The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-07-27
CIRCUMSTANTIAL.

which died away temporarily at least on
the committal of James Thompson, the
deceased's butler, to take his trial for
the crime. The case could not come on
In the ordinary course of events for four
or five months at nearest, so the public,
having taken the learned opinions of the
various newspapers, entered a unani-
nous verdict of guilty against the ac-
cused and turned its attention to other
matters. The law officers were to be
trusted to do their duty at the appointed
time, and the papers would, of course,
make things as amusing as possible
when the time came, so James Thomp-
son languished in his cell, forgotten,
save by those officially interested in in
Producing him to the awful majesty of
the law.
vox populi, vox del! Let us follow
theexample of the sovereign people and
leave old James in his solitary cell while
we give u short account of MIR. Weather
craft and his melancholy end.
He was a man of 90 or thereabouts, q
retired stockbroker, rich, and of good
standing in tho community, living in
well appointed house, with large staff
of servants, much given to quiet hos
pitality, and since his retirement paying
more attention to his kitchen and wine
cellar than to the fluctuations of the
market and the gambolling Save the
mark) of bulls and bears. An old house
keeper presided over his establishment,
and next to her in importance came the
butler almost as old both in age and
time OF service, he whom we have Just
left waiting trial for the murder of his
master.
It would have been difficult to point
out any particularly about Mr.. Wealth
ercraft, anything to distinguish him from
other hale, genial old bachelors of the
same class. He was commonly supposed
to have no eccentricities, no hobbies and
a few strong opinions; in fact. those
who knew him said he was only crank
on one subject.
To be called crank is the penalty
nowadays for holding and airing an
opinion in which at least nine-tenths of
the community do not concur.
Mr.. Weathercraft was what may be
called a circumstantial evidence crank.
He held indirect evidence in the deep
est distrust, and though as firm be-
lever in hanging for murder as any
criminal lawyer on or off the bench, yet
held that no evidence save that of repu-
table eyewitnesses should send man to
the gallows.
On this cheerful topic he was much
given to after dinner disoourses, nor was
his rather halting style unknown to the
correspondents columns of the daily pa
pers. He WAS known to have written a
magazine article on the subject, which,
however, never saw the Light, though it
spent whole year making the rounds
of the magazine offices. Such is the
blindness of the editorial mind. His
Letters TO the Editor" got him inter-
viewed once or twice when newspapers
were very hard up for copy. He en-
joyed tho process hugely and always
asked the reporter to "call" again.
When the old man was dead and his
butler arrested, people said it was a clear
case of Nemesis that the evidence against
his slayer should be so conclusive and at
the same time SO purely circumstantial,
and some wag Of reporter was heard to
wonder whether after Thompsons trial,
conviction and execution old Weather
crafts ghost would address ghostly de-
nunciation to ghostly newspapers from
mere force of habit or would sulk in a
corner of ghostland and refused to be in
teryiewed. The case indeed seemed clear
enough Weathercraft had gone to bed
on the 10Th of November well and in
ell
he was found dead, stabbed to the heart
The weapon which was found buried in
the old mans heart was an old fashioned
silver skewer, part Of the family plate,
and had clearly been sharpened for its
deadly purpose. The sharpening seemed
to have been done with file or some
such rough implement. There was very
little external hemorrhage. only few
drops of blood being visible.
The last person who saw the master
alive was the accused himself Accord
ing to his story, he had gone up to Mr..
Weathercrafts room with the plate
keep the silver in his own room at night,
though the key was left with the house
keeper after the chest had been locked
up. This had been the custom in the
house for many years. His master was
in bed reading n novel and said good
night in his usual way. Mr.. Weather
craft never locked his door at night as
the footman was expected to come in at
s o'clock in the morning, fill the bath
and light the fire.
This was all the accused could or
wonld say beyond denying all knowledge
of how his master had come to his death.
The footman, on being examined, tes-
titled to having found the body. He had
entered as usual at 8 O'Clock, scarcely
waiting to knock. and had made arrange
ments for his masters toilet thinking
him asleep. Mr.. Weathercraft was a
heavy sleeper. but usually awoke when
the bath was being filed As his masser
did not move, tho witness went to the
bedside. and to use the poor fellows own
expression, "As | hope for mercy, sir,
the face was the face of dead corpse"
This witness further added that the bed
was but little disordered, the lamp was
out, and the novel lay open on its face on
the floor. He did not remove the skewer
or attempt to do so, but ran and told tho
housl;eeper, who sent him Tor the po-
lice.
Tho housekeeper being summoned
identified the skewer as part of the usual
contents of the plato chest, which led to
the recall of the butler, who, being
asked whether he had counted the silver
on the night of the murder, answered in
tho affirmative, but, being pressed, ad-
mitted that he did not often count the
silver that was not in everyday use.
Then finally, as if diyining at length his
real position, he broke down, calling on
God to strike him dead if he knew any
thing about his old masters murder,
and was led aside after saying it was
judgment on him for "leaving the silver
uncounted"