The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-01-27
DIDN'T TAKE THE CUE.
1t Was Given the Detectives BY the
Intelligent Bloodhound.
elizabeth City Corr. in st. Louis Post

OlSpdIcl.)
Had the instinct of A dumb brute not
oeen ignored, and the supposed superior
uY OF human intelligence trusted. the fate
OF Ellen Maud CrOpsey of Elizabeth CITY
n. G, would have been known in a few
JAYS instead of remaining for thirty
seven days a secret.
A bloodhound. one of the best trained
OF tnat extraordinary species the world
over, IN the presence of 900 persons led
the way from the Cropsey house down to
a pier 90 feet away, then to the edge of
the pier.
It was near this pier that Nell Crop-
sey body came to the surface through
natural causes. thirty-seven DAYS after
the dog had unerrtngly shown where she
mad gone.
I'm those thirty-seven DAYS detectives
had followed innumerable clews leading
10 twenty different cities the police
chleis OF hundred towns worked on the
case and every man in Elizabeth City
but one, James F. Wilcox, the sutton Of
the girl, had labored day and night to
clear the mystery. Wilcox is now in iail
awaiting trial on the charge of having
murdered Miss Cropsey.
But in the end the sagacity of the
bloodhound, descendant of the famous
dogs employed to hum runaway slaves.
proved to be right. While the manifold
workings of hundreds of human beings
We're wrong.
On Friday. Nov. %. two DAVIS after Nell
Cropsey has disappeared so strangely
from the front veranda of her fathers
home, Hurricane" Branch a famous
/ trainer of bloodhounds at Suffolk. Va.
was sent for He was told to bring his
| best dogs.
Branch got there the next day ar noon.
| lie brought one dog. splendid type of
| the bloodhound. with broad forehead
loW-hansing chops and eyes set far
! back He was 30cile and quiet paying no
attention to anybody but Mr.. Branch.
In the preceding fifty-siX hours every
inch OF territory about the Cropsey house
had been trar1pled over scores of times
by the hundreds who had searched for
the girl. Fields marshes woods, bitches
and river had been searched.
committee of citizens took Branch
and the dog out to the CrOpsey house
about mile from the center of the town,
and setting about seventy feet back from
Riverside road the road which runs
parallel with the PasqUotank river.
The better part of the 1900 population
of Elizabeth City followed the man and
the dog. In the CrOpsey home ar
clOthings which had been recently worn
by the missing girl He was handed a
shoe. Branch held il to the nostrils of
the dog, but the latter took no notice
This won't do; give me something
else said Branch.
Another shoe was handed him, and
again the dog took no notice.
" T..
not worn the shoes for many days. She
had been troubled with a corn on her
right foot. She had been wearing
loose rubber on that foot and on the
other an Oxford tie.
A waist which the girl had worn about
the house that afternoon, and which she
had laid aside for one more fancy when
she dressed for the evening. was brought
out
The dog shifted at the waist a score of
a IL oil S-fa fV9-n
bouncing on it suddenly and shifting
FHe's got the scent" said Branch.
Calling the dog out in the hall. Branch
said simply. as if he were talking to
%Go find her"
Before he spoke the dog was running up
and Gown the hall, his nose close TO the
floor. He ran into the parlOr, on the
rieht side of the central hall: into the
sitting room on the left side. to the big
dining room back of the sitting room. "A
side door back Of the parlor opening up
or a small hall which connects with the
main hall stood open.
After a minutes hesitation the Dloou-
hound darted out of the side door across
the lawn then across a field and then
into a turnip patch he moved rapidly.
and those following had TO run TO keep
close behind him. The turnlp patch Is
two acres in extent. The turnips weIC
planted late and were Just ready for
gathering.
The dog went straight 70 a spot where
d big turnip had receL - Al pulled cut
of the ground Then he passed to an
other spot. where a turnip had been re-
moved In all he went to six places wide
IN scattered over the patch.
Then he started across another Held,
then up 10 the door of Mrs. Fearing, the
nearest neighbor of the CrOpSeys- The
door was open. The dog ran in, and, go
ing into the sitting room, nosed about
and then stood 'motionless in one spot
until Mr. Branch came up with Mr..
Cropsey. father of the girl.
Then the actions Of the bloodhound
were explained. Two days before she dis
apueared, Nell had left the house by the
side door had gone TO the turnlp patch
and pulled up six of the largest turnips
She could find and had taken them as a
gift to Mrs Fearing. She had sat in a
chair in the latter's home on the spot
where the dog had come to a stop.
The bloodhound was taken back TO the
Cropsev house As the party started up
the path leading to the front porch the
dog gave a low yelp. turned about and
started out through the gate again, his
nose close to the ground
He crossed the road TO a stretch OF
withered grass about fifty feet wide,
which separates the road from the river.
The dog went ahead along the edge Of the
grass in the direction of the town
By this time 4 crowd of nearly 100
people had assembled in the vicinity, all
of them deeply interested in the move
ments OF the bloodhound, with the eXcep-
zion Of one and he was Jim Wilcox, the
Young man who had courted the girl
three years and was supposed to be in
love with her He sat on a fence, his
face wearing a cynical smile
Il. at