The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-08-22
AN EDITORS STORY.


on homicide, and he was moro than a
mere reporter, for he had detective tai
ent of the highest order He didn't care
much for the common crimes-bur.
glarles, larcenies and such-but give
him good, mysterious murder and he
was splendid. Not only did he have tho
history Of all tho famous murders at
his fingers ends, but he delighted in
ferreting out tho most mysterious crimes
that came within our province. In every
case, except the one 1 am telling about
and there were good many killings
In that town---he traced out tho muir
dcrer before tho detectives even dreamed
of his identity.
II have since thought tho secret of
his success was that he put himself
mentally i'll the place Of the murderer
and reasoned it out from motives rather
than from the clews' of tho ordinary
detective
There is seldom much method in
murder, he once said to mo when In q
rarely communicative mood. Most men
would commit it i'll about tho Same way
undor tho Same circumstances. It is
only when Il murderer goes about it
systematically, as do tho thugs Of IN
dia, that q murder becomes truly mys-
FERROUS
II once asked him why he did not
become n regular detective.
L was born and bred newspaper
man, no said, and habit is too strong
to break. That was literally true in his
case. Otherwise 1 might not have to
tell this story.
Ono morning the body of fine look
Ing man was found i'll an alley adjoin-
ing the electric light works III tho very
heart Of the city. The afternoon papers
had chance at it, but didn't make
much out of it, so at onco assigned it
to Jones. as we will call him Although
he did not show up ut the usual hour, I
had no doubt that he was already ut
work on it, as it was as mysterious a
case as even he could desire
'"The victim was identified as tray
cling man who had just arrived, and,
as far as known, he had no friends or
acquaintance in the city It was not
case OF robbery, for all his money and
valuablos wero left OH the body There
was slight confusion OH the back of
the head and small needlelike hole di-
rectly through the mans heart. It was
especially strange that such . crime
could have been committed in public
thoroughfare, while there was absolute
ly no clew to tho murderer or his mo-
tive
But these difficulties were only such
as would ordinarily put Jones on his
mettle, so did not doubt that he would
was therefore somewhat surprised
when he camo sneaking i'll about 6
O'Clock i'll the evening to SEQ what his
assignment was. He looked worn and
haggard, but denied that he was i'll, SO I
gave him tho murder assignment
thought l saw startled look in his
eyes, but no maintained his outward
composuro and went out without O
word.
II did not sec him again that even
ing. About midnight began to wonder
why l had not heard from him, but
only spcculated OH the possibility of
something having happened to him, for
the idea that he could possibly fail
never occurred to me. Finally, after an
hour had gone by telephonod to the
there wero no new developments in tho
case, and that Jones had not been there.
Sending TWO men out to hunt him ND. I
set to work myself to make up story of
the murder from tho afternoon papers.
just then Jones came in. His step was
unsteady and his face flushed. He had
evidently been drinking heavily-some-
thing never knew him to do before
but he was not drunk, rather no seemed
ut high nervous tension, although out
wardly as calm as ever.
1 decided to let this breach of dis
cipline pass and merely asked him for
his murder story. He replied that he
hadn't written it.
Well, get to work on it at once, II
said rather sharply.
Then he really surprised me by saw
ing that he had nothing to writo beyond
the bare facts already known. Tho no.
lice had developed nothing new, and he
supposed THAI 1 had worked up the story
from the evening papers.
And has it come to pass that Won
wait for the police to develop q murder
case for your exclaimed angrily. AS
for the reports in the evening papers.
you can fake better story than they
had!'
He sat down, in apparent despair,
at his desk. Then L relentcd and ca
joled him little, begging him not to
spoil his great record by falling down
on such an assignment. There's a start
er for you. said l, throwing him the
article had commenced Now, 90
ahead and fill that out with column
description Of the scene.