The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

Designed By d.
ness of his demeanor and the gentieness
of his address. turned face about, and
Vacher proceeded on his trail OF crime
without further molestation.
Apropos of Vacher's sanity of caution,
a little shepherdess has identified his pho
tograph as that of a tramp whom she
once befriended. He begged her for some
thing TO eat as he approached, and she
gave him all there was left in her wallet
of bread and cheese. No doubt she would
have suffered the fate of the many others
of her calling but for the menacing man
ner in which her two big faithful dogs
faced the stranger.
II suppose you are not afraid" said he,
with these two brutes to protect you"
''Oh, no, indeed" she replied; II feel
perfectly safe with them. They would
tear to pieces any body that dared to touch
me"-a figment of her quick wit, it seems,
for the two dogs beyond a disposition to
snarl and show their teeth. were no tiercer
than any Of their sheepherding kind.
The fiction OF their savage fidelity, how
ever, had the desired effect, for "le tue1r
de Bergers" passed on.
The voluntary revelations OF Vacher as to
the assassination of the young shepherd,
Massot-Pellet, at Saint Eiienne de- Bou-
logne, established the innocence of Ber-
nardin BANNER, who mad been denounced,
prosecuted and finally prosecuted as the
murderer BANNER had been held in
continementa long time. but was at length
released for want of sufficient evidence to
convict.
Banners case affords an interesting
study of the extent to which public pre-
judice will go, once it is directed by a
plausible suspicion in a criminal case that
revolts the community. BANNER was not
accused until long after the murder of the
shepherd occurred. The motive OF the
accusation is now traceable to political
spite. former gendarme named Boron,
who cherished a secret grievance against
BANNER, made the Information before
the prosecutor.
Several days before the assassination,
he said, he was astonished to see pro-
truding from Banners pocket a huge
knife and asked him why he should be
carrying around such a murderous
weapon.
THAT shepherd OF Pontal." said Ban
nier 1.-The little Massot, threw stones al me
yesterday when l objected to his sheep
going into my field, and when 1 get
chance, this knife will settle him. ;"
OF course, BANNER never made any
such threat. Still he was arrested. Other
enemies corroborated Boron as to Ban
niers ayowed intention to kill the shep-
herd.
An ill-disposed neighbor of BANNER,
named Chevaler, testified that about
O clock on the morning of the day on
which the body OF the boy was found he
saw the accused driving cattle from the
direction OF the spot in which the discov-
ery OF the murder was subsequently made.
Camille Dubois stated that on the same
morning, about $50 O'Clock, he was hunt
ing about 400 yards from where the shep-
herds remains were discovered and heard
two piercing cries. He advanced TO in
yestigate and saw Banners cattle. passing
only few yards away from the boys
sheep herd. BANNER formally denied
these statements, and testified that on the
morning in question his cattle were graz
ing on prairie spot near his house. He
! was kept in prison twenty-five days,
until the magistrate was convinced that
! the testimony against him was utterly
| false.
Banners restoration to liberty was the
signal for a communal revolution. The
hamlet OF Ozon, where he lived, became
the theater of scand alous scenes. The
population now believing firmly in his
guilt. systematically persecuted the un-
! fortunate man and his family as WELL
| His daughters, who worked in mill,
were treated by their comrades of both
sexes as the offspring of an assassin, and
had to quit the shop, their employer ex-
planning that he could no longer retain in
his encourage the daughters OF man
whose hands were stained with blood.
BANNER could not go out of his house
without being insulted and assailed. The
children when he passed chanted dole
full song reciting his crime, which had
been com posed for the occasion by local
poet. One morning on arising he found
| his front door spattered with filth, and on
| the front of the house was inscribed,
.You are a murderer" Another day a
| scaffold was raised in front OF his resi-
dence, on which was suspended the
bloody entraiIs OF a sheep, and serpent.
| The people danced around this, singing
1.-THE song of the murderer"