The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-01-31

lot of work to do, and have fur
nIshed them with facts that have
enabled them to win number of
cases. They are criminal lawyers, and
most of the evidence have given
them has been used. / am happy to
say, to secure the acquittal Of persons
accused Of crime don't know any
thing that gives me more satisfaction
than saving an Innocent person from
punishment.
zone day Mr.. Scrimser sent for me
and said:
"'We have been retained to defend
Mrs. Edith Townsend, charged with
poisoning her husband. a man she was
induced by her parents to marry when
she was eighteen years old. Townsend
was very rich and miser. His wife,
who Is only twenty-four years old, is
a beautiful woman. At the time of
her marriage she had been engaged to
a young man not able to support her,
and she loved him instead of her hus-
band. Her husbands relatives, who
would like to secure his property, have
worked up the case against her. A
note she wrote the man she had been
engaged to, Horace Truesdale, telling
him she would not see him so long as
her husband lived. Is all the evidence
they have been able to adduce to
prove her intimacy with him during
her married life. But they have
proved that on one occasion month
previous to her husbands death she
bought a drug that was found upon
analysis in her husbands stomach.
She said that when she bought this
drug her husband sent her for
prescription the nature Of which she
knew nothing. / believe that be
was taking a drug for stimulant and
that it eventually killed him. Here Is
the technical name for it. He gave
me slip of paper. ] wish you to dis
cover II he was not in the habit OF
buying it. Remember that a womans
good name. p,ghaps her life, depends
upon your efforts.
81 went at the matter Systematically,
first procuring n list Of the drug stores
within reach Of Mr. Townsend's resi-
dence He had lived in bis country
place surrounded by villages in which
there were drug stores. If he wished
to conceal the fact Of his purchases he
had only TO drive 10 one of these towns
sufficiently distant that he should not
be known there buy his drug and car
~ it home himself Though 1t was
poison when taken In large quantities.
1t was prescribed by physicians. and
an order for 1t was not in all cases es-
sential.
Il visited every drug store within a
radius OF twenty miles from bis home
and talked with every proprietor and
clerk In all Of them. Not one Of them
could remember any person answering
to my description Of Mr. Townsend.
and all declared that no such person
had ever to their knowledge visited /
their store. hit upon the place where /
his wife had bought the poison she /
was charged with having procured. I
but this had all been worked up by |
another detective.
IL went to Mr.. Scrimser and re-
ported my failure
Try the wholesale druggists, he
said.
why should the man have bought +
the drug at wholesaler l asked. +
"'He was mean enough TO buy his I
table salt ct wholesale, he replied
ITO make a search OF the wholesale +
drug stores was quite another PROPOSE I
lion. It was equivalent to a hunt in
every wholesale drug house in the
United States. and Mr. Townsend +
might have bought the drug in Can
ida. Indeed. II he wished to conceal
his purchases Canada would be the
better field first looked into the ex-
press offices in the Places where pack
iges might have been delivered to him.
sent him that could have been
| drug appeared on the books Of the
express companies. nor was any such
'eceipt on file.
The only hope left for Mrs. Town
lend was that her husband had or,
Tered the drug sent by mail / pro-
.ured a list Of all the wholesale drug
Houses In the United States and Can
ida and sent letter to each asking IL
hey had ever oiled orders for the drug
ound in his stomach, giving also the
eason why / wished to know. It was
n enormous work for them TO hunt
he matter up, but since a life might
lang upon their efforts nearly all re-
lied that they would make a thorough
earch.
"Do you know that three different
rug houses, two in the United States
nd one in Canada. wrote me that ON
eversl occasions they had sent Town
end pound packages OF the drug in
uestion
"That settled the matter. Mrs. Town
end was discharged"