The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-08-07

Cine pages which follow are from MISS
Fairbanks's journal. begun after the con-
clusion of the notes already given to the
reader.)
Wednesday night have resolved to
record carefully each day the progress
/ make in my examination of the house.
I began to-day at the bottom-that is.
with the room least likely to contain any
c1ew, the parlor. 1 took a chalk line and
a yard stick. and divided the floor into
square yards. and every one of these.
squares ]. examined on my hands and
knees. / found in this way literally moth
ing on the carpet but dust, lint. two
common white pins and three inches of
blue sewing silk.
At last / got the dust-pan n brush,
and yard by yard swept the floor. l took
the s~weepings in a white pasteboard
box out into the yard in the strong sun
light and examined them. There was
nothing but dust and lint and five inches
of brown wooden thread-evidently a
raveling from some dress material. The
blue silk and the brown thread are the
only possible cIews which / have found
t o-day, and they are hardly possible.
Rufus's wife can probably account for
them. 1 have written to her about them.
Nobody has come to the house all day
| went down to the store this afternoon
to get some necessary provisions. and
people stopped talking when I came in.
The clerk took my money as If it were
poison. $685.
Thursday night.-To-day / have
searched the sitting-room. out of which
my fathers bedroom opens. l found W.
bloody footprints or the carpet which no
one mas noticed before-perhaps because
the carpet itself is red and white. ! used
a microscope which 1 had in my school
work. The footprints, which are close
to the bedroom door. pointing out into
the sitting-room, are both from the right
foot; one is brighter than the other, but
both are faint. The foot was evidently
either bare or clad in a s~tocking-the
prints are so widely spread. They are
wider than my fathers shoes. l tried
one in the brightest print.
1 found nothing else new in the sitting-
room. The bloodstains on the doors
which nave been already noted are still
there. They had not been washed away.
first by order of the sheriff, and next by
mine. These stains are OF two KINDS;
one looks as if made by a bloody gar
ment brushing against IT; the other, 1
should say, was made in the first place
by the grasp Of a bloody hand, and then
brushed over with a cloth. There are
none of these marks upon the door lead
ing into the front entry and the CHINA
closet. The china closet is really a pan
try, although 1 usesit only for my best
dishes and preserves.
Friday night.zTo-day I searched the
closet. One Of the shelves, which is
about as high as my shoulders. was
bloodstained. 1t looked to me as II the
murderer might have caught hold OF 1t
after his dreadful deed? Some tumblers
of Jelly were ranged on that shelf n
they had not been disturbed. There was
only that bloody clutch on the edge.
/ found on this closet door, under the
shelves, as if it had been rolled there by
a careless foot. a button, evidently from
a mans clothing. 1t is an ordinary
blaek-enameled metal trousers BUTTON;
it had evidently been worn off and clum-
silly sewn on again., for a quantity or
stout white thread is still clinging to it.
This button must have belonged either to
a single man or to one with an idle wife.
If one black button has been sewn on
with white thread another is likely to
be. I may be wrong, but 1 regard this
button as a clew.t
The DdQIIX WIS IuOIOuSuly SWGDl-
cleaned, indeed by Rufus's wife, the day
| before she left. Neither my father nor
| Rufus could have dropped it there, and
| they never had occasion to go to the
| closet. The murderer dropped the but
ton.
have marked clews. In 1t l have put
the button.
This afternoon Phoebe Dole came in.
She is very kind. She has recut the
| dyed silk, and she fitted it to me. Her
| great shears. clicking in my ears. made
me nervous. / did not feel like stopping
| to think about clothes. / hope / did not
| appear ungrateful, for she is the only
soul besides Henry who has treated me
| as before this happened.
Phoebe asked me what l found to busy
myself about, and 1 replied, II am
| She asked me if / thought / could find a
| clew, and / replied, II think So" / had
found the button then, but l did not
| speak of it. She said Maria was not
| very well.
I saw her cycling the stains on the
| doors. n / said 1 had not washed them
off, for / thought they might yet serve a
| purpose in detecting the murderer. She
looked at those on the entry door-the
brightest ones-and said she did not see
how they could help, for there were no
plain fingermarks there, and she should
kAAAlAR III
I'm beyond being nervous" said /.
Saturday.-To-day / have found some
thing which / cannot understand. I
| have been at work in the room where
| my father came TO his dreadful nd. OF
| course some of the most startling evil
| dences nave been removed. The bed is
| clean, and the carpet washed, but the
| worst horror of it all clings to that
room. The spirit of murder seems to
haunt it. 1t seemed to me at first that
l could not enter that ROOM, but in it 1
made a strange discovery.
My father, while he carried little
money about his person, was in the
habit of keeping considerable sums in
the house; there is no bank within ten
miles. However, he was wary; he had
a hiding-place which he had revealed to
no one but myself. He had a small
| stand in his room near the head of his
bed. Under this stand. or rather under
the top of 1t, he had tacke a large
leather wallet. In this he kept all his
spare money. / remember how his eyes
twinkled when he showed ii TO me.
THE average mind thinks things have
either got TO be. in or on" said my ia
| Their. They don't consider there's ways
of getting around gravitation and cal
culation."
In searching my fathers room / called
to mind that saying of his, and his pc
culiar SyStem 0f cOncQafin2. and Their I