The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-06-11
MURDER AS A FINE ART.
Evidence That DO Quincy wna Not
an InfaIIiDIe Authority on the
Subject.

30 IntI lOlAlfh MN - 49, ~<NN%f
and they hanged him in Chicago In
side of a year-all because Of half q
broken cuff button N the dead mans
room. 1t was little thing, but some
such little thing Is always there to tell
the tale. Murder will out" and the
police inspector stretched his feet on
the opposite seat Of the smoking com
partment and leaned back with the air
Of man who has thoroughly demon
strated his proposition, says the New
York Sun.
"Yes, murder will out-maybe," re-
piled the mining engineer as he adjust
ed the stern fragment of a cigar into
an amber holder for new lease OF
smoke. 'There is nothing that strikes
me as more palpably inoonclusive than
that same quotation. OF course some
murders come out, and it Is only those
thatdo come out that stand any chance
Of being identified as murders. Take
practical view OF It. Ifa really ycrafty
man wants to commit murder, do you
suppose he is going to knock his game
on the head with a club or shoot him
up a whole lot on the public highway?
Talk about De Quincey's Murder as
n Fine Artv / never could see any art
about it. All Of his murders were
clumsy butcheries without any char
acter to them except buckets OF blood.
why, / know an engineer of an elec-
trio plant down in South America who
could have given De Quincy points
and who put his man out Of the way
SO that the coroner didn't think 1T worth
while to hold an inquest.
"Yon see they had put in an electric
light plant in Caracas along with an
ice machine and some artesian wells.
SO the town was feeling pretty metro
politan. The company had to take all
its help down there from the states,
but when the plant was up and rum
ming they sent the most Of them back
or drafted them off on other jobs SO
that about all they kept were few
linemen and the engineer and his as
sistant. These two engineers were
thrown together all the time, slept IN
the same quarters, ate at the same
table and quite naturally in three
months were ready to kill each other
on sight. The assistant taught the
chief poker, and the chief developed
rapidly, and pretty soon put us IN
structor into the hole for about two
months wages. 1t was summer; the
weather was muggy as the inside or a
Turkish bath; they hated each other
and had nobody else to talk to-; they
played cards in self-defense after work
was over and they snarled over every
jackpot. The weather was in their
nerves till they felt as though yellow
fever with furlough attached would
be an undisguised blessing. The as
sistant couldn't see any way of winning
himself out OF the hole and he made
up his mind to get even and quit or
kill the chief. So one night when the
other had thrown out some slur about
people that played for paper because
it was easy paid, the assistant made
the chief a proposition to play him
one cold hand double or quits. The
chief held something like full house
TO a four flush and then the other made
up his mind to kill him and put an end
to it all.
1T was before the days Of direct
connected dynamos, and the plant was
fixed with an old Westinghouse hori-
zontal engine and .belt-connected
double brush dynamo set at the other
end of the room far enough off TO give
the belt good sway on the pulleys
He told me he had often sat smoking
and figuring just how he 1ould get rid
of the chief. He was prejudiced against
poison. because he didn't think 1t could
be worked without leaving clew. He
thought something of tripping the old
man into the fly wheel when the plant
was running, but there might be some
hitch about that. as the tiremen were
always lust in the boiler room, and
besides the chief didn't drink and en-
gineers don't stumble into their ma
chimes when they are sober. Finally
he hit what he thought was good
| plan.
"The old man, who wasn't any oldey
than his assistant always oiled round
lust at midnight. When the chief
looked at the clock and started after
his oil can. the assistant went to the
closet and took out good-sized wad
Of waste and dipped it in the water
bucket. Then he walked up close TO
the driving wheel of the engine. Nat
urally the driving wheel was bigger
than the pulley wheel of the dynamo,