Year: 1866

cidents which am about to relate occur
red. | was at that time postmaster in the
town of L--.. An unusually warm spell
of weather had carried away much Of the
snow, left the roads very muddy, and rem
dered the travelling very bad. thought of
this as | closed the shutters about o clock
in the evening, and also remembered thar,
as it was Wednesday, the stage rrom c.
was due at 8, but owning to the bad going
it was not yet in. | therefore determined
that would, as I had often done before,
lock the font door and the door between
the inner and outer rooms, and leaving
light burning, to go to sleep. trusting the
driver to wake me by ,attling the door.


II seemed but few moments, so sound
" had slept, ere | was awakened by a
pounding on the door. Glancing at the
clock, which stood opposite, | discovered,
however that it was ono o clock in the
morning, and that had been asleep nearly
four hours. AS hurried toward the door
I put my hand into my pocket for the key
and found it empty. The two door keys
and both the keysof my safe, all Of which |
had when went to sleep, we're gone
Stepping to rear door, in the of which |
always Kept the key, tonnd that also lock
Ell and the key gone This SO surprised me
that for few seconds | remained on the
SPOT, utterly unable to do anything to solve
the mystery From this state was arous-
ed by renewed pounding on the door
There was but one available node of exit
from my prison, and that was through a
side window. Throwing up the sash |
sprang out and hurried around to whore
expected to find the div r. Mysteries seem
ed to have no end, for instead Of meeting
the driver, ! came upon an exclt92 crowd of
about twenty. My appearance Vas the rig
for al. to commence telling me The cause of
their excitement. Silence was, however,
at last obtained, and then the Sheriff told
me in as few words as possible the state OF
affairs.


1t seems that nne of the physicians Of
the town. Dr. Smith, was returning from Il
plonged visit to patient, and when about u
mile from the town he heard in the road
ahead of him pistol shot. Hurrying on,
he found about halt a mile further on, the
stage, for which | was waiting, drawn up BY
the side of the road, and in the middle Ut
the road, the body Of man. Bringing his
lantern near the face he found that it was
the driver, and that he was dead, having
been shot through the head. He found the
robes, &c, of the team scattered around on
the ground, as was also the mail bag but
the latter had been unlocked not cut open,
and the contents were gone. He lifted the
body up and placed it in the stage, and was
Just starting of for assistance, when he saw
a revolver lying near by, which from the
fact that one barrel had been discharged
he decided was the weapon with which the
deed had been committed. Arrived in town
lie aroused the Sheriff and few neighbors;
and while some were dispatched with the
doctor after the body, the Sheriff and 9TH
ers had gone to my house after me. Find
ing I was not there. they cane to the office
aid just as joined them the body arriv-
ed.


This was the substance of the facts re-
lated to me. 1t seemed strange that the
Sheriff should have gone to my house in :
stead Of after the body, and I was about to
express myself. when he stepped forward
and layirg his hand on my shoulder, said


81 arrest you, John Blanchard, for the
murder of Charles Smith, stage driver"
IF he should have struck me could not
have been more surprised. / tried to rea-
son with him, but although he was very civ
il, he was equelly firm, and the result was
that spent the remainder of the night in
the county Jail, which building was situated
in D., that being the shire town. The
examination the next morning elected the
following curious, facts:


When;the Sheriff searched my person he
was surprised to find no keys, and indeed
no wallet, or memorandum book. Sending
to my assistant, he obtained the door keys,
but the safe key could not be found, and
my clerk declared that always carried them
with me. Upon entering they found that
the letters were all gone, the money drawer
empty and few stamps, which the clerk
informed them we always left out of the
safe at night missing. And no trqce could
be found OF the safe keys. Suppose that
had disposed of them in order tn. the
trace of my guilt which ii was taken for
granted had concealed in the safe, could
not be discovered, they brought locksmith,
and after much labor forced the lock. This
labor served only to show them the safe had
been completely rifed, and that the sum Of
three thousand dollars, which had been in
it the night before, was gone


found that the cause which led to sus-
picion being fastened upon me were the
three following


First, the revolver with which the deed
was committed had upon the butt silver
plate, on which was engraved my name -
The cle,k took oath that the weapon was
mine, and that ! always kept it in the office
when they produced it / could not doubt
for moment that it did belong to Inc.
Second that the bag was unlocked and not
cut open, showing that it must have been
done by some one having in his possession
United States mail key. Third, that I
had not been at home during the evening,
and that when summoned at the post Office
delayed so long in making my appearaL ce.


10 combat these facts 1 argued that the
state otthe Office proved conclusively thar
it had been robbed and that without dJibt