Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-01-17
Mr.. SAMPLES SISTER
BY M. QUAD.
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY c. B. LEWIS.

@-@-@-@-@-~-@1-~-w-@--9-@-9
1 was serving my first and only term
of sheriff in an Indiana county when
a smart locking, middle aged man, who
gave the name of Samples, arrived at
the county seat and gave out that lie
was looking around for q site for a
large factory. He was provided with
letters Of recommendation, had the air
of man of business and soon had the
two bankers in the town and other
business men interested in his project
His factory was to make a new kind
of cloth out of what he called Persian
hemp" He had samples of the clo.h
to show, and it could be made and scld
at 400 per cent profit. Samples him
self would put S500.000 into the enter
prise, but he wanted the town to sub
scribe 100000 additional, so as to
make it home affair." That was 4
pretty large sum to raise in a town CT
5000 people, and after the first half CT
it had been subscribed the thing began
to drag. Samples was coming and go
ing, but making our town his head
quarters, and it was remembered aft
erward that several tough looking men
called to sec him.
On the second night of Samples ar
rival i'll our town q fine horse WAS
stolen from citizen. During his first
weeks stay there were more run off.
In three weeks time II of the best
horses in our township were taken. AS
sheriff was not idle for an hour after
the first horse was taken Even if |
was little green myself as an officer
had two or three constables and dep
uties who were old hands at the busi-
ness. Some of the horses we traced
for a few miles, always headed for the
Ohio river, but the thieves were slick
fellows and covered their tracks SO
well that not a horse was recovered.
My position was an uncomfortable one,
as you may guess. l got redhot criti-
cism from all sides, and, even though
offered large rewards out of my own
pocket and went to the expense ef
employing detective for three weeks,
a share Of the public still insisted that
l ought to resign and open kinder
garten for children.
One .d.ocy while / was shiyering in my
boots and expecting to hear that the
thirteenth horse had been stolen
flash Of light came to me. Every harse
taken had gone soutn by a certai2h'
road. At a certain point all trace had
been lost. Ten miles to the south of
nc vvac n I,io I,.1cl,Iol,ar,.1- S-x,rn ,,,,, Of
1900 acres. 1t was state land and had
only been explored by hunters 1t was
a big tangle, full of snakes and wild
cats, and berry picizers took good care
not to penetrate too far. 1t flashed
over me that the stolen horses instead
of being run out of the state had been
corralled in this swamp to wait until
the hue and cry was over. Within two
hours had started for the swamp, ac-
companied by constable. BY pure
good luck after tramp Of half day
we came upon trail showing the
footprints of horses and following it
to the very center of the swamp we
came upon the whole II stolen animals
Feed had been brought to them by an
other trail.
1t was a fine ''plant' we uncovered.
There were two men to take care of the
horses. One Of them was a black
smith, and he had a forge and dozens
of horseshoes. AS the animals were
run out the plan was to shoe each one
with the shoes reversed and thus de-
ceive us in case we struck a trail. We
made a cautious approach, but in spite
of us the two men got away We
scarcely regretted it, however, in view
of the capture of the third one, who
had just arrived. 1t was Mr.. Samples,
the fax cloth man, the factory man,
the man with letters of Introduction!
Yes, sir, he had arrived to give his
subordinates directions, and as he fed
with the others he tripped and fell,
and we were enabled to overhaul him.
He didn't even bluff. We had got him
so pat that he couldn't say anything
In his pockets were letters sufficient to
convict him twice over, and his game
was up.
You know what human nature is in
a small town. l had been maligned
and abused without stint for failing to
capture the horse thieves. Now that
I had got all the stolen horses in a
bunch, and the boss thief in addition,
nothing was too good for me. | was
called a hero and all that and got a
serenade from the band and had bon
fires galore in my honor. The arrest
Of Samples was a thunderclap. but the
public soon got over its astonishma n
and demanded that he receive tie
maximum punishment Of the law He
was examined, committed for trial,
and | took care to give him the stron-
gest cell in the county jail. The man
gave me no trouble. After recovering
his check q little he claimed that lie
would be able to prove his entire inno-
cence before a jury, and he was so
CHEEKY and good natured that came
to like him. He had three months to
wait for the circuit court, and he made
no move in regard to lawyers or wit
nesses until half the time had expired.
BY that time the public had lost most
of its interest in the case.
One day Samples announced to me