The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1910-01-29

lust heart-toheart talk upon the
~ twin subjects of servants and
murders. One naturally leads to the
other.
And, at the start, want to say that
I totally disapprove of servants as
subject of conversation. The trials
of housekeepers should be a tabooed
topic And 1 will say the same of
murder trials.
For myself, / make it point never
TO read about murders. l can get all
I want from the headlines. To be
sure, there are exceptions to every
rule; there was Robin Graves, who
murdered his great-grandmother on a
dare from his fellow medical students.
I didn't read anything about it, but l
heard people discussing it, and it had
elements of interest In 1t. And / al
ways thought that Probyn-Clew case
far from dull. You may remember
that Probyn sent Clew poisoned car
amel on the very day that Clew sent
Probyn a poisoned peppermint. and
the papers we're full of it. l gathered
enough to enable me to hold my end
up when I encountered a person with
bad enough taste to discuss the sub
Jest. 1t was deplorable the way
people harped on that case.
Then take the affair Of the land
lady who murdered all her boarders
because they resented a raise in the
price of board. What a mine Of wealth
that was to the reporters! My paper
had six columns a day for 20 days and
I just had to read that because there
was nothing else, but politics, in the
paper; but / felt that 1t was no sub
feet for a person of any refinement.
Yet knew one man who makes quite
q pretense of being up in the English
classics, and he knew every point in
the trial. l could not trip him up on
q single bit of evidence. That expert
ence just about destroyed my faith in
humanity. My brother said that 1
talked of nothing else but that trial,
and he was quite right. l was COM
pletely absorbed in trying to find
some person who knew nothing of it.
And at last did find an old lady who
never reads the papers. She had not
even heard about it. She wanted to
discuss one of Fiske's books on evolu-
ton, but said, See here, Mrs. De-
1ancey, you're a rara avis. You're the
first person I've met who has not
heard about this unique series of MUIR
ders, and I'm just going to tell you
the whole story so that you may see
for yourself what it Is that fills
peoples minds in these degenerate
days." And SO told her the whole
story and she listened breathless; this
cultivated woman was positively as
interested as II she had been police
man. OF Tor on) duty. and discussing
shop with brother officer. Oh, was
sickened.
After while she wanted to shift
on to evolution so that she wouldn't
dream of the horrible murders, but
looked at my watch and saw that
had a train to catch. and again Fiske
was side-tracked. Fiske, with his lu-
.cidity and logic and sweet reasonable
ness, was side-tracked for a horrible
murder.
Just as was coming away asked
my hostess. casually. If she remem-
bered the Bond street murder and she
did remember that, for her father
lived on the very same block at the
time 1t was committed. 1 actually
missed my train because l sat down
to hear her talk about it. 1t was like
a BIT out Of Ainsworth. l was not
born when 1t happened, and she was
but girl, but her father had the bad
habit of discussing such things in the
presence of his children, and it had
made such an impression upon her
infant mind that here she was retail
ing it to me. AS bit of local history
contemporaneous with the days of IT.
wing and Cooper, 1t had a certain
value: and that is what appealed to
me.
But to return to servants. There Is
Absolutely no excuse for talking about
the Bridgets and Christmas and Ma
ries and Dinahs that come and go.
Mind you, / am not narrow-minded;
there are circumstances that alter
cases. II there Is a servant who ex-
cites your interest in humanity, 1t is
allowable to talk about her. Now we
had a maid for a couple Of days last
week who had evidently seen better
days and many Of them. The way she
broke crockery showed that she did
not do it with malice prepense. nor
yet out of sheer carelessness Is an
ordinary maid would have done. She
had evidently been used to being wait
ed upon and had no manual dexterity
whatever. In fact. she told me that
she had never lived out before. Her
name was Marie Brannigan.
We had one girl who refused to go
when her day was up. She was abso-
lutely worthless as cook, but she