The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1904-11-26
SKELETONS IN BOOKS
SECRETS THAT ARE UNFAIRLY LEFT
IN LIBRARY VOLUMES.

SECRETS THAT ARE UNWARIlY lEFI
IN LIBRARY VOLUMES.
Stories Of Love an Well ms Of Crime
Buried Between the caves by Alb
xe~ntminded Readers-The Way One
Murder Mystery Was Solved.
The letter began, "My Sweet Anne"
Surely a stranger must be pardoned
for reading it through, for it was found
hidden snugly away between the leaves
of a dusty and ancient volume Of poems
drawn from a great library. The find
cr took it carefully to the librarian.
another One:" said the librarian in
quiringly. 'Out Of the old edition OF
Moore, eli? Well, l guess W. won't
send it back. l generally return per-
sonal letters If they are Of enough in
terest and nobody calls for them, but
If l sent everything back hat we find
the directors would be about my ears
for wasting postage stamps" The aft
ernoon was a quiet one, and the H.
brarian continued:
1--WE shake every book that is return
ed, and almost always something falls
out. 1t may be a letter like the II
you have just found or a visiting card
or a hairpin. Almost invariably the
treasures that we unfold bear the ear
marks Of feminine possession. l am
not charging women with carelessness.
I am simply stating a fact.
Generally the things we find are
documentary in their nature. Last
week l shook out of a book on home
life a signed and Endorsed check for
$40 made payable to the dressmaker
whose statement Of account was
pinned to it. On another occasion Il
fifty dollar bank note futtered ont.
Both were called for within Il short
time. Occasionally one gives us Il
glimpse Of IL love secret or Il tragedy.
Not SO long ago a letter WAS taken
from a book which was Of such an ull-
usual nature that l remembered the
names concerned long enough to recog-
nize them in the newspaper reports OF
n court case which divided Il family.
The letter was addressed to II woman
and filled with the frank and open
avowal of !. mans forbidden love. for
the woman was the wife Of another. |
carefully secrctcd the missive and Il
few hours later was confronted by Il
tall, heavily yelled lady, who As,iel If
a letter had been found in Il book
which happened to be IL morbid prob
lem novel OF great popularity at the
time, the work of Il well known Eng
lishwoman. The question was asked
in Il voice which tried hard not to
shake. | handed the letter over, and
the oma hastily took herself off.
Scarcely a month later | ran across her
name in the newspapers as defendant
in u divorce court.
"Yct the writings we find in books
are not always so intimate. Sometimes
they SAVIOR of domcsticity and the de
lights Of the kitchen. Indeed l have
enough recipes for desserts and sweet
cookbook. Now and then IL book is a
vcritable mine. / have found in them
gold, silver and precious stones. En-
broidery silk 10y the yard and of rain
bow hues may be fished out from some
novels, and, alas. dn occasional ciga-
rette paper.
1.-The evidences of masculine forget
fitness are rarer. l have forgotten al
most all such instances, but of those
which l do remember there is one Of
which the details are as clear to me
now as If they had happened yester-
day. Indeed it will never leave my
mind, for it led to the capture Of a
gang Of criminals.
"a wealthy but solitary old bachelor
was found lifeless IN the floor of his
library n morning. On his body no
wound was discovered, and as far as
the detectives could ascertain no one
had gained access to the house. The
az excited great public interest, md
I followed the developments with close
ness in the newspapers. There had
been ut first some talk Of suicide and
more of heart failure, but the autopsy
put a new phase upon the case, for 1t
showed that the old man had come to
his death through an insidious yet pow
erful poison. The question then arose,
Who administered it? As l was read
Ing the detailed report Of the doctors l
suddenly dropped the paper. l remem-
bered that u month before Il stranger
had come in one wet, dismal night and
asked for a reconcile work by a for
eign author. 1t was Il standard
treatise OH poisons and a volume sell
dom read.
II hurried to the library and sought
the book. Opening it and rapidly run !
ming owe the pages you may imagine
my establishment and almost horror to |
find lying between two pages devoted
to a detailed account Of the very poison
that caused the old mans death a
smirched and thumb marked piece of
paper. On it was writing In a small
and angular hand referring to the
chapter and page O which the poison
was described: I then looked, up the
record of the books withdrawal and
found the name which the man had
given. l also found that the book had
not been taken out since. Having as
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