The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1895-11-05

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evil passions of the seducer and
the ibertine. For the scene of
his dreadful assault the murderer
selected AN evangelical church,
dedicated to the worship of God.
He took the life of his victim, not
with the savage me-cy OF the
quick pistol or the silent knife.
but he tortured her with the
lingering process of strangula-
tion, driving his cruel fingers
deep into the tender flesh of her
slender throat; and, so fiercely
did he do his work that the stig-
mata of his crime remained until
the discovery of her corpse,
clearly discernible as the cause
of death, not only by the expert
surgical examiner but by the
most unlearned observer. What
other, If any wrong, was done
her before her soul exhaled and
went to Heaven, we do not know.
The advancement of natural de-
composition baffied investigation
and made knowledge impossible;
but we know that either living or
dying, or dead, she was taken by
him up the steep stairs of the
steeple of the belfry of the
church. where he supported the
poor body with blocks of wood
and left it there to rot in naked
ness and wither In the cool west
ern wind that swept through the
lofty spire. He hid the remains
where he believed they would re-
main undiscovered and have no
promise of Christian burial.
None saw the crime save the God
whom he feared not, as he ex-
tended the naked and slender
form on the belfry floor, laid the
thin arms across the undevelop-
ed bosom, propped the head and
Strengthened the meager body in
the dust Not a human being
had beheld his retreat from the
awful presence of the death
which was his work and the sec
ret was safely locked in his own
breast There lay the speech
less and untestifying CORPSE, and
what was it now to give him
fear 1t had been nothing but
a girl after all, and concerning
her there would be the same old
story to which he could help to
give currency-the same old
story of a vanished girl, a dis
tTacted family. an Ineffective and
lperfunctory search among the
houses of i1-repute, a reluctant
conclusion that this little one.
like others of Ewes daughters
had gone TO her moral dessruc-
ton; a picture turned to the
wall; name never spoken; and
oblivion, personal and social. for
poor lost Blanche Lamont. And
he was right for the moment
The murderer went his gully
way with his undivulged crime.
unscathed and unwhipped of JUS
tice, while his victim lay In the
spire that pointed it's slender
finger to the sky, as il reproach-
ing its Ruler for His unmoving
indignation. The murderer must
also have been a man whose cum
ming was sufficient to enable him
TO stifie the natural feeling of
timidity which always accom-
panies Innocence and induce her
to go alone with him 10 the dark
ened church in which they both
worshipped on Sunday Such
man, he said. is Theodore Dur
rant Only a monster capable of
taking the life of an innocent
girl. he said, could remain cool,
impassive and almost defiant
when accused of such a crime
Gentlemen, continued MIR.
Barnes, such a man is of such
rare quality that if confronted at
last with the proofs of his crime.
whose recital has shocked all
civilization, he could and he
would. as he has done, sneering-
ly smile in the awful presence OF
the relics of his victim, torn by
his hands hom her stiffeaing
body; and exhibit neither pas
sion nor emotion, neither sym
lpathy nor regret for the unfor-
tunate child he had brought to a
premature grave. Such man
could well lie in Jail awaiting his
trial for murder. and clothe his
villainy with the mask of a pre-
tended trust in the Jehovah
whom he had defied, and play the
saint with verse and phrases
stolen from Holy Writ. He could
listen with grim complacency
while his counsel struggled TO
weave web of suspicion and
accusation around one whom he
knew to be innocent, and IRON
the beginning to the end of hss