River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-04-08

s'Why, uneoucated, of course" re-
turned Birsch. See the spelling. and
the language. Or else it was an edu.
Gated person trying to seem uneGu
Gated"
A broad grin spread over the doc
tors bearded face.
Il fancy it was one or the other"
he said, but which,"
"How do Iknow?" responded Birsch,
fatuously. The doctor smoothed his
features and answered, mildly:
THAT is where. psychology-yes,
psychology-gives me the advantage
of you. Would an uneducated Italian.
such as apparently wrote this letter.
spell "Wednesday with a ID invari-
ably in the first syllable. once with a
| y, as If to let the reader know that
he really knew how to spell it, and
then write it twice without the " as
well as to leave the same letter out
| OF thursday" Would an unedu-
Gated Italian spell thousand with a
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 pertect-two positive proofs of
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 a
little while ago in our public schools
sticks out all through the letter. The
character and attachments of the
writer of this letter, taken together
with the injured boys testimony,
points with finality to certain one of
In short, whatever his motive may
be, and impossible as the known facts
alone seem to render it"
The doctor paused as 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 a
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 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 l be com
PEELED to hypnotic you, or will you
tell your story freely?"
ooh, it's all off now, and | might
as we'll 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-Im going to be an
actor. 1t wouldn't do to let my father
know that, though-hed go nutty. He
thought it was all settled long ago,
and | let him think so because il
would be no good to start in fighting
him before 1 had to. OF course l
knew he had the money saved up.
How could l help getting wise to it,
when they're always whispering about
it to each other, looking mysterious
and acting funny, me right there with
em so much? So / 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. I 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.
knew he was easily frightened, and
thought he would give up right off
as soon as / 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 l didn't know what
to do. At first / thought I'd call it
all off. 1t was too risky. But the
excitement sort Of appealed to me,
and | thought that as / 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 1T, to
make it look like an exploded bomb,
and put it on the rug, which
scorched with a match, cut my face
a little with my razor, and then
touched off a cannon firecracker.
had no gun, you know, and these
things wouldn't tell any tales. ! had
my door already unlocked, and ran
and opened 1t, 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 l guess l was little nervous,
and forgot it, and so had to say the
man saw was on the fire-escape out
side. instead of in the room, as l had
intended to say. The situation was
impossible, wasn't it? 1t was funny
the way everybody swallowed such
stiff as that" He threw the cha
grined detective a sly glance. He