The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-05-18
FINE ART IN MURDER
THE MINING ENGINEERS STORY OF
AN ASSASSINATION.

AN ASSASSlNA lON.
| 1t Was Not n Clumsy Butchery, but
Was Executed with Witness
Present and Yet Excited Not Even
a Suggestion of Suspicion.
$50 they located him in St. Louis, and
they hanged him in Chicago inside of
year, all because of half Il broken cuff
button in 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 stretch
ed his feet on the opposite seat of the
smoking compartment and leaned back
with the air of Il man who has thoroughly
demonstrated his proposition.
"Yes, murder will out-maybe," replied
the mining engineer as he adjusted the
stern fragment of cigar into an amber
holder for new lease Of smoke. There
is nothing that strikes me rs more palpa-
bly, inconcluSive than that same quota
| ton. or course some murders come out,
and it is only those that do come out that
stand any chance of being identified as
| murders. Take n practical view of it. If
really crafty man wants to commit
murder. do you suppose he is going to
| or shoot him up Il whole lot on the public
highway? Talk about DE Quincey's Muir
der rs n Fine Art" l 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, l knew an engineer of an electric
| 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 it worth while to
| hold an inquest.
You 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 metropolitan.
The company had to take all its help
down there from the States, but when
| the plant was up and running they sent
| the most of them back or drafted them
| off on other jobs, so that about all they
| kept were a few linemen and the engi.
ncer and his assistant. These two engi.
neers 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 pref
~ soon put his instructor into the hole
for about two months wages. 1t was
| summer. The weather was muggy as the
inside of Turkish bath. They hated
each other and had nobody else to talk
to. They played cards in self defense aft
er work was over, and they snarled over
| every jack pot. The weather was in their
nerves until they felt as though yellow
fever with furlough attached would be
au undisguised blessing.
THE assistant 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 9TH
| or had thrown out some slur about people
| that played for paper because it was easy
| paid the assistant made the chief prop
osition 10 play him one cold hand double
or quits. The chief held something like
| full house to Il four flush, and then the
| utLe. made up his mind to kill him and
put cid to it all.
1T was before the days of direct con-
nectcd dynamos, aud lie plant was fixed
with IN old Westinghouse horizontal en-
CINE and belt connected double brush
| dynamo set at the other end of the room
| far enough off to give the belt a good
sway on the pulleys. He told me he often
sat smoking and figuring just how he
could get rid of the chief. He was preju-
| diced against poison, because he didn't
| think it could be worked without leaving
| a clew. He thought sometimes 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 just inside the boiler room,
and besides the chief didn't drink, and
| engineers don't stumble into their ma
chimes when they are sober. Finally he
hit what he thought was good plan.
1.-THE old man, who wasn't any older
than his assistant, always oiled round
| Just at midnight. When the chief looked
| nc the clock and started after his oil can,
| the assistant went to the closet and took
out good sized wad of waste and dipped
| 1t in the water bucket. Then he walked
up close to the drying wheel of the en-
| ginc. Naturally the driving wheel was
| bigger than the pulley wheel of the dyna-
mo, 50 the belt ran on a down grade to
| the small pulley, passing right alongside
| the brass oil cup on the main journal
when the chief lifted the cap of the oil
cup, the assistant called to the dago in
| the fireroom to lend him n match. That
was merely to get a witness on hand.
| Then he dropped his waI OF wet waste
| Dil llit running Dell tO"uIu
the iireroom docr. The wad of waste
stuck where it was dropped and was car.
| ried down like flash by the belt. 1t
fetched up slap between the oil cup and
| the brushes and grounded 1000 volts of
alternating current right through the
chiefs hand.
THE lights blinked just as the dago
showed up in.tho doorway, and, thus call
| ing the assistants attention to what had
happened. he reached over and yanked
the belt off the driver at the imminent
risk of losing his own arm. The engine
raced bit, but he shut her down before
any harm was done, and then they struck
n light and went to the assistance of the
chief. But it was too late. He died
without ever recovering consciousness.
The fireman, who didn't know the diff
ference between oil and water in n piece
Of waste told marvellous tales about the
assistants quick action in shutting down
the plant. and the directors Of the COM
| pany gave him the chiefs vacant berth
along with a raise of wages and n beauti-
fnl letter complinnenting him on his cour-
age and promptitude in the emergency.
"He worked n dredgc engine for Me
aftcrward down on the coast, and when
he was about passing out with chagrGs
fever he told me the story to ease his
mind. For practical purposes, don't
ehink that murder ever came out."-New
York Sun.