The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-21
A DESOLATE CHURCH.
The Police Still Guard 1t and
Search Fruitlessly for Fur
Their Evidences.

Emmanuel Church had cold, dreary,
forsaken appearance yesterday. When the
big, dusty, iron-strapped outer doors OF
any church stand closed and proclaim that
the edifice is lonely, unless the sexton or
somebody else has slipped quietly in by
the side door, the appearance is naturally
little dreary.
That was the way Emmanuel Church
looked yesterday as the wind swept Bart
lett street. The place was forsaken even
by the knots of people that for several days
have generally been standing on the side
walk looking at the ordinary and respecta-
BILE $50, 600 building and gazing up at the
latticed belfry as though they were fasci-
mated by the wonder.
But the splace was tenanted though 1t
was private" Reporters and the occa-
sional curious strollers who ached to see
the blood pools were barred. The church
authorities had been given jurisdiction
over their property, though they, were not
allowed to cleanse it, and they think that
the public has learned enough about Its
belfry, stairs, library, stains and desolatlon.
The police are still there. They are
guarding the building from possibilities OF
incendiarism and are also guarding the
evidences of crime that cannot be carried
away. incidentally they are still hunting
about for possible further clews. The blue
coated officers are all kept inside now, be-
cause when two policemen stand on guard
on the sidewalk in a stately way 1T some
how collects and holds crowd by increas-
ing the wonder and mystery OF the big
drab pile
Sergeant Reynolds remained in charge
all day with three or four assistants, and
big Janitor Sademan, repellant to every
intruder, was there representing the
church. The only people who got in were
accredited representatives of the prosecu-
ton and defense in the Durrant case. Law
yers and experts looked and measured and
reflected nearly all day. Each side had
photographers there taking views of every
part of the interior, including the blood
spattered walls, and everything was meas
ured up, down, along, under and around.
The Jury in the Durrant case will some
time hence spend a day or two hearing
these photographs and measurements told
about and fought over unless some new
and sensational discovery in the meantime
suddenly lifts the cloud from over the
young medical student.
Yesterday, as on the day before, the
police hunted the church over and over
again, from cellar to the dark and dust
laden corners of the highest loft, like
people hunting long somewhere to see if
more money was not dropped. They found
nothing. All the clothes of both victims
had been found and taken away, but the
church still afforded not the slightest sug-
gestion of clew left by the fiend during
two carnivals of crime. This fact is one of
the many singular things about the case.
There is not a fnger-mark, a trace of
blood, button or the absence of anything
in the church itself that can be connected
with any particular man. During the day
the police borrowed shovel of one of the
neighbors and spaded over a lot of loose
earth in the open lot at the rear of the
church, but they didn't find even a color
there.
1t came to general knowledge yesterday
that there is an abandoned well under
Emanuel Church. 1t seems quite appro-
pirate that it should be there. 1t adds
another delightful touch OF romance and
mystery to the place. Years ago people
drew water from that we'll, when the grass
grew green all around it, and then not
long ago the Baptist church people bought
the lot and covered the well with hand
some sanctuary.
There have not yet appeared any eerie
tales about that old well, but the old in
habitants may get to work soon. The
police have wondered if the recent bloody
work reached down into the earth in any
way as it did upward toward the sky and
have prodded about it by the light of dark
lanterns, but they have found it quite filed
up, and no signs of anything being buried
there.
The door opening from the vestibule
into the reading-room which was burst
open on the night of Minnie Williams
murder, was taken off its hinges by the
police yesterday and carted off downtown
to be used by the prosecution as evidence
in some way.
The church is still guarded. invaded by
irreverent feet, desolate, much wrecked
and uncleansed and it will remain so at
least until after the preliminary examina-
ton of Durrant.