The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1899-05-20

A murder under uncommon and
amazing circumstances has just been
committed in the beautiful Kentish
town of Biddenden, England, by the
middle aged, austere maiden daughter
OF the old rector of the parish church.
She was narrow-minded and filled
with religious zeal. She had been
superintendent of the Sunday school
and church o%rganist, and as vigorous
in the church work as a rector's
daughter could be. Her morals were
irreproachable, and if she erred at all
1t was on the side of severity.
Two years ago one of the teachers
in this Sunday school, who was also a
local newspaper correspondent, boot
maker and insurance agent, had been
charged with misconduct with a little
girl in the school. Nothing came of
the charge, and it appears to have
been due to the idle gossip that pre-
walls in small towns. The teacher
against whom the charge was brought
was named John whitley, and the
person most wrought up over the af-
air was the rector's daughter, Bertha
dSpaen Heggertson Peterson. There
had been some little disagreement be-
tween the two before, for some of the
church people thought whitley, who
had been a teacher in the school for
more than twenty years, should be
superintendent of the Sunday school
instead of Miss Peterson. When the
charge was brought against whitley,
the rectOr's daughter set herself to
investigate. She concluded that he
was guilty and publicly said so, and
after a time the man withdrew from
the Sunday school, although the SYM
pathy Of the t~ownspeople were more
or less with him.
Bertha Peterson was not exactly
popular in Biddenden. The towns
folk thought her too cold and narrow
and domineering. 1t was for this rea-
son, perhaps, that a story got about
that she was starving her father, the
Rev. William Peterson, for whom she
kept house since the day her mother
fell into a fire and was burned to
death. At any rate, while Bertha was
to church one Sunday, the old rector
was taken from his bed and carried
to a home for the aged, where he was
more comfortable than his daughters
ministerings had made him.
After her father was taken away,
Miss Peterson left the rectory, which
has been vacant ever since, moved to
n town q four rai1oe J;cfo,4 49, e-oI1-,
became a nurse in a home for inebri-
ates. Nothing more was heard from
her in Biddenden, and she and her
quarrels had been forgotten, when she
suddenly appeared in the town recent
ly and expressed a wish to make a
public acknowledgment that she had
wronged John whitley. She wrote
to several officers of the church, ask
ing them to see her after the church
service the following Sunday, and to
hear her retract what she had said
about whitley a few years before.
She also wrote this letter to whitley:
Il have had very much on my mind
what took place between you and me
in the spring of 81. Are you willing
to forget it? If so, what amends do
you think you should ask of me? l
was wrong in the attitude / took. I
believe you were very badly treated
in any case, it was o for me to
judge. VIII you come into the infant
school room after church tomorrow
morning and look at a picture l am
giving to the schools and shake hands,
and l have also asked Mr.. Raven, Mr..
Pinyon, Mr.. Lavence and Miss Thir-
kell to come, and they will then see
that | retract what l said about you
I want to give Ell Is. to the Foresters,
or to something that you are inter-
ested in, n If you will TAXI it and
pass it on to the treasurer | shall I'M
derstand hat you are willing to for
give and to forget. Yours truly,
B. s.. H. PETERSON"
That Sunday morning she took her
old place at the church organ, the reg
ular organist being ill, and afterward
hurried to the room occupied by the
infant class of the Sunday school,
where the picture mentioned in her
letter, a representation Of Christ with
a lamb on His shoulder, had been put
in position. Poor whitley was there
waiting for the acknowledgment of his
innocence, and Miss Peterson greeted
him with some little cordially and led
him up to the picture she had bought,
saying: Il want you to look at it
we'll"
AS 500 as the mans back was
turned the woman whipped out a