their opium. Since it is
known to be true that when they are
Cinnamon they do not hestat
to kill and throw them overheard when
pursued by United States vessels it is fair
to presume that any other sort of murder
could easily commend itself to them. At
all events, there is only one opinion about
Parker, and that ia that he was murdered.
He left $500 cash in the bank and the city
has seized it, but his friends hope that the
o ticials will give all or Il half of it to his
wife. They are now trying to make her be-
lieve that Parker il dead and that she had
better 60 to her people in East Washington.
In THE STORM'S EMBRACE.
States East and South of Montana Expert
ence bad Weather.
OMAHA. Doc. 29.All day yesterday a
blizzard prevailed throughout Nebraska.
L