The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1916-04-21
Educational Series
o of dener Interest to All Classes


threads of dark blue WOOL AT some
distance from the window, Ii the gar
den under a bush he found the second
top boot.
The Inspector came to the conclusion,
from the evidences, that the man had
been strangled and his body taken out
through the window.
The fact that the watch and money
were undisturbed showed that the pur-
pose Of the crime was not robbery.
The safety match indicated that some
person above the ordinary was con-
nected with the affair, since peasants
or common servants would have only
sulphur matches. The fact that one
boot remained In the room made the
inspector believe that the guardsman
had been killed while he was undress-
ing. The finding of the other boot in
the garden indicated that this one had
been partly removed and had fallen
off while the body was being carried
away.
The inspector in his report recon
structed the crime: On the evening in
question the guardsman, who had been
on a prolonged debauch, went to his
room drunk. AS he sat on his bed,
taking off one Of his boots, he had been
attacked and smothered with the pil-
low. During the struggle the candle
was knocked over and afterward one
Of the assassins religbted it, striking q
safety match. When the man was dead
his body had been taken out through
the window and carried across the gar
den As 1t passed the lilac bush the
remaining boot, partly removed by the
man before he was attacked, dropped
off
The inspector, having arrived at this
deduction, determined to locate the
safety match. He went TO all the shops
in every direction, but not one Of them
carried IN its stock such thing as a
box OF safety matches Finally, at
some distance from the scene of the
tragedy, he found a shopkeeper who
had single pack of such matches. 1t
was broken pack. with one box miss
ing The shopkeeper remembered pre-
box. 1t was the wife Of the guards
man, big. masculine woman of un-
usual physical strength. She lived near
the apartment in which the guards
man had been murdered 1t was now
night, but the inspector went at once
to the woman and charged her with
the murder of her husband
II II ~ -
me at once to the place where you
have concealed your husbandr
She got key from a nail on the
wall and went out into the courtyard.
The inspector followed. They finally
reached a little house at the end OF
the garden. The woman unlocked the
door and they entered. BY the light of
candle the inspector saw the long
body OF man lying motlonless on a
bed III the corner of the room He
approached to examine the murdered
body.
But here his deductions went TO
pieces. The supposed dead man sat
up, and the explanation OF all the
tragic incidents appeared. The guards
man was going TO bed every night
drunk. His wife heard Of 1t and went
across the garden to his window to
demonstrate with him. He put the
window up and, seeing who 1t was,
threw his boot at her She was
resolute woman in masculine efficiency
She climbed in through the window,
thrashed the drunken guardsman
soundly, dragged him across the gar
den aud locked him up in the bath
house, where she determined to keep
him until he should be sober He had
been thus prisoner for one day, while
with swift deductions the Inspector
had worked out his complicated muir
der.-Melville Dayisson Post in Satur
day Evening Post