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Show IF fPAUPEFv5. DEATH -.1 AY HAVE.;.. Lrj . - CO ex. NCYSTELY 1 D GS I ii . 1 t' (CopyricliU 1P10. by the Nch yotkitjcrald Co. AH'rlrhts roscVTyil.x I JL . iEV VOIIK. 1 V MS yX E da-v ,ast i"1?1" J,,st fts tie s1"-'111 town 1 clock was tolling the hour of five and the i I glancing rays of the morning sun were tlpphip VX the distant hill tops, the soul of an old, old man passed over the threshold of life Into the great beyond. It was whispered that he was nearly, If not quite, one hundred years old, and the worn and wasted figure on the humble almshouse cot did not belle this popular estimate of his ace. For more than twenty years he had rubbed elbows with the paupers of the little up-State village In New York, and now that be was cone they missed him more than ever day by day. His name was Clark, and his antecedents were unknown. un-known. He had drifted Into town at the time of Gar-Gold's Gar-Gold's death with a little stock of mourning badges and black bordered souvenirs of that lamentable event and he had remained. Perhaps he failed to dispose of a ,, sufllclcnt number, of these emblems of national woe. to f provide the means nf retreat, or perhaps he liked the ' place and remained from pholce. Even then, In 1SSI. he was a feeble, decrepit old man, with snow Avhlte hair and beard, uncertain p step, bowed head and a sweetly sad expression of eyes and mouth, which, with his soft, gentle voice and courteous mien, made every one his friend. There was little lie could do at first oeyoud such odd jobs about town a raking a lawn or beating n d j few rugs and the like: for of physical power he had jj ; none, and few would have looked for clerical ability I in such a woebegone old wreck of humanity. r One day, howecr. a stroke of luck befell him. lie j i was halted in the street bv one of the foremost law- 5 r I yers in the Aillage and told to call at bis residence for some carpels to be cleaned. Clark took a little memorandum book from his pocket and jotted down the address in a hand so perfect that It resembled copper plate engraving. ' "Why. Chirk, where did you learn to write like W that?" exclaimed the lawyer in amazement. m Clark muttered some unintelligible reply and re- J' turned the little book to ills jacket In haste and obvl l ous confusion. Hut, the fact remained that Clark I was by far the best penman In town, and for the next live years hi had all he could do copying legal documents lit the Judge's oflice and In the court houo. Then came the typewriter and the carbou copies and Othello" occupation was gone. About this time. too. he sustained a slight stroke of paralysis from which he nevpr fully recovered, for It left his right arm helpless and his speech permanently Impaired In a few months his small savings were gone, and then there wa nothing to do but send the poor, helpless old man to the county house, where he remained re-mained to the day of ills death. The Superintendent of the County Farm made the I, usual perfunctory effort to get his record" for the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Everybody knew that his patronymic was Clark, and many affirmed that his Christian name was John, so he was listed as John Clark. Age? (j'robably about eighty. Civil condition? Probably widower. Birthplace? Piobably North or South Carolina. The repc-ited use of the word "probably" on John I Clark's '' -v ,hoet, as it was filled out at the time of his admission to the poorhouse, was due partly to his thickened and almost unintelligible speech the result of his paralytic stroke and partly to a pro- S" prcssivoly increasing imbecility the result of his age. "Widower" was chanced on a brazen guess, as being be-ing most in keeping with I he law of probabilities; !& but "North or South Carolina" was deduced, after re- m pealed questions, from the old man's stupid but In- ' ariablc repetition of the word "Caroline." m Just "Caroline." I As the years went by this single word "Caroline" grew more and more prominent in the poor old creature's crea-ture's senile mumblings until at last his fellow pau-! pau-! pers devised a scheme of pampering their own crav- T lug for amusement by asking him, in tantalizing fash : , ion: ' "Where did you come from, Pop?" Then he would sway back and forth in his chair and drone, "From Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, and I"m goln' back to Caroline, too," much to their edification edifi-cation and delight. If a woman came within his field of vision his face would brighten up with an t expression of sweet, pathetic joy that afforded untold merriment to all beholders and ho would croon, "Caroline Caroline," .softly, under his breath, until she passed out of sight. t One day in summer, when all the paupers worn sunning themsehes in front of the house, a magnificent magnifi-cent coal black horse .sped furiously down the road ' while Clark was mumbling "Caroline" as his share In contributing to the general entertainment. "EC ye want teh git teh Car'llne," grinned one of t the bystanders, "ye ought teh hcv a colt like that teli tele ye." r "Colt!" cried the old man hoarsely, as, with ashen face, he tried to pull himself up in his chair uiider the trees. "Colt! Colt! Nol My God! No! No! tNoI Not Colt!" He laughed hysterically and waved his good arm over his head. Then lie I"cTlI back unconscious and his companions carried him, breathing heavily, to his bed. lie did not die, although everybody thought he would. But when at last he grew strong enough to .gr' be out again It was evident to all that ho had practi- ,, i ally lost what little remnant of mind he hud pos- !., hCbscd. All day he would sit In his chair muttering "Caroline, Caroline." unless one of the highly intelil- "J gent and cruelly