Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-09-23


quarrelling until they came to blows.
They added that they had twice be-
fore heard the pastor threaten Niels
with his life. The dairy maid deposed
that on the night when Larsen saw
the pastor in the garden she was lying
awake in bed and heard the door lead
ing from the passage into the garden
creak, and that when she rose and
peeped out she saw the pastor in his
dressing gown and nightcap 60 out
nto the garden. What he did there
she saw not; but about an hour after
ward she again heard the creaking of
the door.
When asked what he had to say in
his defense the pastor replied sol
emily: $50 help me God, will say
nothing but the truth. 1 struck de-
ceased with the spade, but not other
wise than that he was able to run away
from me and out of the garden. What
became of him afterward or how he
came to be buried in my garden, 1
know not.
''As for the evidence of Larsen and
the dairymaid, who say they saw me
in the garden in the night, it is either
foul lie or a hellish delusion. I have
no one on earth to speak in my de-
fense."
When, some weeks later, the trial
came on two more witnesses were pro-
duced. They declared that on the
aforementioned night they were pro-
ceeding along the road which runs
from the pastors garden to the wood
when they met a man carrying a sack
on his back, who passed them and
walked in the direction of the garden.
His face they could not see, inasmuch
as it was conceal ed by the overhang-
ing sack, but as the moon was shining
on his back they could plainly descry
that he was clad in pale-green coat
and white nightcap. He disappeared
near the pastors garden hedge.
No sooner did the pastor hear the
evidence of the witnesses to this effect
than his face turned an ashy hue and
he cried out in a faltering voice: 81
am fainting, and was so Frustrated in
body that he had to be taken back to
prison.
There, after period of severe suf-
fering, to the intense establishment of
every one, he made to his friend, the
District Magistrate, who had first ar
rested him, the following strange con-
fession:
From my childhood, as far back as
/ can remember, have ever been pas
sionate, quarrelsome and proud, i'm
patient of contradiction and ever ready
with blow. Yet have 1 seldom let
the sun go down on my wrath, nor
have L borne ill will to any one.
When but lad L slew in anger a dog
which one day ate my dinner which L
had left in his way. When, as a
student, 1 went on foreign travel, /
entered on slight provocation into
broil with German youth in Leipsic,
challenged him, and gave him wound
that endangered his life
After pause of anguish he contin-
ued: 81 will now confess the crime
which no doubt 1 have committed,
but of which L am, nevertheless, not
fully conscious. That struck the
unhappy man with the spade 1 knew
full well, and have already confessed,
whether it were with the fiat side or
with the sharp edge / could not in my
passion discern; that he fell down and
afterward again rose and ran away
that is all that L know to a surety
What follows-heaven help me!-four
witnesses have seen, namely, that L
fetched the corpse from the wood and
buried it, and that this must be sub
stantially true am obliged to believe,
and / will tell you wherefore.
'Three or four times in my life that
/ know of, it has happened to me to
walk in my sleep. The last time
about nine years ago-I was next day
to preach funeral sermon over the
remains of q man who had unexpect-
eddy met with frightful death. 1
was at loss for text, when the
words of wise man among the an
cient Greeks suddenly occurred to
me: Call no man happy until he be in
his grave
''To use the words of heather for
the text of a Christian discourse was
not, methought, seemly, but L then
remembered that the same thought,
expressed in well nigh the same
terms, was to be met somewhere in
the Apocrypha. L sought and
sought, but could not find the pas
sage. 1t was late; was wearied by
much previous labor; / therefore went
to bed and soon fell asleep. Greatly
did marvel the next morning when
on arising and seating myself at my
writing desk / saw before me, written
in my own handwriting on piece of
paper: Let no man be deemed happy
before his end cometh.' (Syrach., XII,
a..
Mark now-when the two wit
nesses this morning delivered their
evidence before the Court, then my
previous -walkings suddenly
flashed across me, and likewise re-
called that in the morning after the
night during which the corpse must
have been buried. / had been sur
prised to see my dressing gown lying
on the floor just inside the door,
whereas it was always my custom to
hang it on chair at any bedside.
''The unhappy victim of my I'M
bridled passion must in all likelihood
have fallen down dead in the wood,
and l must, in my sleepwalking, have
followed him thither. Yes-the Lord
have mercy!-so it was, so it must
have BEEN"
On the following day sentence of