Semi-weekly Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1897-1901, 1901-07-26
VOL. XIV. NO. IO4
EELLTALE PICTURES.
AINTInGS THAT HAVE DONE THE
WORK OF DETECTIVES.

sSiflh stances Where the Canvas OF an
hiS{ Artist Has LED to the Confession of
h criminnI-A Portrait and II stolen
E<W Diamond Pendant.
'! An artist who had suddenly become
S1Slmost famous by his production Of a
banting exhibited at the Royal acad-
5]2Slny was one day called upon by II
IMAM whose visit was productive of the
NJ Most extraordinary and undreamt of
x# The picture represented a lonely
&& tretch of beach. upon which the sea
81 has beating in long, creamy rollers. In
ING foreground, bending over n dead
&{3boly, was a man with wild express
&sSion on his face and with naked
I'll nife in his hand. A ships boat, evil
*Af]ently just beached, was also in the
|SS;hcture, and by the side of the muir
man was bag of gold. The pic
HSture portrayed the advent Of two cast
upon n friendly shore. The one
&nad murdered the other so that the
#treasure might be his.
&N The painters visitor was gray hair
'Aed, wild eyed man.
M I'm heavens name, SIR" he gasped
$Bcut, "how did you learn the dreadful
story that you painted? see you know
Nail. l murdered my mate Bill to get
#the money that was his. l threw his
&body into the sea. l don't know what
&1mpulse led me to the Academy. The
III first thing saw was your picture rep
NJ resenting the scene that took place 80
M years ago.
NJ Needless to say, the picture had been
81 the outcome of Imagination. Yet MUIR
ri der will out and the guilty conscience
u of the man who had killed his comrade
" for lust of gold had convinced him that
IL the painting was no coincidence. but
VI was indeed the actual portrayal Of
n lastardly and unwitnessed crime.
n There is probably no picture better
q known in England than 1.-The Doctor
n BY Mr.. Luke Fildes yet there are prob
ably very few people aware of the fact
that that selfsame masterpiece was
4 the means of bringing to light the per-
petration of a crime that would other
wise never have been known.
A certain doctor in a large town COM
mitted suicide. and among his papers
was a letter which ran as follows: Il
have today seen Luke Fildes' Doctor
The picture represents medical man
watching by the bedside Of child. 1t
has so haunted me that l am going to
take away my own worthless life and
make a confession at the same time.
When Arthur's''-his brother's-"boy
died, came into money that my dead
brother had settled on him. He died
as all the world thought of acute pneu-
monla. Yet his life might have been
saved had acted. as Fildes' Doctor Is
80 evidently doing, with the use Of all
the skill that lay in my power. l has
tened the boys end and so got the
money. can bear it no more"
A we'll known artist was commission
ed to paint the portrait Of lady In ex-
allied circles. who boosted the posses
sion Of n most unique jewel in the
form Of pendant. The lady was very
anxious that this heirloom should be
included in her portrait The artist, of
course, complied with her request
Shortly after the painting had been
completed a daring burglary was per-
petrated. with the result that the lady
lost her heirloom, and no trace of the
thief or thieves was forthcoming.
Years passed by, and the lady gave up
all hope of ever seeing the precious
heirloom again.
Now, it so happened that the artist
No ny.fv
lady mentioned had occasion to travel
in India.
In the course Of his wanderings he
came to Bombay and, as every visitor
TO that place does, strolled through the
native bazaar.
Suddenly his attention was riveted
by piece Of jewelry in jewelers.
shop that seemed familiar to him. 1t
was diamond and ruby pendant.
Where had he seen it before? He ran
sacked his brain, but could not remem-
her.
He returned to his hotel and hap
pened to take from his portfolio q
sketch of the portrait be had MADE
years ago of the lady with the pendant.
In a moment the enigma was solved.
The piece Of jewelry he had seen was
the peculiar pendant that his fair sitter
lad been so anxious he should include
in his portrait.
He hurried off to the chief OF police,
and told that worthy what he suspect
ed namely. that the bazaar he had Wis
tied contained the long lost jewel OF
the English lady. Inquiries were at
once set on foot with extraordinary re-
suits. The jeweler in the bazaar con-
fessed to having given years ago
quite Insignificant sum for the jewel,
which be had bought from stableman
in the employ of a neighboring raJah.
The stableman was sought for. ana
turned out to be none other than IA
nous English craftsman. who had ap-
parently turned honest, but who.
nevertheless, confessed TO having been
the thief of the jewel that had been
so tremendously ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Weekly.