The Washington times., 1919-07-20


that had been accommodating for five years
in the cellar storage room Mills Hotel No
8 is at Seventh avenue and Thirty-sixth
street Its purpose is to give shelter to
those who, striving to find fame, fortune or
a mere living in New York, have not the
money to provide them with the food and
rest necessary to maintain the struggle; to
give shelter to those who, beaten back,
linger for a time upon the thresholds Of
gentility before being submerged. The
Mills Hotels, as their phfIanthropic found
er once remarked, gets them going and
coming"
Here a clean room may be had for thirty
cents and a wholesome meal for half that
sum. They are, in fact, cases from whose
eastern border may be seen the promised
land and on their western border the des-
ert of the Bowery lodging houses, the gut
ter and failure. From them many Of their
guests go their way empty handed because
they have not the small but necessary
check-room fee to redeem their baggage
from its temporary custodianship. There
fore, it was that the heaps of suit cases,
hand satchels and bundles which had &C
cumuIated in the cellar of the Mills Hotel
No. during these five years made the
porters stare with anticipated WEAKNESS.
But at O'Clock on the morning of June
26 these porters gathered in the storage
cell to force open all these mute relics OF
aspirations, hopes and despair, abandoned
by owners long vanished in oblivion.
If the porters had not had their sensi-
tiveness blunted by long association With
the gray pages of life many romance,
many tragedy, perhaps here and there
grim farce would have been read by them
in the contents they were opening. Here
was a mass Of manuscript left behind by
the writer who had come to storm Broad
way; the unsoId sketches of the youthful
artist who had been told that he was too
good for the country and that his proper
place was in New York; faded flower,
pitiful little letter and lock of shining,
still fragrant hair within a tiny wallet
nesting among clothes that had clearly be-
longed to boy from the country-mute
testimony of dreams that had ended
where?
All these and many more symbols of
arrows that had fallen far short Of the
target at which they we're aimed were
there in abundance for the eyes Of the
porters to read-if they could.
At last they drew from the heap some
thing that at once arrested their attention.
1t was a brown pigskin suit case OF excel
lent quality.
Don't see why the fellow that owned
that left ii behind" said the porter who
Z Ia
on it anywhere-and bought a cheap one
for a dollar"
He balanced Il in his hand 1t was curl
ously heavy, and from it, as he shook it,
came a curious rafting, dry, with rust
ling undertone, strangely sinister. ZEE
The porter thrust a chisel under the
brass catch: a turn of the wrist and the
lock was forced; the lid few open. A
sickening odor, an unmistakable chaTnel
smell arose. Shuddering and rigid the por-
tiers looked down into the suit case. All
they could see was a mass of newspapers
and cotton. One stretched his foot and
overturned the bag.
Out Of il rolled a human skull, rocked
little in weird resemblance of life, and
came to rest close to the little bag Of the
unknown country boy who had carried
with him into the city his sweethearts
lOCh Ol udlI, IuG lUNG lOhGH VI uCI uO"6E
and her letter!
The eye-sockets Of the skull looked up
at the Mills Hotel men, and now they saw
that it was still clothed, partly, with hair
and flesh. A fringe of black over the pre-
served lips, 6 fringe of black hair about
the base of the head gave it a grotesque
aspect - and the tip Of an ear still in
tact added the last touch to its gruesome
ness. The porters fed upstairs.
In five minutes the police were peering
into the suit case. They drew from IT arm
bones and leg bones, sawed and broken
into sections to fit in the bag The head
had been cut off level with the chin: the
forearms and upper arms lay doubled The
hands had been half cut, then broken at
the wrists; the thigh bones were sawed
and broken below the knees. One of the
ankles had been cut half way through with
a saw and then snapped. These bones
were almost completely denuded, and
marks upon them showed that the flesh
had been stripped off with knife before
the bones themselves had been placed
in the suit case.
The parts had been cushioned by wrap
ping them in raw cotton. Two towels had
been used to pack them in addition to sew
eral newspapers bearing the dates of Sep
TENDER u and q, 1915 The towels were
fine and distinctly intended for feminine
use solution Of luicklime had been
used on the cadaver-but It had been too
flesh dried like parchment on the face
II IL