The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-15
y which had just overwhelmed the

calamity which had just overwhelmed the
house.
GOD forbid that should deny to sons
the privilege Of being the first to read the
last letter addressed them by their
father s@ 1. u
But he made no move towards drawing
the curtain between himself and the room
from which he was retreating, nor could
he be said to have really taken his eye
off any OF them during the reading of this
long letter. 55
"You see i had need of friend MUIR
INJURED Miss Meredith, sWaying towards
me.
I gave her commissioning look Was
ever a girl more unfortunately situated?
Two at least Of the men against whom
she had felt forced to utter this denuncia-
ton of crime. loved her Tor SO believed).
Alfred passionately, George with less
show of feeling, but possibly with fully
as much depth and fervor.
You might have held the letter back"
l whispered.
But she met me with noble look.
You mean If I have not drawn suspi-
cion upon them by my first subterfuge.
But with so much in their disfavor, how.
could calculate upon another opportu-
nifty of seeing them all together. And they
must read it together. So my uncle told
me- But he never thought it would be
with police officers in the house,
Here the coroner advanced to question
her, and I am happy to say that my pres
ence gave her courage to bear up under
the ordeal. This was what he ELECTED
from her.
She did not know what was in the let
ter 1t had been written by her uncle
while still on his sick bed and after an
experience which I will not relate here,
as it will be found more fully stated in
the letter it. SET This letter 1 will repro
duce for you at once, though it was weeks
before I knew it's whole contents:
George, Leighton and Alfred
I may not have been a good father, but
have at least been just one. Though each
| and all Of you since coming to mans estate
have given me great cause for complaint
have never been harsh towards you, nor have
ever denied you anything from mere caprice
or from an egotistic desire to save myself
trouble. Yet to one of you my life is of so
little value that he is willing to resort to
crime to rid himself of me. Does this shock
you, Leighton, George, Alfred? We are
Christian family, members of an honorable
| community, trained each and all In religious
principles, you, by the best, the sweetest of
mothers-does it move you to think that one
of you, could contemplate parricide and even
attempt it? It moves me; and in two of you
must awaken horror, the anticipation of
which affords me the sole comfort now re-
! naming to my doomed and miserable life. For
nothing will ever make me believe that this
act was a concerted one or that the attempt
which has just been made upon my life had
its birth in more than one dark breast One
guilty soul there is among you, but only
one; and lest to the remaining two the accu-
sation have just made may seem fanciful,
| unreal, the result of nightmare or the effect
of fever, will relate what happened in this
| room last night, just as I related It to Hope
when shs asked me this morning why I
seemed so loath to see you before you went
out to your several lounging places.
l was doing. The lamp which since my
Illness has never been turned out in my
room, threw great shadows on wall and cell
inf. I seemed conscious Of these shadows,
thought was half asleep, but not so con-
scious that I not aware Of the light
shining through the t1ansom from the gas jet
near the top of the stairs. This light has
always been company for me, especially in
wakeful nights when found myself trou-