The sun., 1908-05-10


contain she set II ahre IN the dead Of night.
In a few minutes the whole countryside
! will be allght. How is she 10 get awayP
! No horse or carriage Is taken from the barn.
How do yop explain itf
| :Aooomplioe, Is the only reply you get to
| this. Now you remind the soeptcs that
! the woman left 500 In a local bank and
you are told that was just her artful way.
Standing In that fearful garden patch
! from which the bodies OF ten Of her victims
! have just been taken, people simply VIII
| not believe that this witch OF death has
! fallen victim 10 a simple natural force
! like foolish fire.
MADE HER WILL.
Yet there is more than this 20 say for
| the theory that this creature still lives.
! On Monday, April "a, the very Gay Lelure
I the fire, sh6 drove the dapple gray into town
! and climbed laboriOusly into the office OF
/ NJ. 4. Letter, a lawyer. She got him TO
/ draw her will, saying that she had reason
| TO think her life was In danger. She uiI
not explain why. and the testament sweetly
! began Having In mind the brevity OF
human life" Sne left her property to her
three children, with the provision that
should they be dead It should revert to the
Norwegian Orphans and Children's Home
Of Chicago.
On the very next day before daybreak,
unless Belle Guinness is the murderer Of her
own children, II did 20 revert and word
comes from Chicago that the Orphans
! Home is trying TO make up It's mind whether
! it ought to take an estate made up so largely
Of blood money, whether il ought in fact
70 take the DEVILS money 10 do the work Of
! God. The same question has before now
confronted a church 10 which was offered
a subscription from brewer
But, more than this Belle Gunness's fire.
| quent complaints Of Lamphere indicate
| that she feared he would do her some in
! jury. Did she fear that he was about TO
! tell what he knew Of the death Of Helgelien
or merely that in his madness Of the lover
scorned he would do her violencel But
still another fear this creature surely had.
| BY this time she knew that she could not
much longer hope 10 escape a visit from the
murdered Helgeen's brother. Over him
she had not the hypnotic power Of any
Fictitious love affair.
She knew that II he came II would be TO
| find his brother and that he would be more
| than likely 10 find him, as indeed he has
most fearfully done. Would any or all Of
these fears drive such woman TO kill her
own children and sacrifice her property
in a desperate effort 10 escape?
There is only one other theory and that
is suicide In the same fire that killed
the children. Balance these alternatives
one against the others. Clearly IL seems
| probable that Belle Guinness has followed
her many victims 10 death. But you can't
convince LapOrte.
'Shes too blamed smart" repeats La
| porte, with absolute conviction, and 80
indeed, she may be.
4The last time | saw Mrs. Guinness
said Frank Meher this evening 'she drove
| me out OF the house and told me never 10
| / haAN N al
1t was about bill OF 50 had against her
| for slaughtering some Of her cattle got
! my money through lawyer. slaughtered
| for her several times and III never forget
what she said one time
THAT old-well, here's how II was. She
| told me the cattle TO be slaughtered were
out in the barn | found six or eight
there and went back and said how was
| to tell which TO slaughter She told her
little girl TO 60 out and show me and then
she says:
81 don't want 10 know nothing about it,,
8 e says, i never could stomach 10 see any
blood | don't want 10 be anywheres
around it,
'Well, did not think nothing Of II at the
| time II seemed natural enough in a woman.
but swear since all these murders come
out II seems to me | never heard sech a
dretful speech. Jest to tink Of that blank
blank blank, having the gall to talk to me
| like that
CROWDS VISIT THE PLACE.
All day long crowds have been streaming
out along the country road that leads to tn,
| NJ omened farm. At one time more thai
| 1900 persons were gathered about the
| ruins staring at the heaps Of charred bodies
or gazing solemnly at the gaping holes in
that black garden.
Fright out to the fire. Only five centsl'
shout the bus drivers on Main street The
buses quickly fill and away they roll for the
| field Of blood.
The house where 30 many died, whether
OF poison, shooting or the knife, stood at
the crest OF little hill and about tifty yards
| from the road, Fully twenty-five little
evergreen trees screened It from the gaze
Of passersby, Not one brick is left upon
another to-day and even the iron bed
steads were twistedand melted by the flames
The secrets OF that house are dissolved IN
| fame.
Maxson and Lamphere both tell Of a room
| in that house that was always kept locked.
Neither Of them ever got a glimpse Of its
interior, nor did any other man now alive,
and the flames have made its secrets per-
manent.
Not twenty yards from the ruins Of the
| house IL the death plot. IL Is a bare patch
Of ground about fifty by yseventy-fivefeet. 1t
is surrounded by a fence Of woven wire,
and that as II 70 make sure, is a line Of
| barbed wire. Nothing grew in this plot or
ever was planted there save cOTpses.
Behind the house there is a wide swamp
' on one side. On the other the country
stretches away for half mile before house
is reached. On this side Of this road the
! Nicholson house, the nearest one, is nearly
a quarter Of mile away Lonely, remote
| ..zl k,.n hNgf ha -
| its owner, the place is not i'll fitted for the
| frightful purposes 20 which it was put
and yet the children in the house, the hired
mani
ANY way the thing is looked at there are a
| lot Of things that will bear explanation
! In short, il ever there was one Of those
| things appropriate 10 describe by that
overworked word mystery this appears
| 70 be it.
Meantime the local authorities are ticking
| it for granted that Belle Guinness is dead
and that Lamphere killed her and her chill
| dren by FIRE. That's the easiest way out
| Of it for the authorities. But II anybody
will catch Belle Guinness for them, why,
| very well.
Mrs. Gunnesss three children were well
| enough treated, il appears, but they were
| all much afraid Of their mother. She kept
! them neatly dressed whenever they went
! abroad and for three years before they died
| she sent them to the Sunday school of the
| First Methodist Episcopal Church quite
regularly. She herself never went, but in
! the summer time when the weather was
! fine the children were there about every
| Sunday. j. II. Rupel, superintendent Of
| the Sunday school, says that all three chill
| dren we're bright and quick to learn, but that
| they we're notably shy and did not mix
! much with the other children.