Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1894-04-16

Win great misery 10 me. Inc perlou Do
gan with a tragedy, but am glad TO say
Il ends with a comedy.
l was a drug clerk, but am now free
man. was apprenticed at the age OF IL,
passing several years in the menial duties
of boy of all work. By gradual stages
/ rose TO be a clerk In the pharmacy and
was intrusted with the compounding OF
prescriptions. / never had diploma In
pharmacy, but know my business.
During the spring season we were TAX
ing stock, and many Of the drugs In bot
ties, packages and boxes were removed
from places they had occupied for many
years. You will understand that the drug
gist Is SO familiar with the location OF GER
tain drugs that he ca take down the right
bottle or open the proper drawer with per
feet confidence that he Is not laundering.
Heavens, how well / remember the
night Ii was raining outside, and the
customers were few, when a young wom-
an entered. She was poorly attired, as l
remember her-God knows i never can
forget her-apparently a governess or
lady's maid. She asked me for one OF the
small samples bottles OF a popular medi-
cine given for headaches, and went at
once to the proper drawer, opened 1t, reach
ed therein, took out bottle of the specific,
wrapped IL in paper, handed it to the girl,
received her money and resumed the work
Of posting up the ledger for the day. l
may as well confess that my thoughts
were somewhat distracted by letter /
had received from Emily. had been en-
gagged to Emily for three years, and moth
ing but the failure Of my employer to In
crease my wages-as he had often promis-
ed to do-prevented our union. Young as
was, had seen enough OF life to realize
the necessity of money about a house, and
although Emily was quite anxious TO
make the mad plunge into matrimony
was averse to taking her from a comforta-
BILE home and setting up an establishment
Of my own on the small salary OF sl0 a
week.
Only that afternoon had received a let
ter from the dear creature that appeared
to me cold and spiteful, and In the post
script detected real sting. 1t contain
ed only the words: "Don't come tonight.
am going out" Oh, II she could have
known the misery for me in those wretch
ed little sentencesl II she had not written
them, am quite sure never would have
suffered the agony Of mind that has made
me so miserable.
AS sat writing, there suddenly came
into my head a feeling of indefinable
dread. felt that something terrible had
occurred or was about to happen. i knew
instinctively that 1t was associated with
my solitary customer and the drug / had
given her. l sprang TO the drawer, opened
IL, to find, as had surmised, that It's con
tents had been changed, and that / had
given the girl bottle of arsenic instead
of the simple and harmless salt of bromide
and magnesia as had supposed.
Every fiber of my body thrilled with
horror. / realized that / might be respon-
sible for hundred tragediesi The wom-
an might be a cook In hotel or a child's
nurse and give the deadly salt TO an inno-
cent infantI She might be despondent
wife, angered by harsh treatment, and
burning with thoughts of revenge toward
vicious husband; she might be a dis
carded sweetheart, bent only on ending her
own sad life; she might be heartless
daughter, goaded to desperation by a.,cruel
stepmother's injustices-indeed she might
be all these characters in one 80 far as the
uses to which she could put the deadly
poison were concerned.
rushed out upon the street. | forget
whether locked up the drug store or not
the proprietor afterward declared that /
had left it open. Hatless, l dashed along
~
face and form were only vaguely known
to me, hoping TO detect among the hun
dreds who thronged the street OH that busy
Saturday night the possessor of the ounce
Of arsenic.
Uncertain as to the identity Of the wom-
an, scrutinized every female who had
package In her hands as hurried madly
In the direction of the nearest police sta
tion. / stopped each officer / encountered, /,
told him in hurried, broken sentences my
dreadful mistake and put him on his
guard, encouraging him to expect at least
one tragedy within a few hours.
reached the station house just before
the o'clock relief was sent out. The men
We're drawn up in line by their sergeant
and instructed regarding their conduct in
the terrible emergency. This is what he
said:
at will be your duty, men, to leave no
means untried to find the present possess
or of the ounce of arsenic. You will enter
every apartment, house and tenement,
knock at every door and aequaint the resi-
dents of their danger. You will ring the
bell at every private house and insist upon
seeing the responsible member of the fam
lily, in order that the information you i'm
part shall reach the ears of people who
will appreciate its gravity and act upon it
at once. / have just wired the informa-
tion to police headquarters, and Superin-
tendent Byrnes will doubtless act upon 1t
Immediately"
Superintendent Byrnes sat in bis Office
and was just lighting a cigar when his
most trusted sergeant entered with dis
patch that had just been received from the
Tenth precinct. acquainting him with the
faot that a woman, name unknown, resi-
dence unknown, description unknown, had
secured possession of an ounce Of arsenic
Tor purposes unknowni
Briefly the dispatch recounted the facts,
without. Of course. referring to the agony
Of mind under which I, a poor drug clefk,
lived, moved and had my wretched being.
Captains and sergeants of police do not
possess the romantic qualities In a highly
developed degree and cannot be expected
to supply nerve tingling romance to their
associates. Their lives contain much trag-
edy and comedy, and with them everyday
existence Ia 80 essential that their keen
sense Of the dramatic In life grows dull.
A general alarm was sent out to each Of
the "a precincts, and within three hours
every member of the force on duty was
engaged I'm a house TO house canvass for
"the woman with the ounce Of arsenic"
In five hours time the entire city was
In commotion. Thousands of men and
women had visited the Dharmaciea and