The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1913-11-28
How . Mother Saved Her Son From
The Hangman's Moose.

The Hangman's Moose.
Maravene Thompson is writing Ii
The American Magazine, a seria
story entitled THE Woman's Law,
based on double identity, In which ,
mother, to save her child, substitutes
an innocent man for murderer. II
the course of q recent interview thu
author of this piece OF fiction reveal
ed many of the facts IN her possession
on the subject of double identity. i
appears that she has been interested
In the subject for many years. FRS
she found her own double, Annie
Walsh, Boston woman whose resem
blanee to Mrs. Thompson Is marvel
Gus. Then she became interested IL
the comments of a judge who sale
that a criminal Is foolish to quake
before a published description of him.
self, because any description would
fit at least two men in each block
This Judge went on to say that he
could find his double In half an noui
In any crowded thoroughfare-hiE
double SO far as height. weight. shape
of head and color OF eyes and hair
can be conveyed by description. Later
she found many police prosecutors
who told her that identifcations by
finger prints and other scientific
means is developing simply because
the old method of depending on de-
scrintlons for Identification Is fail
uFe. Following is true story Mrs
Thompson. tells of double identity, In
which a. mother saves her son from
the hangman's moose:
4s.A. s,ts
old and her son forty-three. He was
a dope fiend.
1T was a sweltering July. Hos
pitfalls and relief stations were crowd
ca with patients Frustrated with the
Neat. Mary's husband had died from
sunstroke. The first thing her eye
sought In her morning paper Ras a
list Of the heat victims One morn
ing at the bottom of the list WIS I'm
known man about forty-five, seven feet.
weight $50 or Whereabouts, mixed gray
and brown hair and beard, blue serge
suit. pockets empty. dellrious.'
Mary read this and turned white.
1t was a description Of her son. She
had sat up till midnight and he had
not come in. And she had feared
She went 10 the room. Her son
was there, lying upon his bed. dress
ed, and asleep. His face was scratch
ed as II from an encounter with BRAN
bles. The mother felt In his pocket
for the morphine bottle to see how
much he had taken since yesterday.
Her hand encountered Il ring. q man's
big solitaire In old-faahioned setting.
and leather pouch containing $1,000
in currency bills.
She hid the ring and the pouch
inyoluntarily, In a wild maternal in
stinet to save her offspring Then
she went back TO the sitting room:
the newspaper lay outspread On the
table where she had left IL, IN big
black headlines she read
AGED MAN MURDERED IL HIS
BED. Then followed the story. The
man had no immediate family He
lived alone with one old servant The
house was isolated, surrounded by a
hedge fence. Three persons had seen
a man In that vicinity about midnight.
the time of the murder. man With a
beard.
The woman OF sIxty-nine. simple.
honest, blunt of imagination. looked
from this matter over to the other
matter-'unknown man Just what
happened In Mary's soul she nor no
one else will ever know. Her own
statement, on record. Ia merely. 1t
came to me. and ! did It, had to
save my son.
She put on her hat. then took the
ring and the partly filled bottle of
morphine and went In the relief sta
tion where the unknown man Wag. lie
lay, dressed in his street clothes, up
on cot. Ills head upon an Ice pack.
OverHorked doctors and nurses were
busy administering relief to the fast
accruing patients. There was the at
tendant confusion and croWding.
Mary unnotieed, sought out the I'M
known man. He looked very much
like her son. 'proyidentially like,
in Mary's words
She bent over him and left the ring
and the morphine bottle--In his
pocket? No And here is Mary's one
great stroke that makes her, a novice
in crime, remembered In police cir
cles. She pushed the ring and the
bottle under him a little, as though
they had slipped from out his Goth
es somewhere as he was laid down.
Mary remembered thai his pockets
had been found empty
As Mary went out she saw 4 police
captain and patrolman approaching
She fingered and saw them go TO the
cot Of the unknown man. Then she
heard the words:
This looks like our man. Captain.
Then-'It is. Here's the ring Yes,
and the morphine
Mary went home and shaved on her
sons beard as he slept That night
the mother and son and the $1,000
went TO Bennington, Vermont From
there, few days later. they crossed
into Canada. Mary, from home papers
bought on the news stands, read about
the unknown man who had killed and
stolen. And about the search for the
$4,000 the old mans servant said was
taken. And how the three persons
who saw the murderer swore that the
unknown man was he. The unknown
man had softening Of the brain and
was sent to an asylum. He was still
unidentified.
Mary purchased a little farm
spending $1,000 of the $4,000. Anf
there she and her son lived for nine
years. The farm, under Marys guild.
anee prospered wonderfully. Then tht