The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-05-24
A CITY
Circumstantial Evidence Against a
Young Man.
An Incident Shouting HoW ON limo
cent Person Nay at Times be
Placed Gn q Dangerous
Situation.

cent Person May ut Times be
Placed Gn o. Dangerous
Situation.
CirCumstantial evidence is regarded,
l know, by courts as very often the
strongest possible proof, yet how often
in human experience hast it been shown
that circumstantial evidence was a
cruelty beyond the description +! 1
have told the story before, but as it is
pertinent let me give it in brief again.
Some years ago, in Brooklyn, at a
boarding house table a young invalid
from Minneapolis discussed with great
earnestness with his fellow boarders
in general, but more especially with a
bright New England girl, then sch Dol
teacher in the city of churches, the in
sanity of Hamlet. 1t g a bright De-
cember day, and either Booth or Da
venport-and l think the former-was
playing Hamlet" in Booths theater
IN this city, Half in fun and half in
earnest the young man sugges- ed that
he and the young lady should attend
the performance that night and renew
the discussion later on.
They did so.
At the end of the second act, being
troubled with asthma, the young man
excused himself, saying it would be
necessary for him to take the air and
that he might not return to his seat
until the close of the following act. To
his surprise, when he reached the front
door the sky was filled with snow, a
brisk breeze was rapidly drifting it,
and the pavements were covered to
the depth Of at least an inch. He
muffied himself up and trotted liter
ally toward Broadway. Then turning,
he walked briskly back toward the
theater. While so proceeding a man
rushed rapidly past him toward Sixth
avenue with the aeetness of a deer. AS
he did so he dropped something which
shone in the snow.
The young man picked it up.
1t was a watch and broken chain.
AS we'll as he could he called after
the rapidly ~retreating individual, and
failing to make him hear endeavored
to catch him. Unconscious of a group
of men behind him, he as quickly as
possible until he reached the corner
of Sixth avenue and Twenty-third
street, where, to his ~amazement, as a
police officer grabbed him, a crowd
from behind bounced upon him, shout
ing: I'VE have got him! Here he isI'
One of them remarking as he snatched
the watch from his hands, by heav-
ems, he has got it here
THE NORMAL SEQUENCE.
The young man was ~bewildered,
amazed, dumfounded.
Hurriedly he was taken to the sta
ton ho Use, where he was charged
with felonious assault at the corner Of
Eigth avenue and Twenty-third street
and with highway robbery.
How 500
Some one, and the crowd believed it
to be he-had grabbed an old gentle
man about the throat, dealt him & ire
mendous blow behind the ears with a
blunt instrument, roughly grabbed his
watch and with violence broke the
chain ere he rushed away. Of course
you see it was the man who had run
on past our friend. OF this he knew
nothing. All he could say was that a
man had dropped his watch in the
| On VIZ ooA hn nia6yO1 ~ ~ IL x-O
laughed at. He was thrown into a
cell. In the morning he was taken, in
serious physical distress and mental
discontinue, beforea fat, sleepy judge,
and sent to the Tombs to await the &C.
ton of the grand jury.
And his friend, the young lady
Well, perhaps you can imagine her
condition. She waited patiently du-
ring the third act, impatiently during
the remainder of the play, wondering
at the absence of her escort. At last
the curtain down, she walked slowly
toward the door, where she was en-
coungered with the usual gang of cab
shouters and street l~oafers, more seri-
GUS even in their insulting attentions
than the tremendous storm which then
hurtled through the air. She hadn't a
dollar in her pocket; she vas unfamil-
la with New York.
What should she do
The night Waterman in a very few
moments told her that she must step
outside, as the theater must be closed.
A cabman asked her where she wanted
to go. She said to Brooklyn. With a lie
he told her that the ferry boats stopped
running at IL o'clock, and recon-