St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1909-04-24

THAT is where, psychology
carbohydrates me the advantage
of you. Would an uneducated ltallan,
such as apparently wrote this letter
spell Wednesday with ID invar1-
ably in the first syllable, once with q
| y, as if to lc: the reader knGfH Inaf
| he really knew how to spell 1t, ana
then write it twice without the y, as
well as to leave the same letter OUT
of Thursday Would an unedu-
Gated Italian spell thousand with
dash, thous-a,' would he write media.
| for need, or 'kil-a' for kill, and so
| on? He would speak this way, but
he would require some education IN
| order to write this way. Moreover,
|, the punctuation and use of capitals
| are perfect-two positive proofs OF 9
certain degree of education. And to
clinch the evidence, look at the hand
writing. 1t is disguised, but irregu-
larly, as if done by an immature mind,
and the vertical penmanship taught q
little while ago in our public schools
sticks out all through the letter. The
character and attainments OF the
writer of this letter, taken together
with the injured boys testimony,
points with finality to certain one Of
the persons knownGto be concerned.
In short, whatever his motive may
be, and impossible as the known facts
alone seem to render it"
The doctor paused az footsteps
sounded without, and then went on
the person who threw that bomb
was"
Master Frank MacaluSco,' an
nounced the maid, opening the door.
And forward stepped the son of Tony,
his face bandaged, but wearing q
smile of deprecating good humor.
Detective Birsch stared at the boy
and then looked at the doctor.
You don't mean" he began, and
paused. DR.. Furnivall smiled some
what grimly.
Take a seat, Master Frank" he
said. And when the grinning youth
had taken tentative position on the
edge of the couch, hat in hand, the
doctor continued: "Shall / be COM
PEELED to hypnotic you, or will you
tell your story freely?"
"Oh, it's all off now, and 1 might
as well talk the boy answered. Far
from feeling embarrassed, he seemed
to enjoy the situation, grinning i'm
partially at each of his hearers as
he proceeded with his confession.
you can take it straight" he said,
in schoolboy slang, that it wasn't me
for the priesthood 1t was my folks
that put up that job for me. 1t is
me for the stage-Fm going to be an
actor. It wouldn't do to let my father
know that, though-he'd go nutty. He
thought it was all settled long ago,
and l let him think so because 1t
would be no good to start in lighting
him before I had to. OF course
knew he had the money saved up,
How could I help getting wise to it.
when they're always whispering about
it to each other, looking mysterious
and acting funny, me right there with
EN- SO much? So I fixed up this deal
to lift the money from father.
wouldn't use it-all / wanted was to
make sure he wouldn't send me to
college. could not do that this way
without making him mad at me for
not doing as he wished, and / could
give the stuff back to him later. I
knew he was easily frightened, and
thought he would give up right or
as soon as I was threatened, without
going to the police, but when / heard
him in the other room talking with
mother about the letter and the trap
the police had set didn't know what
to do. At first thought I'd call 1t
all off. 1t was too risky. But the
excitement sort Of appealed to me,
and thought that as l was bound to
be an actor, this was as good a time
as any to begin. So finally / hit on
the thing did. Last night / got an
old piece of lead pipe and split it, to
make it look like an exploded bomb.
and put 1t on the rug, which
scorched with match, cut my face
little with my razor, and then
touched off cannon firecracker.
things wouldn't tell any tales. I had
my door already unlocked, and ran
and opened it, and slammed 1t back
without latching it, jumped a few
steps downstairs, and then ran back
again, closing the door softly. | had
meant to unlock my window, to make
believe the Black Hand got in that
way, but guess I was little nervous,
and I forgot it, and so had to say the
man I saw was on the fire-escape out
side, instead of in the room, as / had
intended to say. The situation was
wasn't it? 1t was funny
the way everybody swallowed such
stiff as that!" He threw the cha
grined detective sly glance. He
was the everybody" referred to.
Then the boy, this would-be actor.
thrilling with pride over his ex.
plot that not even it's detection and
failure could materially lower, added.
II told father in the letter to send tha
money to the San Francisco post Of.
fee, then I wrote to them there to
forward any letters for John XII.
braith to another post ONCE, and /
wrote that Office to forward the mail
to another. and SO on, and the last
one was to forward it to our general
delivery here. where I could get it"
He paused, looking at the detective.
who examined him a moment al lie he
would like to take him across his
knee, and then. turned to DR.. FI1rnivaII.
1T seems plain enough now he
said, somewhat sheepishly.
$50 does everything whom rna5a po |