Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1900-02-09

ton that is SO pleasant to experience
+ To be emotional in this nineteenth
century is to be weak Or, worse than
anything, old fashioned. If something
happens in the course of ones daily life
that is keen and painful enough to
wiring ones heart. the formula is-give
sympathy a stunning blow and call the
whole thing ga DODGE and then go on
with life exactly as before. Yes; that
is the wiser, the better and very fire.
Quently the cheaper why. It's only a
dodge; that all Pass on and forget it.
Having stigmatized the dramatic de-
nouement of the trial IS ga dodge in
sufficiently stern voice to fri2hten
away, for the time being at any rate,
up the paper again and began reading
an editorial-the trial again. of course
It was headed 1.-THE American Le-
co.," and it set forth with abundant
praise the ability, the zeal, tile acumen.
Of one Herbert Darrent, detoctive-s<t
it forth in such ford high flown style
that the subject of these commentators
would have flushed. except that his
inner self had not yet recovered from
the stunning blow that had been dealt
it by modern cynicism.
Then the article went On to refer to
the emotional scene at the conclusion CT
the trial
"Astra niger scene, - it remarked. ''it
has never been our lot to Witress
And Darrent. startled from his hao:1, ]
composure, jumped to his fee;. with an
exclamation of surprise.
Perhaps the compositor engaged upon
setting up that editorial had been car
ried away by the sensationalism of the
trial or perhaps by something else. but
in setting that line he had made Pc
culiar mistake, which had been passed
by the proofreader and now appeared
in every issue of that days paper. He
had misplaced the spacing which should
have made the division between the
words "a" and stranger and the
sentence which had so startled Herbert
Darrent read, "Astra niger scene it has
never been our lot to witness
The second combination of letters,
niger. might have been portion of
cryptogram, it was, so meaningless.
The first, ''Astra,' had a meaning for
Darrent that set his brain wildly at
work and caused a heavy feeling at his
heart
It was strange coincidence that the
editorial on the trial should contain
such glaring error. Emotional people
| would have called it 1.-The finger of
| Providence, but of course it was not
1t was simply the error of a co1npositor
who perhaps had had too much to drink
or at any rate was not at the instant
thinking of what he was doing.
| Let us account for all things natural
| ~ if we can. Weabominate superstition
in the nineteenth century and really
never care to discuss 1.-THE finger of
! Providence" at all
"A-s-t-r-a-A stranger, OAR
rent muttered. Suppose old Marsden
died before he could write what he in
tended tot Suppose another second of
! life would have altered all things! Why
| did not the defense think of that
Astray Marsden quarreled with Josiah
and left him. A third person entered,
and that person was the one who com:
mitted the deed Josiah Marsden, dying
and alone, remembered Something
warned him that Astray would be &C.
cused, and he wrote what he intended
should prove his innocence. No one can
say what were the exact words he in
tended to write. 4 am dying, MUIR
dered by a strange man, who forced his
way into the house It might have
teen that. it might have been anything
after the word strange, the word in
the writing Of which and before he
could complete it death overlook him,
and his very handwriting condemned
the man whom he had tried to save
The more Darrent thought the more