The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-21


The Sham murder trial at Trenton, N.
j., the jury in charge of which is expected
to return a verdict to-day, is one of gen
eral interest, because the defendant, wo-
man of forty-fve or fifty years, is charged
with having, in horrible manner, killed
her son with slow poison, and of especial
interest to insurance men because she is
alleged to have committed the crime to
obtain insurance money. John Sham,
the victim, aged twenty-one, was in good
health a year before his death. His
mother induced him to insure his life for
81, 100 in her favor. She paid the pre-
miums on the policy. Six months or so
after the insurance was effected the
young man was taken sick and continued
to grow worse despite the efforts of the
physicians to check what seemed to be a
comparatively simple ailment. After
lingering in agony for months he died.
Suspicious circumstances led the insur-
ance people to demand an autopsy, and
their physicians went to the Sham resi-
dence the morning after young Shanns
death to make the investigation. But
Mrs. Sham met them with the remarka-
bic story that during the night three
masked strangers had entered the house
and removed from the body all the vital
organs. Her story was found to be true,
in so far rs itrelated to the removal Of the
organs. The physicians secured small
portion of a kidney, however and made
an analysis of it that proved to them that
the cause of death had been mercurial
poisoning. The theory of the prosecu-
ton is that Mrs. Sham had her sons
body mutilated, or did it herself, in order
to destroy evidence of her crime.
HelIertown, Pa, deserves to have its
name written in red ink in the list of
modern wonders of the world For it is
decidedly unique; its like exists nowhere
else. The town has no debt and no reason
to get in debt. 1t has population of 500
souls, who patronize twenty saloons. The
tax on these saloons runs the whole mu-
nicipal machine, schools and all, and the
people are not taxed a cent for any pur-
pose whatsoever. And, strange as it may
seem, there is where the popularity of
.Hellertown comes in-the people demand
to be taxed They don't care what is
hOAiN WIN bAiN AAAOhN1 IdloHl ny I'd AdllOn,
but they want to pay taxes. 1t is an in
herent right of American citizens to pay
taxes, and they don't propose to have
their rights abridged. They are progress
sive people and want the world TO know
it. But would the world believe they
were progressive if it were to get out
that they did not pay taxesl Not much
a mass meeting was held at the Heller
town town hall the other day at which it
was resolved that if the incumbent coun-
Gil continued to decline TO levy and collect
a town tax, the council would be summa-
rily bounced at the next election VIII
mass meeting for any such purpose as
that ever be called in Savannah? The
proba bility is not yet in sight.
The Weldon IN. O. News gives some
interesting facts concerning the work of
North Carolina convicts on the state farms
on the Roanoke river. In the farms there
are 5000 acres of corn, ], 900 acres of cot
ton and 100 acres of sorghum. The mana
gers of the farms expect to have 40 900
bushels of corn and 600 bales of cotton
to sell, besides making 10000 gallons of
syrup. "There is not in the Al. 900 acres
Of corn and cotton" says the News.
enough grass TO ill wagon body"