The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-10-15
PUDD'NETEAD Will SON
BY MARK TWAIN
Condensation by John kendriek Banos

come his slave. and acquired a pro- :
found detestation for his ancient nurse !
Roxana, Of whose real relation to
him he was unaware, until goaded to /
resentment by his contemptuous and !
brutal treatment. she acquainted him !
with the terrible facts Of his birth and !
ancestry, and demanded that he treat |
hef as a mother on penalty Of eX !
pOsure
The revelation Frustrated the i'm.
poster for brief period, but failed to |
spur him on to better behavior He !
went from bad to worse, STOPPING even !
to house-breaking in order to obtain !
funds to pay his gambling debts. In |
his mothers power, and she not at all |
disinclined TO blackmail, he was driv- i,
en- to all sorts Of eXpedients to satisfy
his own and her demands. But through |
II all he managed to maintain an out !
ward appearance of superiority that
enabled him to dazzle his interiors
and deceive his equals. The Judges
love for the boy blinded him to the
lads evil character, but once he near
ly dIslnherlted him on the score of
| cowardice. A pair Of mysterious Ital-
ian twins settled at Dawson's Landing.
and a public meeting, Tom having
provoked him to action by his inso-
lence. Luigi, the stronger of the two
, had kicked the scion of the House of
! Drlscol! off the stage into the audi
ence, the stain of which insult a real
F. F. v would have wiped out upon
the field Of honor but for which the
cowardice of Tom found ample salts
faction in the police court, which pro-
ceeding so outraged the good Judge
that for the honor of his family he per
Gonally fought a duel with the offend
ing Italian, woundiug him. and thus
laying the foundations for much future
, trouble
! Came now the supreme touches in
! the career Of the spurious Tom. For
! the payment Of newly acquired ganb-
! ling debts, with RoXana's consent,
| Tom sold his own mother back into
| the slavery from which az Driscoll's
| death she had been freed, but in VIC
/ latlon Of his promises he sold her
! down the river" a crime that reacted
upon his unflial head when the re-
| sourceful RoXana escaped, and under
! threat Of exposure Of his real status
IN lie, required him to indemnify her
new master lest she be apprehended
! and returned to him Having no other
! resources Tom resolved upon the rob-
! berry Of his benefactor, the Judge, in
the tulfllment of which venture he
murdered him, his weapon being an
! oriental knife of unusual design. which
he had stolen from Luigi, the Italian,
in one of his theftraids.
The murder Of Judge Driscoll
brousht great excitement 10 Dawson S
! Landing, and the Italian twins mar
roWly escaped lynching for the crime
The evidence was clearly against
them. They were cOnfessedly the own
ers Of the gem studded, ivory-handled
! knife with which the crime had been
committed. What was worse they had
been found standing beside the body
! when the neighbors rushed in, having
come to the Judges aid at his cry for
help Moreover there was the clear
motive Of revenge growing out of the
duel which Luigi had fought with the
Judge. The whole community adjudg-
ed them guilty-all but Pudd'nhead
Wilson, who volunteered to defend
them in court. a poor reliance since
they were his first and only clients
But Pudd'nhead was unafrad The
evidence against them was most CON
, vincing, but
There were fnger-prints upon the
knife-handle, and they were not the
fnger-prints of the accused.
Whose fnger-prints were they?
Tom, secure in his sense of safety
because of the Overwhelming evidence
against the twins. ventured to taunt
Pudd nhead upon his confidence in
winning the case He entered his
study, and sitting himself at Pudd'n-
heads side while he studied tho
prints in his collection, he picked up
one of the records.
Why here's old Roxy's label" he
said contemptuously "Nigger-paws.
eh? There's a line across her thumb
print. Now how comes that"
Puud 'nhead taking the glass from
Toms hand held it up to the lamp.
The blood sank suddenly out of his
face. He gazed at the polished sur
face with the CLASSY stare of a cropse.
The mystery was solved!
Toms thumb-print standing clearly
outlined before him on the glass and
that on the handle of the blood-staired
knife We're Identical,
TO the minutest detail" said the
Foreman Of the Jury, as he returned
a verdict of murder against the IN
happy aid.
The twins were acquitted, the de-
frauded heir lifted up out Of slavery
and restored to his inheritance, and
Tom forever branded as an impostor
was sold down the river" for the
. benefit of the creditors of the late
Percy Northumberland Driscoll
Which, all things considered, was
not strange fate, for as Pudd nhe cad
, Wilson himself has said in his famous
calendar, "a Cauliflower after all Is