npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1909-08-28 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER IX. TBE FISELZRBIANIS STORY. 'ANHOPE uttered a cry ot aistoriamesnt. "Sir Godfrey Westlake," he echoed.  "Yes. Do you know him!" asked the Fiscal. "No. I have never seen But  him.  I know some thing of him. I had intended to seek an interview with him as soon as he returned from this yachting cruise, and I am shocked to hear that he is dead. Is there— can there be any doubt about it?" "No doubt whatever. It WaS in all the papers some days ago." "We have not been in the way of seeing newspapers for some days, my friend a.nd I. At any rate, we had not heard of it. It is very sad." There was a. silence. The same thought wts in the mind of every one in the room. Stanhope was the one to give expression to it.  "Was there any mention," he asked, "of any person besides Si? Godfrey—any of the sailors, for example—having lost his life at the time of the disaster?" "No one."  " Then, is it possible--" He stopped, scarcely daring to put his thought into words. "Is it possible that Sir Godfrey was not washed overboard, but was cruelly murdered in his cabin, and that the yacht was purposely wrecked in order to hide all evidence of the crime?"  No one answered him. The Fiscal seemed plunged in thought. The others glanced at him and at each other alternately, but said nothing. At length he spoke; and both Stanhope and Maclntyre noticed that he had quite thrown off his easy, careless manner, and was now the cool, calculating, shrewd, careful official. "I will not say that that idea did not occur to my mind," he said, slowly, "while Mr Stanhope was giving us an account of what he bad secn. But there are several circumstances that militate strongly against the notion. In the tust place, what motive could the skipper of the yacht.—C4l Italian, I believe--have to cause the death of a man like Sir Godfrey, a man to whom in all likelihood he was a perfect stranger ?" "He had a friend on board with him; it was the friend's yacht," interrupted Stanhone. "How do you know that ?" dentauded the Fiscal, darting a keen look at him. "Lady Westlake told me. I saw her on the same evening that I discoverel the man's hand in my portmanteau—in the portmanteau I thought was mine. I asked her for hor husband's address, and she said she could not give it to me--that he was yachting with a friend on the West Coast. I will not swear she said it was the friend's yacht." "But that was the impression on your mind?" "Yes distinctly so." sib,: did not mention the friend's name?"  ---- --- 'No." "Well, no matter. out."  We caai easily fiad that  "If suspicion rests anywhere, it would be on the friend," put in Maclntyze. " It seems so at first sight," said the lawyer, slowly; "but I am expecting a witness here tomorrow whose evidence, I understand, will have the effiect of disaipating that idea. And, as I waS on the point of saying when your friend  By
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1909-10-02 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER XIX. (Continued). &IX unconsciously, by mea-e. force of habit, the skipper helped himself to a cigar; then realising that it was hardly in keeping with what he had to say that he should accept cigars from the man whom he had come there to blackmail, he laid it down on the table, and went on with his story. "The steward and I went down to the cabin, and I put my eye to the keyhole." "A most dignified proceeding," murmured the Count. "The key had been taken away, or had dropped out with the rolling of the vessel. I saw inside. You know what was there." "On the contrary, I am curious to hear." Disetti stared at the Count for a seeersl, as if he did not understand his inaziner, then he answered slowly— "I saw the dead body of Sir Godfrey Westlake lying on the floor." A broad smile overspread Bardoni's face, and there was in his expression a certain air of expectation, as if this were some joke, of which the best pert were yet to come. The skipper was astounded. He had many times pictured to himself the Count receiving the attack. He had imagined Barcloni stricken with fear, or wildly indignant. But this easy, half-amused indifference, as if the matter were one that was interesting in a way, but that he could not be expected to care about very much, Signor Diretti had not looked for. The Count's silence provoked him into saying-0" You look as though you did not ,believe me, excellency?" "Was it in the daytime when you made this strange discovery, Signor?" Diretti's confidence had deserted him. A stranger would have supposed, judging from the skipper's manner, that it was he who was being charged with a crime, not Count Bardoni. "It was night," answered the sailor, "but it was bright moonlight, and the moonlight shone straight through the porthole. The curtain had been drawn, but one of the nails that supported it had given way, and it was easy to see into the cabin. I tell you Sir Godfrey was lying there slead—murdered."  