facetious paupers suggested his get- I ting a "colt" lo lake him to "Caroline," Then he j would rave and sputter and scream "No! nol no!" in r- Impotent rage until an attendant dispersed his tor- l' mentor and soothed his wrath. So he lived on from year to year, a gentle, help-r help-r less, pathetic wreck of a man, until at last on that L '' beautiful spring in Tiling, just as the chirping, twlt- :r tering birds weie greeting the glorious rising of the sun, his poor battered old soul was wafted to eter nity. The old pauper who was with him at the end - said that with the first sunbeam that touched the whitewashed wall opposite nls bed lie slowly raised tin only arm that he cquld move, and, pointing to' the yL light, wild, faintly but distinctly, "I coming Caro- ,vk line Colt." V Iciien, with a happy, restful smile on his wrinkled, jw emaciated face, he turned his head to one side and 2 Ued. I miLD POP" CLARK, Almshouse Inmate, Supposed To Be Murderer Who Was Wed M&in the Tombs Sixty-Eight Years Ago, on the Day Set for His Execution, and Who, Though Officially Reported to Have Committed Suicide, Was Believed to Have Escaped Durinq a Fire by the Aid of Wealthy Friends ' ' - .. ' - ' "i fCot much of a story, you will, say. Just the death, of a pauper centenarian, who once could write a good hand; who constantly repealed and seemed to love the word "Caroline," and whose feeble, Idiotic liiind re-"-sented the mere suggestion of a colt. Let us sec. More than half a century ago, on Saturday, September Septem-ber 2o, 1S-11, a schooner lay at her pier at Maiden lane, cleared for New Orleans, and, with the blue peter' allying at her foremast head, evidently about lo sail Already a pair of fretful Utile lugs were fussing and fuming under her stern preparatory to pulling her out of her berth and towing her down the bay. Tho sailors on deck were standing by to cast olT a line to one of the tugs with which to drag Its heavy hawser on board, when the second male approached the captain cap-tain hurriedly and the two held a short but earnest colloquy. All preparations for departure came to a standstill; willing hands lifted the forward hatch, and after a short search a heavy wooden box was raised to the deck and quickly lowered over the side to the wharf. A crowd of longshoremen tand others whose curiosity curios-ity had been aroused by the strange doings on board the schooner clustered around tills inglorious chest and viewed It with wondering eyes. ' The captain and other officers of the vessel clambered down to tho pier, tools were procured, the cover of the box was wrenched off and there lay, exposed to the horrified gaze of tfio onlookers, the grewsomc body of a man, wrapped in a torn up awning and packed in sail! The schooner had been advertised to sail on the preceding Saturday (September IS), but she had been delayed for a week, and tho odor from the box had attracted the mate's attention just as she was ready to put to sea. The truckman who delievered the box at the wharf was advertised for in the Hkiiald and was located without difficulty. He remembered carting the box and said nt once that he had received It early on the 'morning of the previous Saturday from John C. Colt, a professional bookkeeper and teacher of penmanship, penman-ship, whoso oflice was in a gray stone building at Chambers street and Broadway. This building was afterward occupied by Delmonico as a restaurant, and the fatal room on tho second floor, overlooking Chambers street, has doubtless been the scene of many a jolly revel since the brutal murder of Samuel Adams on the afternoon of Friday, September 17, l&ll. Murder Will Out. The mystery was a mystery no longer. The truckman truck-man swore positively he had received tho box from Colt himself and carted it from his office to the wharf on the morning of the day that the schooner was to have sailed for New Orleans. Tho dock superintendent superintend-ent testified to receiving the box on that daj- and to giving Colt in person a receipt for the same. Both of these witnesses said that Colt was pale and haggard and in a highly nervous and agitated condition. Adams, who had been missing for a week at the time the box- was opened, was a printer and was well known to Colt, for whom he was printing a work on bookkeeping of which Colt was the author. Moreover, Adams was a frequent caller at Colt's oflice, whither he went every few days to carry proofs for correction, and when last scon, he was on his way to visit Colt for the avowed purpose of collecting some mouey which he claimed was due him for printing, print-ing, and over which the two had had many stormy iutcrvlews. So Colt was arrested and indjeted for the murder of Samuel Adams as the result of a quarrel over an alleged indebtedness of less than fifteen dollars! Colt was more than able to pay this trilling bum, ajid his friends were unanimous Ln maintaining that he never would have killed a man for so trivial a cause. However, his arrest was soon Justified to the satisfaction satis-faction of every oue, thanks to the judicious application applica-tion of the famous "third degree." for this ingenious method of Investigation lcsultcd in a full and detailed de-tailed confession of the crime, in which, however, ho said he acted first lu self-defence and later In such u frenzy of terror tha4; he bad uo-dlstinct recollection " Falling Forward to' th& Floor He Screamed. ' I Did It ! I Did It 1 I Confess It All I ' " "Why, Clark Where Did You Learn to Write Like That?" Exclaimed the Lawyer Law-yer in,Amazement of what occurred until he woko to n realization of the fact that Adams lay dead on tho floor, his head battered in with a hammer. In the case of John C. Colt the "third degree" was operated thus: For two days and nights full forty-eJght