The herald., 1913-01-16
When the Worm
Turned
By NJ. QUAD
Copyright. 1912, by Associated Lit
erary Press.
By NJ. QUAD

In this instance the worm was Sarah
Ann Perkins of the village of Smith
Vile.
Nature and her father and lot OF
other persons and things were to blame
for il, and the turning Of that worm
made heap Of trouble for a hundred
people or more.
Sarah Ann was born homely. Just
how homely she was as a baby need
not be told here. She was hOmely as
a small girl, and everybody knows how
the hOmely business goes when it once
gets started At the age of twenty
Sarah Ann was a peach. She attract
ed ten times the attention of any hand
some girl.
Sarah AIMS father was 10 blame in
this way. He was an easy mark dur
ing his life, and when he came to his
dying bed he made a will leaving ev-
erything TO his daughter.
1t got nOised around that Sarah Ann
had been left big legacy, and wild
overs and bachelors appeared and fell
in love with her. Then they inveSti-
gated the legacy matter and fell out
again. When Miss Perkins had reach
ed the age OF forty, which she did in
due time the five or six women in
Smithvile that were keeping book ac-
counts against her figured up that she
had been Tilted twenty-five different
times Trust the married women Of a
fol, old
There was great jeering when the
last tilt came. Sarah Ann wept and
was not cOmfOrted. She realized that
her last chance had slipped away.
Even an optimistic woman can't fail
to realize that there must be an end
to the counting game. For long, long
day our heroine was thinking. and
when the stars of evening twinkled
again her mind was made up. The
village OF Smithville hadn't given her
a fair show. The worm would turn and
make it hot for Smithville. There was
no one around to hear the click of the
spinsters teeth as her mind was made
up with the rock of Gibraltar for
foundation If there had been there
would have been shivers a-plenty.
Two weeks from that night Sarah
Ann Perkins disappeared off the face
Of the earth-that is, the face Of the
earth around Smithville. She had been
living alone with her cat in q little cot
tage. A window was found broken in
and door broken open. Chairs were
upset and furniture broken, and there
were splashes of blood here and there.
There was great excitement at once.
Miss Perkins had been murdered while
the village slept. The body could not
be found. More than hundred people
turned out and spent the day looking
for it. but not the slightest trace was
had. The sheriff and the coroner. over
hauled the missing woman's papers,
and the first document was solar
plexus blow. 1t charged thirty differ
ent villagers with conspiracy to do
away with the writer by violence. The
list included q minister, an elder and
two deacons, and the others were all
prominent. About half were women.
The charge was boldly made that on
certain dates certain men or women
had called at the old maids house or
met her on the street and warned her
that she must leave the town or have
her throat cut.
The production of this document fill
ed the village with CONSERVATION. The
sheriff decided that he must make ar
rests as charged, and he went about
IL. Meanwhile the search for the bod!
continued, and strangers came from
twenty miles away to participate
Newspapers sent their representatives
and private detectives were on hand
by the dozen. There might not have
been a hundred different theories. but
there surely were fifty.
The number of persons arrested was
1903; the number of strangers visiting
Smithville in the first four weeks was
estimated at 10,IOO; the number OF
newspaper columns written was 800;
the number Of times Sarah AIMS PIC
ture was used was 81; the damage to
the business of the town was $4,000.
OF the 103 persons arrested all but
two proved alibis for the night of the
murder. OF the other two one was a
merchant and the other a deacon
They had played checkers and drunk
hard cider in a back room of the store
that night until they had slid out OF
their chairs and slept under the table
Time consumed in the trial, five weeks;
cost to county and individuals, S14.-
600. No one was convicted.
OF course it was Sarah Ann Perkins
who broke open her door and smashed
In the window The blood came from
a chicken killed that afternoon. She
left her cottage at about s o'clock and
had the luck to get out of the village
unseen. Then she took to the high
way and travelled all night and made
fifty miles next day by the cars. Then
she halted and hired out at village
inn and was within siXty-five miles of
Smithville all the time the affair was
on. Three thousand dollars was the
reward out for her, but no one got it,
One day a year later Sarah Ann re-
appeared in Smithville. She was ac-
companied by her husband. He was
the innkeeper she had worked for.
She had finally told him her story, and
when it had been concluded he had
asked:
But what was the matter you
couldn't get married.