The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-10-08
SKELETONS IN BOOKS.

The letter began, my Sweet
Anne" Surely stranger must be
pardoned for reading it through, for
it was found hidden snugly away be.
tween the leaves of a dusty and
ancient volume Of poems drawn from
a great library. The finder took it
carefully to the librarian.
"Another one ~ said the librarian
inquiringly. "Out of the old edition
of Moore, Ell? Well, 1 guess we
won't send it back. I generally re-
turn personal letters if they are of
enough interest and nobody calls for
them, but if I sent everything back
that we find the directors would be
about my ears for wasting postage
stamps" The afternoon was quiet
one, and the librarian continued:
eve shake every book that is re-
turned, and almost always something
falls out. 1t may be letter like the
one you have just found or visiting
card or hairpin. Almost invariably
the treasures that we unfold bear the
earmarks of feminine possession. l
am not charging women with care
lessness. 1 am simply stating fact.
Generally the things we find are
documentary in their nature. Last
week shook out of book on home
life signed and indorsed check for
$7o made payable to the dressmaker
whose statement of account was
pinned to it. On another occasion
fifty dollar bank note futtered out.
Both were called for within short
time. Occasionally one gives us a
glimpse of love secret or tragedy.
Not so long ago letter was taken
from a book which was of such an
unusual nature that remembered the
names concerned long enough to re-
cognize them in the newspaper re-
R{ta f c9uTtt Gafe MbiGhhu dylded ,5
a woman and filled with the frank and
open avowal of mans forbidden
love, for the woman was the wife of
another. 1 carefully secreted the
missive and a few hours later was
confronted by tall, heavily yelled
lady, who asked if letter haG been
found in book which happened to
be a morbid problem novel of great
popularity at the time, the work of
we'll known English woman. The
question was asked in voice which
tried hard not to shake. I handed
the letter over, and the woman hasti-
ly took herself off. Scarcely month
later 1 ran across her name in the
newspapers as defendant in divorce
court.
"Yet the writings we find in books
are not always so intimate. Some
times they SAVIOR of domesticity and
the delights of the kitchen. Indeed
I have enough recipes for desserts and
sweetmeats to publish the collection
S a cookbook. Now and then a
ook is veritable mine. 1 have
pund in them gold, silver and pre-
ious stones. Embroidery silk by the
ard and of rainbow hues may be
shed out from some novels, and,
as, an occasional cigarette paper.
"The evidences of masculine for
etfulness are rarer. I have forgot
almost all such instances, but of
ose which I do remember there is
1e of which the details are as clear
me now as if they had happened
esterday. Indeed it will never leave
mind, for it led to the capture of
gang of criminals.
"a wealthy but solitary old bache-
lor was found lifeless on the floor of
his library one 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 case excited great public inter-
est, and I followed the developments
with closeness in the newspapers.
There had been at first some talk of
suicide and more of heart failure,
but the autopsy put a new phase
upon the case, for it showed that the
old man had come to his death
through an insidious yet powerful
poison. The question then arose.
Who administered it? As was
reading the detailed report of the
doctors 1 suddenly dropped the paper.
l remembered that month before a
stranger had come in one wet, dismal
night and asked for a recondite work
by foreign author. 1t was stand
ard treaties on poisons and volume
seldom read.
"I hurried to the library and sought
the book. Opening it aud rapidly
running over the pages you may i'm
agine my astonishment 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 small and angular hand
referring to the chapter and page on
which the poison was described. ]
then looked up the record of the
books withdrawal and found the
name which the man had given. !
also found that the book had not
been taken out since. Having ascer.
tanned these facts, went at once tc
the police. Taking the information
as clew, the detectives, after long
and arduous search, followed it to its