Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-18

to whose hands the package CHANGED, open
ed 1t to see II any clue to the owner could
be found. Tfffns h9 scented a horrible
tragedy and cdlied in the police in hot
haste; Doubtiess here was a case of mur-
der. the murderer packing his victims body
into a box and losing it in the railway in
the good old-fashioned way. The police
were radiant. a coroner was summoned
and. after the dsuaE(preliminaries, twelve
lawful and honest fnen' (probet legales
homines) were sworn in and proceeded
with the situation in that sad manner in
which the British are said to take all their
pleasures. 1t was not until the coroner Sc
cured the attendance of an expert physi-
clan that the scent for crime was turned
aside. Meanwhile THE evening newspapers
had made the most of it in a dull season.
Placards with the Fearful Tragedy" in i'm
mense type flooded Fleet street and the
Strand, and news vendors called themselves
hoarse over the Mysterious Crime" The
following is a report as given by a London
newspaper of the doctors evidence at the
inquest:
Condition of the Body.
The mummified body was wrapped in a
coarse reddish cloth, somewhat of the
character of sail cloth, and was sewn up
with string. There were also two skulls,
two lower jaw bones and two earthenware
pots, some rope and some strips of hide
or leather. He was of opinion that the
body of the mummy had been doubled up
so to assume sitting or squatting pO-
sition. after death, the head being
slightly depressed. and the arms folded
across the chest. 1t was that of a young
female, probably about twenty-five years
of age. The hair was long, straight and
of a dark brown color, being tied round and
round at the ends of plaits on either with
string, in very neat fashion. Each piait
was made up of three smaller plaits. He
could not say the probable period of death.
but probably it must have occurred many
years ago.
The larger of the two skulls was that of
a male about twenty-five years of age,
and on it was a portion of the scalp, cover
ed with a tuft of long, dark, straight.
brown hair The smaller skull was prob
ably that of an adult female probably about
the same age.
The earthenware pots were made of sand
stone The rope was composed of hair. a
method of manufacture common in South
America.
An Intelligent Verdict.
The jury having been further instructed
following verdict:
That the woman was found dead al the
railway goods station, Sun street, on April
-, and did die on some date unknown, in
some foreign country, probably South
America, from some cause unknown. No
proofs of violent death are found and
the body has been dried and buried in
and cave buried, and the jurors are salts
fed that this body does not show any re-
cent crime in this country, and that the
deceased was unknown and about twenty
five years of age.
Captain Fox, who brought the lad over
from her native land, will now her
safely housed in her future home at Client.
European Army Scandals.
Only a languid interest has been taken
here in the scandals exposed by the beef
court in America, but David Christie Muir
ray comes to the relief of American amour
propre in the following fashion:
People who live in glass houses shouldn't
throw stones, and II would very i'll be
come an English writer who is old enough
to remember the scandal of the British
commissariat in the Crimea to take holy
tone about this matter, and to scold Amer
lea for nurturing this kind of vile rascal
who is guilty of that sort of crime. Our
own army contractors have been found at
it time and time again. Hay trusses have
been hay on the outside only, and bricks
and sticks and all sorts of miscellaneous
rubbish within. Untempered bayonets
which buckled up as they had been made
of lead have been served out to troops who
were going to deadly warfare The history
of our war office is familiar with such epi-
sodes as these, and, indeed, they have
featured in almost every campaign of note.
French contractors betrayed their own
army shamelessy In the great war with
Germany In the last RussoTurkish cam
paign Haki Pasha surrendered with 1000
men at Teiche because he was supplied
with cartridges one-half of which were nom
explosive, having been filed with powdered
coal instead of gunpowder. | have a per
sonal interest in that episode because
[ was on the spot, and | remember
how ardently 1 wished that the con-
tractor had been there that he might
have enjoyed the welcome the Turkish
troops would have given him. In that cam
paign the commissarat black bread was
positively adulterated with sand. If you
put a loaf over night into bucket of fair
water you found it floating spOnge-iike next
morning, and at the bottom Of the vessel q
double handful of sand. and even then,
when you had rebaked 1t and essayed to
eat ii. 1t gritted intOlerably on the teeth.
The commissariat biscuit was eked out with
plaster of paris of all digestible and nu~
tritive things in the world, and men who
fighting for their country and for
life and faith and hearth and home had
no other support for many weeks on end
than was supplied by this abominable diet"
L. II, MOORE,