H  "By me, you imagine?" "lt is not for me to say. My thoug,hts are my owL Your conscience, if you have one, will tell you whether you are guilty or innocent." "And you ? May I ask what personal interest YOU have in the truth or falsehood of this little story that you have been amusing me with?" "Only this, that I think it is highly probable that the money that is my due will be paid to me without further delay ?" "It will be paid when the insurance is paid, and not a moment sooner. You may be =Teo of that."  --)*( "Then I will no longer hold my tongust I: will go straight to the police!" "You will?" said the Connt, rereading his companion from between half-closed eyerrds. "My good fellow' don't be a fool. You seem to have forgotten that, according to the sworn statement of both yourself and the steward, Six Godfrey Westlake was washed overboard in the gale during which the yacht fotmdetred. What do you suppose the authorities Elt Scotland Yard will say to a story, a wild freak of the imagination, such as that you have been telling me, which you Isave never hinted at during all this time? If you carry out your absurd threat, you  By
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1909-06-19 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER XXXI. THE REAVAIM OF PATIENCE..  Duncan Macleod reached England to find that ii work .was done. His brother's murderer had indeed escaped the vengeance of the law, but he and his partner in guilt had met the just rewaed  of their avong doing. The evidence of Wilkins and Mag.e, added to the diseoveries made- with regard to the ownership of the revolver, made it plain tbat Ronald Macleod had been foully shot down after being bared by Bianca to his destruction. - - •  He wrote to Neil Nancy of this and also to describe Joyce's wedding the most amusing feature of which was that the •13;ide staated on her honeymoon in a magnificent ivory-tinted motor-car which looked, he declared, az if Jove himself had sent it from Olympus as an improvement on Venus' dovedrawn chariot. _ .  Duncan was pezeauded to stay in England to stand godfather to the little son who had been born to Mr and Mrs Fenning during his absence, and he declared that but for 'hie preeenoe the baby would have been dropped into the font and drowned, since the curate did nothing but watch its godmother, Molly, with all his eyes as she handed him the infant.  On the eve of hie departure from Vyneirs Duncan called on Colonel Vaughan. As Dorothea.'s guardian he felt bound to seek hiz consent to his suit, although the girl had reached her twenty-first year. The Colonel feigned absolute indifference. His step-daughter, he declared, was nothing to him now. She had behaved in an unbecoming manner and in defiance of his wishes. She was no longer under his control, he said, and Duncan gamed the inapreon that the Colonel himself was now under the control of a remarkably pretty wife, a widow whose charms he had fallen captive to on his voyage to India.  Before leaving California Duncan had suceeeded in interesting Philip Grahame in the unfortunate Jackson, and he had promised to give him work on his farm if Duncan found he had kept steady during his absence. Wilkins and Maggie received a handsome prasent to enable them to start housekeeping by and bye, and early in August Duncan sailed once more for California with Tackson on board as steerage passeng4  Duncan reached Paradise one brilliant SeTtember day, a veek before he was expected. Jackson waited at the station with the luggage until an orange wagon we ready to return after unloading, and Duncan, riding quietly up to the house, found it apparently deserted. He tied up his horse and went indoors. In the verandah behind the house a white-robed figure stood, her back to him. Suddenly Dorothea tamed and saw him. A divine blush overspread her face; she gave a little cry of joy. "You have come!" sbe said, stretching out. her hands.  "I have come to ask you to keep yuw. promise." He drew her to him; her sweet eyes met hic earnest look with the trustfulness of undoubting love. _ . _  "You are mine now? Mine, at laetr' ho said. "Yours, if you still wish it," she plied. [
