The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-01-08

ropDery gave the alarm and explaine,
the part he had taken in the affair
His statement of the case was at frs
| accepted without question, as he was
: man OIL good reputation and one agains
, Wh0m no suspicion had ever fastened
itself. But at length some overshrewt
persons began to whisper that it wa,
very strange that this man knew So
much about the case while no one else
knew anything else about 1t. 1t wa.
bnally concluded that he must be
guilty, and on suspicion he was ar
rested and tried for murder. There
was nothing positive against him; but
circumstantial evidence, which in those
days passed for a great deal, was suffi.
cient to convict him before q "jury OF
his peers, and he was condemned to
be hanged.
The prisoner, however, stuck consist
entiy to his original story, and as q final
and desperate resort he, besought the
sheriff to call all the male inhabitants
of the county together by proclamation
on certain day. The reason for this
action was carefully concealed, but the
fact was that the prisoner had explain
ed to the sheriff that by means of a
certain scar on the arm of the person
who had committed the crime he
would be able to identify the murderer.
The object of this coming together
was carefully concealed, but the inn
preston was ingeniously conveyed that
suspicion would be certain to attach
to any one who failed to come and that
process to fetch such person would i'm
mediately be issued.
On the day and hour fixed large
crowd for those pioneer days assembled
at the Court House. Suddenly the
sheriff with the prisoner in charge
emerged from the Jail and passed
through the assmeblage. With his
| vision made abnormally acute by his
| impending doom the condemned man
clasely scrutinized the faces of all as
| he passed.
Finally his eyes settled upon the
countenance of a burly blackwoodsman
who at first shrank away, but soon re-
covered himself.
Arrest that man. F" he said to the
sheriff. He is the murderer of the
postboy." s"
And then addressing the accused he
remarked You have big scar on
your right arm. You shot the post
boy. saw you while you were riiling
the mailbag"
The new accused man denied the
charge stoutly, but showed his guilt by
refusing to permit an examination OF
his arm. Tho examination was duly
made, however, and the scar found as
had been described. He was thrown
into jail and within week confessed
all the details of the crime. The
gulltles5 man, OF course, was dis
charged.
Numerous cases in pioneer times are
related of persons having mysteriously
disappeared and never being heard of
more. Ono OF the most singular and
starting of these occurred more than
forty-tive years ago in Noble county in
the southeastern portion of Ohio.
The following wonderful narrative
was given to me by serveral persons of
integrity who resides in Noble county
One July evening in 1S40 drover by
the name of Young who lived in
Wheeling ard who was in tho county
gathering up stock, started to ride on
horseback from Summertield, O little
another hamlet of the same county
only few miles away. AS he left the
first place darkness was just setting in.
He was never heard of more. His
friends in Wheeling did not expect
him home for several weeks. Being a
bachelor and having no near relatives,
1T was not thought strange that no let
ter was received from him. Finally,
after several wccks had elapsed, in
quiry and search were made, but moth
ing was ever discovered further than
that he rode out into the darkness on
that July evening. He was known to
have had some money with which he
was paying for cattle, and it was
finally concluded that he had probably
been mysteriously murdered, with the
m n W. ~ ,,nhha,,,, n,,l 4 l.
story was repeated by the people of the
neighborhood and it finally passed into
history.
About twenty years after the disap-
pearcnce, the daughter of q prominent
and wealthy citizen in the vicinity had
singular dream. 1t seemed to her
that she was in a familiar portion OF
tho road leading from her home to
Summerfield. 1t was night, and a
storm was threatening. The inky
darkness was ever and anon illuminat-
cd by vivid flashes of tightening. She
became strongly impressed with the
idea that she was expected to
watch attentively what was about to
transpire.
She had not long to wait. Presently
one of the flashes revealed lone horse
man vending his way slowly up the
hill. In another moment second
flash revealed q man stealthilv ap-
proaching the horseman from the rear.
The next lash revealed the horseman
lying upon the ground and the other
man, whom she had seen before ap-
preaching, was holding the horse by
the brldle and rilling the dead mans
pocket.
Becoming intensely Interested she
closely watched the movements Of the
murderer and robber. The darkness
seemed to clear up to a certain extent
and she saw him go to a familiar stump
and carefully deposit the saddle, bride
and saddlebags OF the murdered man in
a large hollow place within
Just as this work was fin. he'd the
murderer turned snppenly upon her,
and she recognized the features of her
own father. Half dead with fright she
woke with q start and did not close
her eyes again that night. Bright and
early the next morning sho visited the
spot where the vision was located and
| sharp stick dug in the decaycd rub
bish of tho old stump. She was so
| thoroughly impressed with the truth
of what she seen that she wac impcllcd
to do this.
What was her horror on excavating
only q few inches beneath the surface
to find rusty stirrup and several
buckles. The poor girl kept her ter
rible suspicion to herself, but it
weighed so hoavy upon her mind that
her constitution was undermined
| She was thrown into quick cOnsumD-