The daily Alaskan., 1904-07-08
A Cbain of
 CircumSfanceJ
IOrlglnaLl

Sam Clendenin had a fancy for the science of medicine. When he was a the proper age to study he had not the means. When he got the means h' considered himself too old.
 Sam wooed and won Anna Guernsey One afternoon he called on her and found her suffering with a headache accompanied by fever He induced heI to permit him to bring her some pow ders in the evening. On his way te his room he stopped at drug store where he was very much at home, and the druggist having gone to dinner leaving a boy in charge, Sam made up the powders himself and after dinner took them to his flancee and gave hel one. In ten minutes there was a hurry call for a doctor, pump was inserted fin Anna's stomach, and among other things arsenic was brought up. The two remaining powders were found tC be harmless. Anna recovered, and Sam was arrested.
 The case excited great deal of at- tentlon, the newspapers spurred on the authorities to make sure of Clenden' in's conviction, and the prosecuting at' torney made up his mind to win rep utation by hanging him. Before the trial came on the attorney had conclu' sive evidence that Sam had already been married to Anna Guernsey and was interested in getting her out of the way that be might marry a fortune The lawyer failed to entrap Anna into acknowledging the marriage, but An mas mother, who was a firm believer in Sams guilt, signed a statement giy' ing certain circumstances that had led her to believe her daughter had been secretly married. When all the eyi' dence was ready there was no other conclusion to be drawn from 1t than that Sam had tried 10 poison his wife for q purpose. There vas no written evidence against him war;I mention ing, but witnesses In plenty to prove the motive Indeed the bare fact of his bringing three powders, taking care that the two he did not admins ter should be harmless, was quite enough to prove case of attempted poisoning. One flaw in the chain of circumstances pointing to Sans guilt was not taken account of, and that was that sam was not fool. Only a fool would give a person arsenic, for it Is sure to be found wherever 1t Is placed. But murderers usually sur prise us In leaving some door wide open for their conviction.
 When the case was called the prose cutting attorney introduced ample eyi- dence to prove that Sam Clendenin had been guilty of one of the most diaboli- cal murders on record. The defense brought forth absolutely nothing to show that he had not poisoned Anna Guernsey except that he had always borne an lrreproachable character. This, however, was met by witnesses who swore that Sam had been seen by them in gambling and drinking saloons frequently for months prior to the attempted murder.
 Just before the case was closed the defense introduced new witness, Thomas Riggs, detective, whose state ment Questions of the attorney omit, ted) was as follows:
 "On Dec. 15 I was called to investi- gate the following case: MT. Anthony Seymour had the evening before dined at the Excelsior Chop and Oyster House. He had hung up his Overcoat with $500 In one of Its pockets, and on reaching home found the money gone I was given an incomplete list of those who dlned at the same time and pro, ceeded to get q clew. On examining MT. Seymour's overcOat l found in a corner of one of the pockets a tiny package done up in a leaf evidently torn from a memorandum book. MT Seymour declared that no such pack age was in his pocket at the time of the robbery, and I at once concluded that there had been an exchange of coats. The coat was a ready made one of Farnum & Emke's, who had sold a great number of the same pattern dur. ing the previous autumn. There dined at the same restaurant on the same evening. each wearing one of those coats, Anthony Seymour, Joseph Nil. Ter and the prisoner. Seymour's coat was stolen and has not been recovered Seymour put on the prisoners coat which the thief doubtless removed tc Seymour's peg, and the prisoner put on Miller's coat by mistake. Miller had that evening purchased two pow. ders by prescription for his sick child and one of arsenic to kill cat. The label poison had not been well pasted on the arsenic, and Miller, having opened the package on his way to the restaurant to see that 1t was all right dropped the label without noticing the loss.
 "The prisoner left with Mlller's pow, ders and happened to give Miss Guern sey the arsenic powder. Here is a leaf from the prisoners memorandum book, with memoranda mentioning Miss .Guernsey's name, in which three harmless powders were wrapped. Why