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1909-06-19 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SYNOPSIS OF FORMER CHAPTERS.  N this story the author rrresents a picture of the havoc worked by a race-deseribedas "Ants," possessing super-human intelligence and strength, who wage war on mankind. The imaginative writer pictures this dreadful race as posses - . sing powerful flying machines manned by vast and almost invulnerable armies. They nearly exterminate mankind in many terrifically thrilling battles, and flying machines of war and torpedoes for use in the air are devised by ingenious n-t2.-ti to meet the dreaded enemy. In the opening chaper the reader learnt of the quarrel between Joha Francis Le Galbenne, surgeon in the British Navy, and Marjorie Tremayne, whom he loves. Marjorie afterwards leaves England for Melbourne, and GaMenne discovers that Captain Reginald Crawford, an admirer of Marjorie, had also left by the same boat. They were registered as Mr and MTIS Crawford, though no one had been informed of their marriage. Several British gunboats were soon afterwards ordered to South America, and Gallienne was on board the submarine Dolphin. The flotilla encounters a terrific storm, and on its subsiding the officers discover they are seven hundred miles westward of their true course. The course of the vessel is altered, and the Dolphin having sustained some damage fell behind the warship Trojan and Mars. Galbenne was watching the distant warship through his binoculars when suddenly there was a .tremendous explosion, and the warship went down with all her crew. This brought the Dolphin's crew on deck just in time to see the second warship Mars put about and make with all speed towards the Dolphin. The cause was 300 n apparent, for there poised above was a flying machine—a mass of glittering plans and whirling screws—manned by a crew of huge creeping black ants. They were rolling a bombshell to drop on the Mars when the Dolphin's guns were brought into action. The shot struck the airship, smashing it to fragments, but the bomb unfortunately fell on the second warship and blew her to pieces. Then followed an attack by a second airship, and the submarine had to sink beneath the waves to escape. On reaching Esquirnault the Dolphin's crew heard of the terrible doings of these creatures of the air in other parts of the world.  world. These strange enemies had murdered the heads of the army and navy in various countries, and so general was the fear that no one dare enter a room without thinking of the loathsome possibility that it contained some of the terrible Polsphemes.  -)16( -- - -,_, ~. .. ~ .........J)/5.-.----------, A N r - %x /1/„. ) -. '1 I —3, ,-- ),--, ~ 0 11,, \ Igsc\,..,,k\t-, ..,5,.'',,: 7 .. . . .\,... \ .\, . . . .4 ._...,,....-'-.....:---:. . 4, . . . -0 "..... .. -• -.... . ....,,,. .....• - -- -101 0 I I 1 Pil-i:. .....,. .  ,1p,., x. • , • '-• I. - ' . 4. , i .. . .‘,%0 t"
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1909-10-30 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

LATE.  Fast as horses and steam could carry him, Stanhope hurried on to the South German village of which Cunliffe had given him the name. Every hour, almost every minute, he was tortured by the thought that he might arrive too late to save Muriel from the designs of the Count—that already she was lost to him for ever. There were times when hope was strong within him, but these seasons were always followed by fears so acute that the poor fellow would try, as a refuge from the terrible alternations between hope and despair, to make up his mind to the worst. And when he remembered how long it was since Muriel liad left England, and how she must have supposed that he had wilfully abandoned her, or at least made no great effort to reach her—how completely she was in the power of her enemies, it was not difficult to believe that nothing now remained for him but to nerve himself to endure the agony of seeing the girl he loved the wife of another. And Muriel ? If it would be agony for him simply to be deprived of her, what would it be for her to be compelled to live with a man like Bardoni as his wife? He could easily imagine how a girl still in her teens, left friendless and penniless in a foreign town, might feel herself under the necessity of marrying a man whom