Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-04-29
CHAPTER J.
VITO Is CAPTAIN SHANNON"

The year l8- will be memorable for
1e preparation III England and in Ire
land Of a series of iufamously diabolical
putrages. On the scene Of each crime
was found, sometimes scrawled in plain
cough capitals upon piece of paper
which was pinned to the body Of vic
sim, sometimes rudely chalked in the
bame lettering upon a door or wall,
this inscription: "By order. Captain
Shannon.
Who Captain Shannon was the police
failed entirely to discover, although the
rounties in which the crimes occurred
were secured from end to end, and every
person who was known to have been In
the neighborhood was subjected to the
severest examination. That some who
were so examined knew more than they
would tell there was reason to believe,
but so dreaded was the miscreant's 8
name and SO swift and terrible had been
the fate Of those who in the past had
incurred his vengeance that neither
offers Of reward nor threats Of punish
ment could elicit anything but dogged
denials.
But when the conspirators carried the
war into the enemy's country and sue
cessfully accomplished the peculiarly
daring crime which wrecked the police
headquarters at New Scotland Yard
the indignation CT the public knew no
bounds. II the emissaries of Captain
Shannon could succeed in conveying an
internal machine into New Scotland
Yard itself, the whole community was,
so it was argued, at the mercy Of
band of murderers.
The scene in tho house Of commons
on the night following the outrage was
one Of great excitement The chief sec.
retary for Ireland declared in memo
rable speech that the purpose Of the
crime was to terrorize and to intimi-
date. No loyal English Or Irish citizen
would, he was sure, be deferred from
doing his duty by such infamous acts,
but that they had to deal with murder
ers Of the most determined type could
not be doubted. The whole conspiracy
was, in his opinion, the work of some
half dozen assassins, who were proba-
bly, the tools of the monster calling
himself Captain Shannon" in whose
too fertile brain the crimes had, he be-
lieved, originated, and under whose
devilishly planned directions they had
been carried out.
The police had reason to suppose that
the headquarters of the conspirators
were in Ireland, in which country the
majority Of the crimes-at all events Of
the earlier crimes-had been commit
ted.
He regretted to say, but it was his
duty to say. that but for the disloyal
attitude of section Of the Irish people
who, from dastardly and contemplate
cowardice or from sympathy with the
assassins, had not only withheld the
evidence, but had on more than one oc-
casion actually sought to hinder the po-
lice in the execution of their duty, the
conspirators would long since have been
brought to book.
The secretary then went on to de-
nounce in the strongest language what
he called the infamous conduct Of the
disloyal Irish. He declared, amid ring
ing cheers, that the man or woman who
sought to shield such monster as Cap
tain Shannon or to protect him and his
confederates from justice was nothing
less than murderer in the eyes Of God
and of man. Ee informed the house
that, although the government had ac-
tually framed several important meas
ures which would 60 far to remove the
grievances of which Irishmen were
complaining, he for one would, in view
of what had taken place, strenuously
oppose the consideration at that moment
of any measures which had even the
appearance Of a concession to Irish de-
mands. Tt was repression, not oonces-
sion, which must be meted out to trai-
tors and murderers.
Within month after the delivery of
this speech all England was Mortified
by the news Of q crime more wantonly
wicked than any outrage which had
preceded it, crime which resulted, as
its perpetrators must have known it
would result, in the wholesale murder
of hundreds of inoffensive people, against
whom, excepting for the fact that they
happened to be law abiding citizens, the
followers of Captain Shannon could
have no grievance.
All that was known was that a re-
specially dressed young man, carrying
what appeared to be about a dozen well
worn volumes from Nudes or some
other circulating library, had entered
an empty first class carriage at Aldgate
station. These books were held together
by strap. as is usual when sending or
taking volumes for exchange to the IL
braries, and it had occurred to no one
to ask to examine them, although the
officials at railway stations had, in
view of the recent outrages, been in
structed to challenge every passenger
carrying a suspicious looking parcel.
The theory which was afterward put
forward was that what appeared to be
parcel of volumes from circulating
library was in reality case cunningly
covered with the backs, bindings and
edges of books, and that this case con-
tanned an internal machine Of the most
deadly description. 1t was supposed
that the wretch in charge Of it had pur-
posely entered an empty carriage that
he might the better carry out his in
famous plan, and that after setting fire
to the fuse he had left the train at the
soxt ntati0u