The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1891-01-24 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER 111. THE TRAGEDY.  On the morning of June 20th Joseph Farrell was found murdered in his bed at Waterside Heights. This was the aciful news that reached the village of WatersiAle on that beautiful morning.: The earth was redolent with summer glory and sweetness; the heavens smiled; the birds sang; the breeze lifted the leaves and curled the water • the children played in the street; but as the horrid tidings few from mouth to month there fell a shadow on the summer air; every human. face in Waterside was awestricken, and the laughter and Vey of the children was staled. All work was stopped; men and women, collected in groups, with little children huddling close, talked of the awful deed. That a murder hail been committed in their innocent community dropped upon them like a bolt from a cloudless sky. The man had not a known enemy in the place; there had, it seemed, been no attempt at housebreaking, or robbery, and no footsteps had brushed the morning dew from the lawn. Whoever committed the murder had been locked that night in the house with the victim. No one but Agne3 Far- ! yell sad her son could profit by the taking-off of the heir of Waterside. Who could have done the deed but an aggrieved and wronged enemy? Who was wronged and aggrieved but Agnes Fa yell and her son? The conclusion was evident that one, or both, of these interested people had committedthe murder, Still it was incredible! Men mast see and touch this bloody horror are they could believe in its truth. And that of all their mealier Agnes Farrell and her son should be the accused!  Public opinion unanimously strove to exonerate Ernest Farrell. No one would, no one could, for one moment, believe that this bright, beautiful, loving youth, who had grown to manhood in their midst, could find it in his heart to harm a living thing. How many kindly acts, accepted once as matters of course, but recalled now with a new s;gnificance, were remembered to his advantage! No, it was impossible that Ernest Farrell could have had • hand in the murder of his brother. Opinion was divided about Mrs Farrell's connection with the crime. Womankind in Waterside, as far as beard frem on the street, were against her to a woman; men were willing to give her the benefit of a doubt and to await an invesigation. But the fact that Agnes Farrell had sold herself for money, as it ATM said, that the money had been left sway from her and her cherished son, seemed a sufficient motive, in tie absence of any other motive, for the commission of the clime.  The question of Martha Blunt's probable connection with the murder was alsodisoussod ; bait was known she had been summoned, early in the evening, to the bedside of a sick relative, where she had passed the night, leaving Ernest Farrell and his mother alone in the house with their guest. It was clearly impossible, then, for the Waterside mind to come to any satisfactory conclusion. Mrs Farrell, and all her belongings, had occupied so high a place in public esteem that she could not be Judged by an ordinary standard ; that this woman, who seemed so far above the reivh of circumstance, could be dragged down from her high eminence to the level of the vilest criminal was too monstrous for belief. Their moral sense hal received a shock from which it would take long to recover; they had been in a manner defrauded, and there was a sense of loss that was personal to every man, woman, and child in the village. If it excelled in anything, Waterside excelled in virtue, and as a law-abiding, religious community it was known throughout the country-aide. No criminal had ever been bred in its border, and the ruthless arm of the law had never ravish. I a single  member from this peaceful fold. 'Tie true they Lad their little feuds in church and state, but antagonism never ventured beyond contr. ersy, and so great was the trust of each nws in his brother that all lay down at night with unborred doors, in the consciousness of absolute safety. The crime of murder was so monstrous, and to their apprehension so unusual, that the die. cussion of it assumed the figure of a circle around which horror, mystery, and suspense held an equal adjustment. Exaggerated rumours kept the public pulse at fever heat. Stories to the eNeet that Mrs Farrell had taken her life; that Ernest Farrell had dine. peered • that, after all, Joseph Farrell had only committed suicide, filled the air. But as the day wore on the true story was unfolded in all its simple horror; the house, with its ghastly secret, was in the possession of the law, and Agnes Farrell and her son were given over to he held for the awful crime of murder. The summer air wee heavy with the tragedy; the creeping terror of a murder filled the evening breeLe, curdled the blood, end oppressed the hearts of the innocent dwellers of Waterside. Night fell 1 with an added awel and in its black shadow, as nudes a sheltering wing, um* lay dowl to sleep, dream of mtuder.  f percL once  h. eoniinite,Ll