Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1912-08-01
HE GOT A
SCARE
By EDWARD MELLARD


that sort O. thing It's one thing to be
charged with burglary and another to
be charged with murderin'. Besides,
bad name gained in one field counts
the same in another,
had done good job in a rich mans
house and got away with $500. That
wasn't much, you may say, considerin'
the wealth Of the party, but the swag
wasn't in jewels or silverware or
bonds that has to be turned into cash,
but in bank bills, no one of 'em over
500
| broke tenner to git out O
town and took a train, putin my
satchel up on the rack beside me, just
like any other passenger. 1t had my
tools in it. and in case l was spotted
/ thought | might leave 'em behind
me. Then pulled a newspaper out O.
my pocket and begun to read.
My eyes fell on notice of the muir
der of a man whose mutilated body
had been found in trunk. | was read.
in this article when we got to a sta
ton where a Teller sittin' beside me.
got up to go out. His bag was in the
rack beside mine, and ! watched him
as he reached for it. Then | noticed
that it looked just like mine, and |
wasn't sorry to see him make a mis-
take and take mine instead of his'n. /
wanted to get rid Of the tools. and
didn't dare throw 'em away for fear
some detective was on my track and
would pounce on 'em and me.
What luckr' | remarks to myself
But you bet I didn't say it aloud.
just waited till the train stopped,
watchin the young Teller from under
the rir. of my hat, fearin' all the time
he'd look back at the rack and see his
mistake. But he stood in the aisle
waitin and never looked to the rack or
down at my bag that he was carryin'
When the train stopped and he got out
| laughed all over.
thort I'd take the feller's bag when
l got out, for he was respectable
lookin' young man, and I might prove
anybody spottin' me wrong by havin'
his property with me. But l jist left
it alone till got to the end o. my jour
ney; then | took it up and carried it
out. hopin' to lose myself in big city.
If could git by any plain clothes man
watchin' at the depot l would be all
right
But that's exactly what | did
not do. At the gate man sprang
through the crowd of those lookin for
friends comm from the train and clap
ped pair o bracelets on me. An
other one took my satchel. and l was
hustled off to police station,
When they brought me before the
inspector the first thing he did was to
open the satchel What was my hor-
ror to see him take out, among other
things, a bundle which. when he un
rolled 1t, turned out to be a human
hand. A cold chill ran through me.
thought of the body had been readin'
about found in trunk and every other
murder ever committed, and l was
sure I'd go to the chair for some of
EN-
You ought to have seen the face of
that inspector and the cops and plain
clothes men standin' round when he
unrolled that hand. They had no more
doubt they'd caught murderer than
that they were police officers, and |
was so frightened that | must have
looked more like a murderer than the
real thing. l was searched and 1892
and some change found on me.
I'd been telegraphed for on account
of the robbery I'd committed. bein'
suspected O that job. especially since
I'd left town suddenly, But when
they saw the hand they at once con
nected me with another matter, cause
no one had been hurt in the robbery
couldn't see any way out of it ex
cept to exchange the chair for ten
years term in states prison. I'd have
been glad enough to do that II could,
but how could /? What puzzled me
was how such respectable lookin'
chap as the Teller that took my bag
could "a been gittin' away with parts
O. some one he'd murdered, But, you
see, sometimes there is murderers
among the swells.
The only thing l could do was TO
keep my mouth shut and let the police
go their own road in the matter. The
inspector, after a few days, put me
through the third degree; but, since
hadn't the sin O. murder on my con.
science. he didn't git anything out o
me. If it hadn't been for the hand
found in my bag the money would
"a helped fix the robbery on me, but
the hand threw 'em off the track en-
tirely.
The police concluded to put it out to
the public that they had the man who
had done the trunk murder, and had
to laugh at the theories they built up
and the lies they told One O. the the
cries was so ingen'us that / woke up
ore mornin' not sure whether / was
the trunk murderer or not.
haven't any doubt they would a
chaired me on one or another O them