The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-28

the day wore on. He simply kept at his
appointed work, and that was all there
was to it. He was in no way different
from what he had been every other day
since the shooting. But when he saw
Sheriff Buchanan coming, he knew quite
as well as the rest what was at hand,
and yet was as cool and collected as
ever. Walking up to the group, Mr.. Buck
nam said, Joe, can't you let me have
Matt for a while?"
II guess shall have to let him go ii
you want him" replied Mr.. Manloy, and
Prawda, without word of objection, or
the slightest sign of curiosity, followed
the sheriff, who told him that he was
under arrest and must go with him to
Portland.
Il must go home and change my
sheriff replied, II think that will be all
right Matt I'll drive you over" Mrs.
Prawda was still in the village, at the
house Of friend, not having returned
home after the examination at the morn
ing session. After the sheriff and his
prisoner returned to the village, they
were surrounded by newspaper men, and
old associates of Prawda, who.
wanted to see "Mattn before he left
home. At first the party waited for the
train inside the station, and Mr.. Prawda
spoke very freely of what had happened.
Something was said about his house,
and he said that he built the most of it
himself. He was greatly disturbed about
his horse, rather a pet, evidently from
what he said on previous occasion,
and said that there would be nobody at
the house to look after it. He asked
Sheriff Bucknam, his neighbour, if he
wouldn't look in and feed the horse on
his return from the city. The sheriff
promised, and the prisoner said, !" I DON'T
propose to bother myself any more about
anything" He insisted that he was in
nocent, and said that he was ready to go
in and meet his enemies, by that term
meaning the state. He said that he had
always been willing to tell all he knew
about the matter. While he was inside
the station Coroner Perry gave to some
of the newspaper men very interesting
Mrs. Meyer, exact measurements were
taken of THE body, and it was found
that when a man was sent outside to
sight" up to the window, it was found
that he stood exactly twenty-five feet
from the house, in direct line with
| where she had been. This accords with
the measurements previously made by
Sheriff Buchanan, aud published in the
PRESS, which made the distance thirty
nine feet from the window. This
brought the assassin to a point where
he was but a few feet distance from Mr..
Prawda, surprising that he left the
| closet at the time he says he did, The
! jury went very fully into the matter of
measurements, and line work generally
when at the Prawda house.
| After Mr.. Prawda had been inside the
| station for a few minutes, he wanted
to go outside for smoke, and glanced
at his late fellow workmen on the sec
tion. His last work was the fixing of a
| switch. Then he looked over to the
closed Royal River house, and remarked
that it would have been cheaper for the
reporters to have hired that house, and
to have saved going backward and for
ward so much. He took issue with one
of the reporters who had called his
home lonely, and insis ted that it was
"right out among folks. To that a
friend said DON'T mind that Matt they
call any place that isn't right in city
lonely"
After leaving Yarmouth for Portland,
| Prawda was the center of a group of
reporters and railroad men, all eager to
talk with him. He was willing to talk,
| and in fact started the ball himself, by
saying that he had all along been willing
| to tell all he knew about the matter. He
was asked when he left the closet
after hearing the report of the gun, if he
saw any one, and he replied, i was too
much excited to have seen any one. If
any one had stepped up and slapped my
| face shouldn't have noticed it. They
| might have shot me without my having
seen them" He then repeated the story
already published in the PRESS, of what
he claims followed the report, what he
and how they went up stairs, and found
Mrs. Meyer, and what she said. He said
that when he went out of the closet after
the shooting, he did not look in the
direction of the road, and that even il he
had. supposing any one to have been
| there. it was too dark for him to have
seen him. He repeated his previous
statement that he thought the report
was inside the house. He then corrected
a statement previously made to reporters
who called at his house. When he left
the house after his visit to the room. of
Mrs. Meyer, he did not fall over pail
of water left by his wife in the shed, but
over water pail that she left there for
him to fill for her. When he left the
house to go to the closet he did not see
Mrs Prawda set the pail outside the
kltchensdoor in the she'd. When he went
back after he heard the report he did
not nouice the pail, but then there was a
light in the kitchen. When he rushed