The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1913-01-16

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. 1t, and the turning of that worm
made a 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
small girl, and everybody knows how
the homely business goes when 1t 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 to blame in
this way. He was an easy mark dur
ing his differ and when he came to his
dying bed he made a will leaving ey-
erything to his daughter. "
ltktot 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
Smithville that were keeping book ac-
counts against her figured up that she
had been Tilted twenty-five different
times. Trust the married women of n
village to keep tabs on an old maid.
There was great jeering when the
last jilt came. Sarah Ann weDt 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
fair show. The worm would turn and
make 1t hot for Smithville. There was
no one around to hear the click of the
spinster's teeth as her mind was made
up with the rock of Gibraltar for a
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 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 speut the day looking |
for it. but not the slightest trace was
hauled the missing woman's papers, |
and the first document was solar
plexus blow. II charged thirty differ |
ent villagers with conspiracy to do !
away with the writer by violence. The
list included minister, IN 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 tie street ana warned her
that she must leave the town or have !
her throat cut.
The production of this document fill |
ed the.Eillage with CONSERVATION. The
sheriff decided that he must make ar
rests as charged, and he went about
1t. Meanwhile the search for the body |
continued. and strangers care from
twenty miles away to participate.
Newspapers sent their Representatives,
and private detectives were on hand
by the dozen. There might not have
been hundred different theories, but
there surely were fifty.
The number of persons arrested was
1903; the number of strangers visiting |
sInithvf1Iesin the first four weeks was
estimated at 1000; the number Of
newspaper columns written was $50;
the number Of times Sarah AIMS pic