The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1903-07-16
lorIeinaL1

vile forty; when they bought the Peach
Orchard farm. The wife had money.
Mrs. stark seemed to have something
Of q rowing disposition, while her h1ls-
band was MS fond Of quiet as an old
man. She would SO away, remaining
absent sometimes for few weeks.
sometimes n few months. She had q
head for business and the faculty OF
kcepipe her afnlrs to herself. When
she returned It was noticed at the
bank where she kept an account that
she usually had money TO deposit
one evening after dark Stark drove
his wife to the station, and when 10
returned several men who had sasiiea
as the farm to win his vote for Il com,
Ing election reported that he was very
much depressed. Indeed they touno
1t impossible to get his attention TO the
matter about which they had called.
When four months passed and Mrs
stark did not return the wagging
tongues started in FOR clatter. which
grew louder and louder, then subsidized
into mysterious Whispering. A year
passed and no return Of the wanderer
TWO years after Mrs. Stnrlk's depnr-
ture stark, who had not touched any
money deposited in his wi6e's name,
presented a check bearing her sigma
ture for $1,000. But the bank ON
Gals, who had long been suspicious
that he had murdered his wife and be-
lieved that he would not be satisfied
till he had appropriated all her funds,
scrutinized the check and pronounced
Il a forgery. Stark was arrested for
the crime. Since there was no evidence
of murder. that charge could not be
added
When IL came 70 trial an expert pro
nounced Mrs. Stark's signature for
gerry. The body of the check was in
Stnrk's handwriting. The expert on
cross examination explained to the
court that there were certain letters in
the signature which were made very
differently by Stark and his wife. the
expert stating that Stark In trying TO
change the mode Of making these let
tiers had made a lamentable failure.
Stark was convicted, and, since every
body believed that he had killed his
wife, the Judge gave him sentence OF
twenty years imprisonment
There were many people in BroVn-
v1Ile-those of the wagging tongues
who were very much chagrined that
stark was not prosecuted for murder.
These persons could not understand
why when oil the correlattVe ctrcum-
stances pointed to murder still there
was not tangible evidence necessary
for conviction. They bounded the
prosecuting attorney till he went to
work with a will, secured the deposi-
tons OF the men who had seen Stark on
the evening of his wife's departure,
found some garments belonging to Mrs.
Stark buried on the place, and on this
framed O theory for prosecution, and
Ind stark taken from jail to be tried
for murder.
BY this time It was plain to every
one not only that Stark had murdered
his wife, but that there was very good
evidence at hand to prove it There
were people who had been as obstinate
with regard to Starlk's innocence as the
wngging tongues had been in maintain
ing his guilt. These people now gave
up in the face OF the evidence and long
before the trial public opinion had pro-
uounced him guilty. Everything con-
spired to bring him to Justice. he had
been convicted OF forging his wife's
name to get her money, the circumstan-
tial evidence all pointed to her murder,
the prosecuting attorney had every In
ducement to convict him, the police
were DESTROYS of closing the mystery
and stopping the murmurtngs under
which they had SO long suffered for not
solving 1t.
The prosecuting attorney proved by
the men who had visited Stark on the
evening of Mrs. Stark's disappearance
that he had acted MS II he had Just COM
mitted a murder. The exhumed cloth-
ing was proved by competent witnesses
To have been that worn by Mrs Stark
when she disappeared. These were the
DrtncIpnl circumstances proving Stark's
Guilt. though there were many minor
ones The prosecuting attorney made
nnagterly effort, In which he scathingly
referred to the prisoner having mar
ried this thrifty woman to get her mon
ev and had murdered her in order to
| get tt the quicker. The prisoner sat
with a dnzed look on his face that ex-
perienced court officials pronounced the
same as that universally worn BY those
guilty of q great crime. The prosecut-
ing attorney was holding the court
spelIbound by picture of Stark Turing
his Door but trusting wife under cover
OF the darkness to some isolated spot
and had lowered his voice with the
words. "And drovesit to the hilt," when
/ there was a commotion ut the door, and
| a woman pushed her way forward with
every evidence of excitement. She was
Mrs, Stark. without a word she
plunged for the prisoner, took him In
her arms, and his head fell on her
shoulder in a dead faint.
Mrs. stark had gone abroad on
business venture. She had written her
husband one letter, which had mtscar-
ried, then had entered n barbarous
country, where she wns detained on a
faIse charge with n view to appropriate
ing considerable funds she had with
her. Then she had the bad luck to be
shipwrecked and was obliged to sail
around the globe before getting home.