The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-10-07
WORK OF FIENDS.


plCklD& Gran DerrloS tuls ldll. Wn0tner
she had any more money in the house.
her nearest kin do not know, but they
are sure that her pin money, all told,
couldn't have exceeded the sum saved
from the cranberry salos.
A year ago last December, her brother,
Ira Thompson, said In conversation with
the PRESS reporter TODAY. Mrs. Hobbs
disposed of timber lot for about $500.
at may be, he added, somebody had
the idea that she kept that money in the
house. But they couldt'n have known
her habits as well as l do. The money
for the timber lot came to her in checks.
volunteered to take them to the bank
for her, and village squire made q
similar offer, but she said she guessed
she would look after them herself, and
she took them to Limerick and deposited
them in the bank. That money is there
today in her name, 1 suppose -
at looks to me more like the bungling
work of somebody under the influence OF
liquor" is the view Mr.. Thompson takes
OF the affair. He is a short, feshy man,
whose costume borders slightly on the
picturesque, put with face and manner
both kindly and humane. He lives all
alone in an unpretentious house about
three miles from the scene of his sister q
horrible death. The news didn't reach
him till last night, and he was SO pros
trated by it that he did not get up
courage to drive over till the middle of
the forenoon. 81 can't believe he con-
tinued, "that any body in this town
could have the hardness of heart to MUIR
der my sister in suoh brutal way. She
had no enemies; everybody always had
kind word to say to Betsy. She was
modest and unassuming, yet as firm MS a
rock. 1t may be that some boys had been
drinking and called there to haze her a
little, and when she ordered them off the
premises the drunkest one in the lot
blezed away at her. Then half coming to
their senses they took this laundering
way Of concealing their crime"
The road that the Hobbs house faced
runs due north and south, and is the
dividing line between the two states OF
Maine and New Hampshire. Luckily fol
the mnrderers, if they are ever caught,
Aunt Bersy's house was on the Maine
side, where Imprisonment for life, rather
than hanging, is the penalty for the de.
liberate taking of life. The little school
house, from which the smoke was seen,
stands astride tho border line, ono-hali
in East dillingham;, and the other in
Vest parsonsfleld. The two states con.
tribute equally toward its maintenance
Taylor City" is SO named in honor OF
Benjamin Tay Ior, who for quarter of a
century Kept the corner grocery where j.
z. Glidden's shirgle now hangs out.
That store, by the way, contains the East
Effingham post office, which was broken
into recently, the mail looked over and
two latters opened. One letter WINS nd
dressed to the tax collector of Efing-
ham; the other to the town treasurer Of
Parsonsfeld. Neither contained money,
Some people are inclined to connect that
store breaking Of a fortnight ago with
| the crime of yesterday. Both are thought
to have been the work of amateurs.
Do they have any suspioions?'
Well, certain TWO young men who
were seen out cunning ir. the woods NOT
far from the Widow Hobbs's, an hour or
so before the fire broke out, will be given
all opportunity to fully clear their CLOTHES
from some of the unsavory suspicious
that have been waited in the direction of
their homes.
Sheriff Hurti and his posse remained
on the premises tonight. The Zig bit of a
now day may or may not bring forth
important developments In the investi-
CATION of the murder and cremation of
Betsy Hobbs.