she disliked, if it were for nothing else than the preservation of her good name, and he could fancy the specious arguments that might be used to bring about such a result. He did not dream of blaming Muriel for anything that had happened; he would not have been willing to reproach her even if she had been as culpable as she was. innocent. But when be thought of the hard-heartedness and the malice of Lady Westlate and the cunning cruelty of the Count, he felt that it would not be safe for him to meet either of them. In these days the greatest wrongs that can he inflicted must go unpueishAd If a man will avenge himself or those who are :•dearest to him, he must expect to be treated as a common murderer. The principle that a, man must not take the law into his own hands is a sound one; but there are times- when it seems to work intolerable hardship, and this was one of them. It was in vain that ISied told himself, as he walked rapidly up the avenue of pines approaching the gaunt ugly house where Muriel had been detained so long, that she could not be there now. It was in vain that he tried to prepare • himself for the worst. He never knew how high his hopes had risen till he found himself face to • face with a bony French governess in the waitingroom of the establishment, and heard from her lips that Mademoiselle Westlake had left the [ school some weeks before.  That was all the governess knew, and it was all she would have been permitted to tell him, even if she had known more. It was the Easter recess, and he could not see Frau Julichs,tein, who was said to be from home. The house was left to the care of the governess and two .servants, and hi inquiries (backed by smile in the
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1918-03-16 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

NORTHERN WEEKLY GAZETTE.  War Indemnity,  In 1870 Germany declared war with Franco and defeated her, and then claimed from her a war indemnity of £200,000,000, in addition to Alsace and Lorraine. Now, if that was xight of Germany after she had forced France to fight, sure:y it must he t'ght of the Allies to do the same to Germany when she commenced this wax for her own pleasure. I think it is the duty of the Allies to claim a war indemnity of not less than ten thousand mil:.ion pounds, as t is the duty of Germany to pay all the expanses of the wax if she possibly can.  I. think a huge war indemnity would do Get!natty good, in, two ways. She knows that she commenced the war, and the huge war indemnity would keep reminding her of her great folly and wickedness in causing so much misery and iinhappinass and expense in the word, just because she wanted to be the ruler of the world. And, again, it would be a nice and just outlet for her surplus cash for some years to come instead of heaping it up so that at the first chance she had of investing it in Krupps' munition works to common(' another war on a much larger scale if she could. I think over what Germany has done. There is a world shortage of foodstuffs and the raw materials of industry, and in nine months E•he has sent to the bottom of the sea 745 great British ves=els containing foodstuffs and raw material. The sinking of a wheat ship of 5.000 tons 111CILPS the loss of 2,000,000 2:b. loaves to British families. If a meat ship, it means the loss of 50,000 carcases of mutton; and when you hear of the cold-blooded destruction of these ships, given without detail, in mere brief figures, you know that it means also the co:d-gblooded murder of heroic seamen.  Suppose Germany has to pay the sum I have named in sovereigns, she would require 237 trams, each train composed of 40 wagons, and 'each wagon containing 10 tons of sovereigns, to carry the precious metal. That sum seems a huge amount, but when we compare it with the misery and puffer.inga of so many millions of people all over.the world, it seems to me a mere fleabite. The Alres can and will min the war if they pertievere, and they must let Germany see and feel that she is a beaten nation, and that she has made a great mistake in forcing a war on the Allies just for lier own ambition and pleasure. and 'that it is her duty to make full restitution for all the wrongs Elie has done as far as she possibly can. I am. afraid that .if the Allies are too lenient with Germany it will harden her, and make her worse to deal with. She will think the . Allies are afraid they are going to lose the war and they want to come to tErms.—Wm. Hodgson, Ilawcro'ft, Cotherston.
