The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1907-01-11

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body after all that time, unchanged
unaged.
The Crown is indebted for the so
luton Of this portion of the problem,
said the attorney general, ito the in
g~enuity of a member Of the press. He
observed that when the water was
pumped out of the flooded cellar In
which the body of the unfortunate
gentleman was discovered a deposit
was left upon the noor which appeared
to him to be very different from that
which would be left by an ordinary
Thames flood. He secured a portion
! of that deposit. He submitted 1t to eX-
animation, and he was led to the con
clusion. that it was mainly composed
of modelling clay-the earth used by
sculptors in the earlier stages of their
work. Now, at that time. as is a mat
ter of common knowledge, the prison
or now before the court was suspected
OF completely in the actual crime OF
murder. He has been able to triumph
antly rebut that suspicion, and so en-
tirely to the satisfaction of the legal
advisers of the crown, that no shadow
OF il a henceforth approach him
Al his there was a tuInult of APP
plause in court, which the ushers
stfove in vain to quell. 1t o in such
volumes that the members of the UNI
thinking mob, which thronged the
street outside, took it as the result of
a "erdict of acquittal and roared them
selves hoarse with premature rapture.
The business of the court was sus-
pended for full five minutes.
II do not WISH" said the judge,
when it was once more possible to
proceed, II do not wish too severely
sympathy which is so evidently sin
cere, but it is my duty to say hat this
is not the place for 1t, and to warn you
that on any renewal of it the court
will at nee be cleared"
The point to which l was about to
draw attention when l was interrupted
by hat extraordinary demonstration"
resumed the attorney general, was
this. The prisoner, oyer whom, as l
must insist in impressing upon the
jury, a charge still hangs second only
in Importance to that of which he has
cleared himself, was the center of
w~idely-spread suspicion. He is him
self a sculptor, and, as all who are in
terested in the art of this country are
aware, has achieved considerable en-
inence in his profession. At the time
of the disappearance of the deceased
there was in the studio, in which he
hal Co., ,~,,, I'm, -rIr- ~ D~fo,,o n
plaster statue of Boadicea, and the
theory offered to the crown, which has
been since verified beyond any reason
able doubt, was that the body of the
deceased had been inferred within the
mass of this statue whilst the clay vas
still in a workable condition; that it
had been preserved from decay by the
entire exclusion of atmospheric air;
that, at the time at which the house
of the murdered man was ~dismantled,
this tatue had been conveyed to the
house in Agar Row in which the body
was ultimately found; and that the
water of an unusually high tide, flood.
ing the cellar in which it had been de-
posted, had liquified the statue, and
thus revealed the body of the dead, so
strangely preserved for Identification
seven years after the commission OF
the murder
1t was of no use for the judge to
command silence. or for the officers Of
the court to endeayor to enforce 1T.
So loud a hum of amazement at this
disclosure filled the chamber that any
single voice was drowned in it. But
the crowds eagerness to learn of the
means by which the prisoner had
cleared himself, and the expectation of
revelations yet to come, helped in a lit
tie while to secure a return to silence.
There is one thing which, as l con
ceive, deserves to be said in behalf Of
those trusted and intelligent officers
of the detective force who We're en-
gagged in the inquiry into the disap-
pearance of the deceased. Why, it may
be asked, did they pass by so obvious
a hiding place for the body of the man
of whom they were in search? My
skilful, guilty hand Of the real murder
er had worked upon the statue with
such tremendous and well-guided haste
before the alarm was given that it was
simply impossible for any man te
guess that the person who had van
ished from human view so short
time before could possibly be bidder
beneath it's stately and imposing folds
And, moreover, before it was though
necessary to effect a complete exam
ination of the house the outer clay hat
hardened to such a consistency that
as l am assured by experts, it woult
be quite natural for anybody othe
than an expert to suppose that thu
work had been in existence as it thel
stood for the space OF many weeks, o
even months.
81 have thought 1t advisable to NEE
in advance a suggestion which easil,
might have been made to the detr1
ment of a body of servants OF Thu
state who very rarely fall short in tn
! execution of their duty, and who fa
i oftener excite our admiration by thei
perspicacity, their adr0itness, the1
1880 - %los. .1,;11