The Washington times., 1906-09-30

Rocker. face work
ing fendishIy. fng-
ers grasping the empty air in a
vain endeavor 10 strangle the phan-
tom which had for six long years
pursued him, sat up in bed mutter-
ing incOherently His wife, awaken
ed from a sound sleep. eyed her
husband in terror, thinking him at
first insane.
August, YOU dog, You must die"
Rocker hissed, his sightless eyes
staring straight ahead, seeing
nothing. And Il came TO the wife
lying beside him that the man 4
was asleep in the grip Of a NJ
horrible dream. What was 1t
he had said? Whose name
had he called out IN HIS
agony? August. And Au-
gust was her first hus-
band.
"I killed him. On, God,
I killed him." muttered
the sleeping man, and he
sank back in the bed exhaust
ed with the terror Of his dream. {
In a moment the vision with
its horrible vividness mad passed
as dreams will, quicker than =
fash of light, and Rocker was
breathing heavily again unaware
Of the fatal words which he had
called out in his moment OF an
guish.
But II Charles Rocker slept
quietly sgain his wife did not His
words had aroused in her = terri
bic suspicion. On June 20. 1900 her
first husband, August Schroeder.
had died a violent death. BE had
been found hanging to = rafter In
his own barn by his wife early one
fine morning and il was supposed
that he had committed suicide. The
coroner up in the little town OF
Rock Rapids, Iowa, had brought
in a verdict of self-infiicted death.
vt the time of SchrOeder's death
Rocker had been employed as a
farm hand on the Schroeder farm.
The men had gone to a carnival
in Rock Rapids the night before
Schroeder was found dead and had
returned TO the farm late at night
under the influence Of liquor. Rock
er and he turned in and Mrs.
Schroeder put up the horses. AP-
pareutly Rocker was the last man
TO see Schroeder alive. though no
had gone 10 bed before the latter.
The next morning Schroeder was
found suspended from rafter In
his own barn. Mrs. Schroeder did
not faint at the sight, though for
a moment she stood paralyzed with
fear and horror. Then she aroused
her brothers, who were still asleep.
The last man 10 awake In the
household was Rocker, He was
sleeping deeply. heavily, when he
was called, and his eyes were still
but half open when he sought
sight of the corpse which the
others had cut down. For a few
seconds the wife looked at the
man with suspicion, but his aston
ishment seemed genuine eno-gh
and the thought that he might nave
had a hand in her husbands death
vanished. 1t was supposed that
Schroeder in a fit of drunken re-
morse had staggered into the barn
after the others were all asleep
and hanged himself. This closed
the case.
Several months after the death
OF Schroeder, Mrs. Schroeder yield
ed to the courtship Of Charles
Rocker. They were married For
some reason, Rocker explained it
as a dislike TO the country, RJck-
er shortly after insisted upon sell
ing the Schroeder farrI and NOV
ingf 20 South Dakota where they
have lived since on a farm which
Rocker bought with the money he
had brought with him and which
was the proceeds Of the sale back
in Iowa. Four years passed by and
there was never a suspicion that
Rocker had been guilty of a crime.
When Thomas Hood put into
verse the story Of Eugene Aram,
who had slain a helpless old man
for his gold and who was pursued
thereafter by a nemesis that would
not be shaken off, he told only the
old story which was only new when
Cain killed Abel. And when Eugene
Aram sought out an innocent little
boy and told him the story of the
murder which ne had committed,
telling the youngStcr, however,
that he must remember It was
nothing but a dream, Aram was
impelled by that resistless feeling
that he must tell some one Of his
crime even though he knew all
the time that this telling might
bring him TO the gailows. To he
alone with the crime of murder ia