The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-19
A FIEND INCARNATE.
He KILLED HIS VICTIMS BY PUT
TING CRUSHED GLASS IN SALT.

sod9 OF the Year 1888.
From the Neg York advertiser.
Some one in 1868 put ground glass in one
OF the salt callars in q well-known restau-
rant on Printing House square. The sult,
as far as ascertained, was the death OF four
persons. How many others suffered aud re-
covered from the act will never be known.
No public investigation was made, for the
reason that the victims were widely sepa-
rated and the source Of the mischief was
not suspected. Tbs act was committed on a
Saturday, and the results must have been
confined to that day, or the salt cellars were
redlled every morning.
By mere accident gentleman who sat
| at the table during the afternoon with q
companion and ate plate Of lentil soup had
his attention directed TO the salt by dipping
a rsdish into it and feeling the grit OF the
vitreous powder between his teeth. Proba-
bly, ninety-nine out Of a hundred would
have changed the salt cellar and thought no
more about it. But this man redipped his
radish, took up an extra quantity of the
salt, worked it about his mouth and then
said to his companion: Don't eat that salt;
there's something in it."
II have eaten it )" replied his companion.
II put quantity Of It in my soup. I'm
very fond Of highly seasoned soup"
The last speaker was a we'll known officer
| in one of our militia regiments. The other
was a commercial agent of a large hoop
| skirt factory somewhere uptown. He i'm
mediatelV took the salt cellar and poured
about half its contents into a goblet of
| water and stirred the mixture thoroughly
with his spoon, a proceeding at which the
soldier smiled CONTEMPORARY. But the re-
suit showed q white tnsoluble preclpitate in
| the bottom Of the glass.
The experimsnter thsn tore of a sheet OF
| the bill of fare and, pouring the rest of the
salt from the cellar into 1t, folded up the
package and put it in his vest pocket, much
| to the amusement of his friend.
This was on Saturday. On Sunday night
the officer, who was with his Regiments at
Annapolis, was taken siok with what the
doctors called acute 9astritis, and died in
great agony on Monday at IL O'Clock a. m.
His friend, whom l shall call Burton
that being enough like his real name to
identify him to those who heard OF the cir
| cumstance-did not hear Of the death until
three days later, and was at the time in
Stamford Conn.
It was not till some hours later, and when
he had gone to bed, that his mind associated
the incidents Of the salt and the sudden
death. He uttered an exclamation, sprang
out OF bed and began searching for the lit
tie packet he had put in his vest pocket AS
be had changed his clothes several times 1t
was only after a persistent hunt in his
trunks that he found the powder, still folded
carefully up in the torn bill of fare. He
laid 1t open before him on q little table, and
staring at 1t let his mind run off into all
kinds Of strange contectureS.
Burton was an intelligent man, with a
practical education, and he very soon ar
/ rived by series Of inductions at an approx
innate truth.
The salt cellar held not more than an
ounce and half Of salt, and there was left
In the paper before him something less than
half that quantity. ''If the salt 10 poisoned,
he said 10 himself, what is itm Arsenic
and strychnine occurred to him at once.
But he knew that the bulk Of one would be
too great 30 be used, and the other would
betray itself by its intensely bitter taste.
Besides, both were soluble He took small
portion of the powder and put 1t between
his teeth. The hard, sharp atom OF vttreous
| substance was instantly detected, and with
sudden intuition he exclaimed: "Glass,
| by-m
The incomprshensible diAbolism of the
| act amazed and interested him. The mo-
ment the mind touches mottveless cruelty
| the profoundest mystery of our nature is
uncovered.
Burton came back to Ne York curiously
wrought upon by what he considered wa
horrible discovery, aud set himself 20 work
quietly to get at the bottom of it. The first
step was to communicate his suspicious TO
| the family OF the dead officer. They re-
| sented the whole matter as faaciful and a6-
| surd, and objected to a post-mortem. He
then went to DR.. Doremus aud asked him to
| make an analysis of the powder.
On learning the circumstances the emil
nent chemist said he would determine the
point while Burton waited He washed out
the glass, put it under a microscope aad let
p,r ooh o. ha oh uloa Dt{t
like fragments. 1t was comminutsd death,
one atom of which, IL lodged IN the coat of
the stomach or intestines, was enough to set
up local Inflammation.
Burton, at this state OF the proceedings,
went TO Supt. Kennedy, made a clear
statement of the whole matter and left it In
that officials hands.
One of the best detectives In the service was
assigned to the Job aud began his work i'm
mediately.
He very quickly arrived at one concIu-
sion-that any one might havs foreseon-
and it was tdat the proprietor and attend
ants at the restaurant were innocent, aud
that the dasterdly act had been committed
by some one who had occupied the table on
that Saturday. 1t is an interesting com
mentary on the ordinary detective that
/ the officer assigned to this duty utterly
failed TO grasp the significance of the val
| lainy.
Having satisfied himself by a thorough
| investigation that the establishment was
innocent he came to the conclusion that the
act had been committed by some reckless
| fellow as a practical JOKE 1t does not ap-
pear that the far-reachlng enormity OF such
| practical joke occurred to him. Supt
| Kennedy, however, had some kind OF a
| theory of his own, and put another man on
| the job with instructions to find every per-
son who had eaten at thes table on that
Saturday morning.
This was the proverbial hunt for the nee
| die Ia the haymow.
But, as the central Office can testify, that
| needle hos been found on more than one oc-
casIon.
Accident, as usual, did more, perhaps
than acumen to accomplish the result. But
| an examination of the remains Of the otti-
cor resulted in the proof OF death by other
than natural causes. aud the new detective
| vent to work with patience and sagacity.
He succeeded in tracing three other fire.
quenters of the restaurant, who we're re-
| membered by the waiter at that table, and
| all three had died between Sunday morning
| and Monday night. Two Of them were we'll
known New Workers, and the third was a
| man who had been introduced in the hear
| ing Of the waiter as a Mr.. LevickY, OF Chi
cago Levicky had died in transitu at
| Toledo. The medical certificate gave the
| cauRa az tacute oholara