McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-06-09

Occasionally, girls trayellng'ln the
subways and elevated lines find that a
corrosive acid has been squirted on
their fine silk dresses and shoes, OF
slit with knife so as to ruin the
clothes. There are people who keep
up that dastardly work for no appar-
ent reason except that they are crazy
in that way, but smart enough to
keep from being caught. Rich wom-
en- are sometimes detected at steal
ing goods in the big stores. Some Of
them have specially designed dresses
with pockets big enough to stow away
quantities of stuff. There is generally
a small room in each big store where
lady officer makes these shoplifters
strip and give up their ill-gotten
goods. | have heard that large sums
OF money have been paid by these
thieves to be allowed to 90 without
detection. A big, fat woman was ar
rested in a downtown store some years
ago-before New York reformed
as she was trying to recruit her
white slave traffic among the poor
shop girls. The arrest was made by
"a federal officer, but her influence
with the store people was such that
they made strong fight to have the
thing hushed up. Her patronage
was worth several thousand dollars a
month to the store, and it was
brought out afterward that her in,
come from immoral traffic in girls
amounted to forty thousand dollars a
month. But Uncle Sans men can't
be called off by any one, and the
woman, to the great disgrace of the
store manager, was tried and sent up
for long term.
Everybody hates a poisoner. That
is why this great city was stirred to
it's depths last March when DR.. Arthur
Waite, a fashionable young dentist,
was arrested for doing to death his
wife's father, John Peck, of Grand
Rapids, Michigan, who was staying
with the young man here, having lost
his wife. The old man was million
aire; his wife had just died, and the
son-in-law wanted the money, and fed
the old man on arsenic. He had a
beautiful apartment on Riverside
Drive, overlooking the Hudson; the
old man was giving him $500 a month
to live on, and his wife's aunt had let
him have $4,000 to invest for her.
which he had himself appropriated.
He had q young wife who loved him;
was fine tennis player. a student Of
languages, and popular society man;
one would think he would be satisfied.
10, no. He wanted the old mans mil
lion, so he could be looked up to as
the rich and powerful DR.. Waite.
The whole terrible story came out
gradually after the young dentist was
arrested, and it was story that made
even this city gasp. Cody, the pris-
oner told how, he had first gone to
work on his wife's mother. She loved
him as a son, and had favored him
when the old man objected TO his suit
for the daughters hand. He went to
the big hospitals and bought most
virulent germs of disease, such as
typhoid fever and pneumonia, that he
could find. and mixed them with the
old lady's food, and with his father
in-law's food, too. She died Of pneu-
monia, and her body was cremated.
The wife's aunt. Miss Peck, who had
placed a fortune in the fellows hands,
found sand in some jam one day, and
took it back to the grocer who had
sold it to her; the grocer apologized
and refunded the money for the jam.
The young poisoner had put ground
glass in it! The old man was too
healthy to sicken from the germs
that had carried away his wife. SO
Waite tried arsenic on him, putting it
in his soup. A servant saw him put
some white powder in the soup; Waite
said it was medicine; the old man
didn't like the soup, but the poisoner
told him it would do him good, and
the trusting old man, believing that
his son-in-law, who claimed great
medical knowledge, was trying to help
him peck was already suffering from
an earlier dose of the poison. gulped
down the mixture that took away his
life that night.
Then Waite was anxious to have
the body cremated! He could hardly
wait To get IL to the old home al