Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-11-07
LIFE FOR A LIFE.

composed himself and continued: Il
shall be Il years old in another month,
and still fathers wish is not accom-
plished. l am continually brooding
over my failure to carry out his COM
mands; that makes me seem sullen
and morose at times"
AS night had fallen, we retraced our
steps down the mountain to my board
ing house, where Ren bade me an af-
fectionate good night at the door, and
thsn betook himself to the home of Mr..
warren, who was, as l afterward
learned, intimately acquainted with
his fathers murderer, and who at the
death of Ren's father had taken Rem
as his adopted son.
| After supper l returned to my room
to examine the results of my days
| picture taking, which consisted of a
| dozen or more views of the town taken
| at various attitudes with my flying
| parachute camera. After looking over
two or three of the plates, l grew
tired of the work and put the job off
until the following day, when l would
have more time. l then sauntered
forth for quiet stroll and smoke
before turning in for the night.
My walk led me in the direction of
the county Jail, on reaching which |
was surprised to see the place sur
rounded by large crowd of people.
Upon inquiry l learned that murder
had been committed and that the vic
tim was Mr.. Warren, Ren's adopted
fot of@ ~ 10;
that Ren, after leaving me, proceeded
directly to his home and finding Mr.
Warren absent from his room, went to
the roof, thinking that the old man
might have gone there, as the night
was warm. He was Mortified to find
the lifeless body of his foster father
who had been strangled to death.
Rushing to the street he immediate
ly gave the alarm, but the assassin
had left no clew to his identity, and
must have had ample time to escape
between the time the murder was done
and the finding of the body by Ren.
The theory that seemed most plausi-
Bile was that the murderer had en-
tered for the purpose of robbing the
and that the old man kept no servants,
hut upon being surprised by Mr.. War
rem in his work of plunder, he had
strangled the old man to death and
then carried him to the roof intending
to throw him to the street below and
thus give color to the opinion that the
old man had come to his death by ac-
cident. But evidently fearing that he
would be discovered in the act, he
abandoned the scheme left the body on
the roof and made good his escape.
| had but five days more to stay in
this town, so | set about packing my
trunk in order to be in time for the
express which would leave on the COM
ing Thursday. Before taking my de-
parture invited Ren to my rooms to
spend an evening, which perhaps
would be the last in his company. Ren
accepted my invitation and promised
to be on hand early On Wednesday
evening, lie evening designated, | was
busy working on the photographs
which | intended to turn over to Mrs.
Good and had completed my task with
the exception of one plate, which was
working on.
| produced a clear picture on the
plate, and no sooner had | gazed on
us contents tnan a feeling came over
me that | will retain in my memory
to the longest day of my life.
Everything was too clear to me now.
On the afternoon that Mr. Warren was
murdered | was up in the mountains
and had sent my parachute camera fly
ing through the air in the direction
of Mr.. Warren's house. 1t happened
along just at the time when the unfor-
tunate man was going to his death at
the hands of a murderer whom | had
photographed with his face upturned
to the eye of the camera, which was
passing directly above Mr.. Warren's
roof. The murderer in the picture was
just in the act of throwing the old
gentleman to the street below, but, his
attention being attracted at seeing my
camera flying in the air, his curiosity
increased and by gazing at it steadily
he was photographed in his murderous
act.
1t evidently could not have taken
him long to come to the conclusion
that he had foolishly trapped himself,
for, leaving the body of the old gen
tleman on the roof, he had escaped.
l was very much excited by the i'm
portant discovery had made, but de-
cided to wait until Ren shoulu call be-
fore I had made the affair public. A
sudden knock at the door brought me
to my senses and fastened to open it,
hoping that it would be Rem. To my
surprise, a tall stranger confronted me.
He described himself as Thomas Car
ter of New York City. a photographer
by profession, and said that he came
to this town on some business and had
engaged rooms in this house and on
the same floor with me. He added
that while in conversation with Mrs.
Good he had learned that l was an