The Somerset reporter., 1896-04-02
TWO CONDOLENCES.
MIGHT HAVE FURNISHED FOOD For
TIE WIDEST CREOULlTY.

What the Doctors Servant Told Him.
How "a Baltimore Man Recovered Tam
lily Plate Stolen Years Before.
Here are two yeritahle condolences
related at a Boston dinner table erst-
while. Both might have been based upon
any kind of uncanny, fateful manipula.
ton Of circumstances, seemingly impos-
sible III the natural order, had they been
| introduced by any such ,naRe They
are simply rare and curious sequences Of
facts, true i'll everything but names Of
persons.
Mr.. Clinton lived in Dorchester where
he had large establishment. One night
his ehild's nurse was taken suddenly Il
with kind of spasm. The woman $ sery-
ices to the infant had been invaluable,
and her faithtulness had won her the re-
spect and affection of her master. As
the coachman happened to be away that
| evening and the necessity for the serv.
ices of physician was urgent, Mr. Gin
ton saddled his horse and rode hastily
into town and was very soon ringing at
the door of the family doctor, i'll Boyl-
ston street, His inquiry of the servant
maid who opened it if tia doctor was at
hone was met by reply which stupe-
fed him for a moment, so that he fell
back against the wall of the passage and
forgot the exigency Of his errand.
DIR. j. is out. - said the girl. Mr.
Clinton, patient of his, came in Oh
horseback an hour ago, and asked him
10 come out of town to see a nurse i'll
his family who was in commissions .
Recovering from the shock of an APP
parent doppelganger thus fOl ed upon
his conception, questioning elected the
fact that the second patient, bearing his
own name, lived in Charlestown. In all
otler things the circumstances concern
ing two persons of the same patronymic
was identical. The hour, the Illness
the vocation Of the sufferer, the arrival
on horseback, were accidental coinci-
dences which led nowhere and meant
nothing, though they might, with slim
ulating attributes, have furnished food
for the widest credullty.
A member of the b. family of Balti-
more was sent fer one evening to see IA
convict who had expressed such an ur-
gent desire for the interview that the
jailer acceded to his request to send the
message, which conveyed the singular
intimation that it might be much to the
gentleman's advantage if he would
come to the prison. He found an evil
locking fellow who. having just received
a long sentence, which would in all
probability be life one, had been
moved by remorse to communicate to
Mr.. B. certain facts in connection with
a robbery of his family pla'e in which
he said lie had been concerned several
years before. The robber told his aston
ished nearer, who had long given up
any hope of detecting the criminal or
recovering the property, that he and an
other were concerned i'll the crime The
silver had been placed in bundle
which was in his possession. His con.
federate was to meet him at an agreed
place On the night following the bar
glary and they were then to make off to-
sether, but if he failed to keep the APP
pointment it was signal of danger,
and the fellow who had the "swag"
WAS 70 understand that he had better
get it out of his hands without delay
and secure his own safety. Tho appoint
ment was not kept, and the thief, de-
string to make an effort at restitution,
however unlikely, had sent for Mr.. b.
to tell him that he had thrown the
package over the wall of certain
graveyard which he described, and that
it had fallen within the door of a tomb
which was standing open and of which
he indicated the position.
Expressing suitable recognition of the
intentions Of the repentant criminal, Mr.
B. left him, scarcely intending to pursue
the matter further The next morning.
however, found him at the door of the
sexton i'll charge of the burying place.
The sexton, on hearing the description
of the tomb, showed at first some con.
fusion, which Mr.. b. understood when
he was reminded that the tomb described
was his own family vault, and the sex
ton, who had at once remembered gross
carelessness Of his own, went on to re-
call the fact that the time was that of
the death and burial of a cousin of the
family. and to acknowledge that he had
never forgotten or forgiven himself the
accidental leaving of the door of the
tomb open the night following the funor-
al The two repaired to the tomb and
found the package inclosed within it,
the silver furnished, but untouched, just
ds the thief had cast the family plate,
by an unequaled coincidence, into the
family burial place of its owners. -Bos-
ION Transcript
A Novel VIII.
There has been unearthed among q
bundle of old court Documents at Balti-