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1902-05-31 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SYNOPSLI.  --- -The story opens on board an English steamer starting for St. Petersburg. Colonel Long, in disturbed tones, informs his friend Peters that he has just been speaking to a gentleman—his double. in face, figure, and dress. An introduction takes place, and Trubney represents himself to be a newspaper correspondent, going to see the Tsar review his troops. He says he is absolutely' ignorant of Russian, and has never been in Russia before, but Peters has doubts about this. The ceremonial departure of the Tsar is witnessed by the two friender-Trubner again turning up; after whieh the former drive out to see the Gitankas, or gipsy singers. The Queen of the night, Shouanette, is singing se they enter; and before her encore is done, she signals to Peters, 'who, deeply attracted, thowsh wondering, responds, and later receives a message from the beauty, and a tiny key. The messengers takes him behind the scenes where, with the key, she u,:locks; a jewel case, revealing a bundle of papers which she presses into his hands just as a loud knocking of the military is heard in the theatre. Peters cleverly escapes, meeting Trubner at the outer door. On his way home he opens the papers, and diseovers that they relate to a projected assassination of the Tsar. He hurries on, but is suddenly attacked by masked men, and is on the point of being murdered when soldiers arrive. Tn the confusion he escapes, and after a disturbed sleep in which he dreams of Trubner trying to strangle him, wanders out for the police station, to deliver up the papers and save the Tear. But he meets Shouanette and promises to give her the picket if she will swear that the Tsar shall not be assassinated on the 13th. She promises and then he finds that it i 5 already the 14th and theft the letters are not in his pocket! Shouanette• laughs off the strange occurrenoe. Trubner returns to the hotel and greets Peters as if nothing had happened. All three start for Ardon in company with a train-load of Russian eteers whom Trubner contrives to render antagonistic to Peters, by suggesting that the latter is the " Poet's" representative. He does more— gets off the train with Peters' papers and valise, having got Long to accompany him, "to driek." Bo that Peters lands up at the tennines alone, without pnssports, and finds himself an object of deep suepicion. He is greeted by a mysterious n ea2r ,and after getting a lodging, wandrrs out to see the rufsht siehts of the town. Fre meets Captain Sachs, who had been en his train, contrives to vex him, and the two box in public, the huge Russian falling before tbe Englishman's skill. This provekes the crowd, and Peters is only just saved from lynching by Sachs's generosity. The two walk off together, and Peters prevents the examinebon of his companion. They then go to the "Colonel's" house, where Sacha is deferred to in all things. Peters &parts with curious present, and with the goodwill of both men. The next morning the thought lashes into his brain—" Is geisha the Tsar?"
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1902-05-10 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE STORY.  Now I can't say when it was that one, Tommy Mellcott, kept a hosier's shop in Northallerton, but he did ; and he had a young chap, by name Robert Preston, who acted as his foreman and traveller—for three time a year he travelled atween No'thallerton as far as Durham City. As a rule, he had a lot o' brass on him, but he generally rode in company with others for safety, because, in them days, it wasn't safe for one person to take the street by himself, there being at that time not a few gentlemen of the road riding about, waiting, and ready to call "Your money or your life." Well, then, this Robert Preston  left his master one Monday morning for to make his quarterly journey. A week come the following Friday night he would be home again, bringing with him not less than two hundred pounds, accounts collected from customers, in odd sums, you know. Many a time afore he had made the journey and always turned up all right, with not a farthing wrong. But when the second Friday night came, he had not returned. Hitherto he had always been back about dinner time. Now you know it began to look like a bit of a queer'un, when he didn't turn up, and now't had been heard on him, by Setterday at noonday. Old Mellcott was in his shop talking the matter ower wi' tweea three customers, when Mrs Preston, Robert's mother, entered, and begged for to have a few wo'ds in private with her son's master. "Have you heard ow't o' yer son?" asked he, as he led the way into a back room. Seeing that his visitor was sairly putten aboot, he bade her sit doon and gave her a glass of wine. To your question, do I know anything of my son, as an actual fact—no! But in other ways, yes! My son is dead. He was murdered and robbed. I can't soy where, or by whom, but he was murdered a week sen last night, and— and—" here the poor mother broke down, sobbing as if her heart would break. "I shall never see my boy again. A better son a mother never had." And that was true, a.s old Melloott well knew.  "What makes you think he has been murdered and robbed?"  "Because he came to me last Friday night." "Caine to you? What do you mean by 'came?' I believed him to be on his homeward journey at that time! Was he ill, or what? I mean why did he pay you a visit on that day?" "You misunderstand me, sir! It was not my son in the flesh, but in the spirit who came to me," explained Mrs Preston.  "In the spirit!" exclaimed Mr Mellcolt. "What do you mean?".  "I will try and tell you what happened. Last Friday night, as you know, the moon was shadowed (eclipsed), and I sat up intending seeing what would happen. I had learnt that it would be shadowed about ten o'clock, so I was sitting by nay fireside. knitting, now and again castinz my eye at the clock,