The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-12-10
THE DUMB WITNESS.

Angeles county, the murder in 1S41 of
one Nicholas Finch, German. But
naught say these chronicles concerning
certain curious details connected with
that crime, known to those versed in the
unwritten history of southern California,
and these matters are set forth as fol-
lows:
Fronting the old parish church of
Nuestra Sonora la Reina de Los Angeles
still stands today long, old fashioned
building of two stories, with dormer
windowed roof, once the residence of
his reverence the bishop of this diocese.
This edifice is now the focus-the thea
ter, believe-of the Chinese quarter,
and the cross that topped it, so long ia
miliar to the eyes of Angelonos, has
been supplanted by the great swinging
lanterns of lacquered wood and brilliant
hued paper.
Ere this house came to be used as the
episcopal abode, Nicholas Finck kept
within it little shop, where he sold
liquors, groceries and other miscellane-
ous wares. From time to time he re-
plenished his stock from the vessels
which touched at San Pedro, and when
he went down to that port to make his
purchases, he was wont to leave his door
key with his friends, Charles Barrie and
his wife Sophie, French people living
across the plaza, close by the church,
about where is now the site of modest
photograph gallery.
One day Mime. Barrie discovered that
her compadre's door was not opened, and
she marveled somewhat thereat, know
ing, first, that no trading vessel was
anchored at San Pedro, and, moreover,
that Finck always, as has been said,
brought his key to her when going afield.
And her wonder became alarm when
three days passed, and the door remained
closed, and there was no sign CT her
friend and neighbor. So the little
Frenchwoman crossed the plaza, her
husband having been for some days alb
sent from the pueblo, and she knocked
at the door of Nicholas Finck, and, get
ting no answer, she put first her eye,
then her ear and then her nose to the
keyhole. The eye saw utter darkness,
the ear heard no sound from within, but
to her nostrils came an odor at once foul
and forbidding that made her limbs to
quake, her hair to creep, her gorge to
rise and her blood to curdle And she
hastened away with fear and trembling
and told her misgivings to Manuel Re
Quena, who. in those days. was the al
calde.
Then Don Manuel, seeing that the
case, indeed, wore an ominous aspect,
called on Don Ygnacio Coronel, who
held an Office corresponding to our pres
ent clerkship of the courts, and they
went to the house of Fincl, with three
stout alguaciles (constables or bailiffs)
who broke open the door, after the al
calde had thrice summoned and received
no answer. When the nauseous stencil
that came forth had been in some meas
ure weakened by the thrush of fresh air.
they stepped within and at once saw, in.
side the narrow room, the body of the
German, lying near the counter
stretched in pool of blood, stiffened
and decomposing. His head was beaten
had been hammered somewhat toward
means of his murder.
The officers proceeded to examine the
premises, whose condition told, not too
obscurely, the story of the crime. Some
small wares on the counter and magni
flying glass clutched in the fingers of tn,
dead man indicated that he had been en-
gagged in a dealing of business when b,
was stricken down. That the assassin
had rihed the little shop was manifest b,
the state of the effects, some scattered
some evidently missing; that they hat
escaped by the rear was doubly proved
by the barring inside of the street doc
and by the leading to the inner rooms o
bloody footprints whose number ant
variety of shape showed that four or fiv
assailants had been present. The ivin,
rooms, behind the shop, had been plum
dered, but the outer door, leading int
the usual corridor and thence to Low
walled corral, had been shut, and evel
locked, from the outside. The searcher
opened this door and stepped into tn
yard.
.sThey have killed his dog alsor' erie
Don Ygnacio Coronel. at sight of a grea
mastif stretched on his side upon tn
earthen floor of the corridor. But eve
rs he spoke the creature stirred, slight
lifted his head, glanced toward them
and feebly wagged his tail. When the
went to him they found that he wa
tethered by fast chain, and was gaun
weak and almost famished, having bee
without food or water since the day b
fore his master was murdered.
s.We must succor this poor creatur'
not only from humanity, but also as
precauticn." said Don Ygnacio; st
might possibly prove to be valuabl
witness"
The alcalde looked sharply at the othe
as if to see if he were jesting, and tt
alguaciles grinned broadly. But Do
Ygnacio's face was serious even to 81
lemnity, as beftted the occasion, an
one Of the men was promptly dispatche