forty-eJght hours the prisoner1 was compelled to forego sleep, oven to the extent of the shortest imaginable cat nap. Belays of police kept him awaks during this period, talking to him and demanding replies to their questions, forcing him to get up and walk about, and otherwise preventing him from closing his eyes. No force or violence was employed at anj' lime, but bis nervous system was completely exhausted, when, at midulghl, he was taken from his cell, and, trembling and tottering from sheer fatigue, was conducted, silently si-lently and mysteriously, through dark, rambling corridors cor-ridors and up and down'lnnumerable stairways until, at last, he was ushered Into a large, dimly lighted, room. , In a group of chairs at ono end of this apartment-wore apartment-wore officials ln full uniform, and Colt was motioned lo a seat facing them. Not a word was spoken. Any sound, no matter what, would have made a welcome break In the ghostly stillness of the place. Suddenly, and without warning, a door was opened and, bathed ln a glare of dazzling light, the truckman who had handled the grewsomc box was led slowly across the room in front of the shivering calprlt. He disappeared thrdugh a door hi the opposite wall and once more silence and obscurity reigned supreme. After a few moments, nnd In like manner, the door opened again and the pier superintendent was paraded past tho terrified man. Another imuse, and tho boy of whom he bought the nails with which the box was closed passed in review. re-view. Then the janitor of his office building; then a brother of the dead man; then the tenant of an adjoining office. Not a word was spoken, but each of the individuals ns he passed through the room gazed at Colt with wonder and amazement. Tho prisoner knew not what Uiey might have seen or saliU and they themselves them-selves were equally In Ignoranco of the, significance of tho whole affair, for they had merely been summoned sum-moned to appear at Police Headquarters and no explanation ex-planation of any sort had been vouchsafed them During this dreadful ordeal, which was dragged on for several hours, the eyes of the police seated opposite oppo-site Colt never for an instant left the face of the cowering cow-ering wretch, and when, at last, his common law wife, Caroline llenshaw. with whom he had spent the night of the murder, was brought before him he felt himself him-self deserted by all the world, and, falling forward to the floor, he screamed, "I did it! I did It! I confess It nil!" ' ' Confession Is Signed. The poor, miserable wreck, half dead with terror and exhaustion, was led back to his cell and, his mind relieved at last of its aw ful secret, he fell into a deep sleep and was not disturbed until worn out nature was partly refreshed and he woke of his own accord. An elaborate confession was then written and signed by him. and. his spirits returning, he proceeded to niako himself as comfortable as possible while awaiting await-ing ills trial. Thanks to his own ijcrsonal rpsources ' J "The Seizing of the Hammer and the Blow Were Instantaneous " nnd the wealth and social position of his relatives, Colt lived like a prince while in prison and wanted for nothing in the world but liberty. The sides of his cell In the Tombs were covered with muslin, over which was hung the most attractive Avail paper. Costly rugs covered the floor, and the windows were filled with potted flowering plants of rarest fragrance and beauty. In the matter of visitors no lestrlctions wore Imposed and all his meals were sent in from a neighboring fashionable restaurant. Colt's confession, which was long and full of detail, served merely to bear out tho theory of tho police that the crime had been committed In aji altorcatlon over, money alleged to be due Adams. To uphold his claim of self-defence, which was his plea at the trial, Colt said, among other things: "He Adams made the remark that 1 meant lo cheat him. In tho meantime wo both had been flgur-lug flgur-lug on different papers, parts of the account. Word followed word until we came to blows. Tho words t SOLVED 'You He' were passed and several ,sirgbt blows, until tM 1 received a blow across my mouth, and more, which H caused my nose slightly to bleed. I do not know that H Heve I then struck him vlolonUy with my fist. We H grappled with each other nt tho time, nnd I was H shoved against the wall with roy side next to the H table. There was a hammer on the table, which I H then immediately seized hold of and Instantly struck H him 6vcr the head. Tho seising of the H hammer and the blow were instantaneous. I think jH this blow knocked his hat off, but will not be posl- M live. At the time I only remember his twisting m my neck handkerchief so tight that It seemed to me as H If I lost all power of reason; still I thought I was tM striking away with the hammer. The first tH sense of thought was. It seems, as though his hand H or something brushed from my nock downward. H Au-faint idea remains that I shoved him off H from me so that he fell over, but of this I cannot say. M I then sat down, for I felt very weak and H ' sick. After sitting for a few minutes and seeing so M ibmucl! blood I think I went and looked at poor Adams, IH ,Swho breathed quite loud for several mlmites, throw tM 'his arms out and was sllont. I recollect at this tinw H taking him by the hand, which seemed lifeless, and H the horrid thrill came over me that I bad killed him." 9M The document goes on to tell in detail how ho VM washed himself and his telltale clothing in tho "Wash- IH Ington Batli House, Pearl street, near Broadway." H He says:"! then went home. It wanted, when I got jH home, about five minutes of eleven o'clock. I lift a H light ns usual. Caroline wished to know why I cama jH In so late. I made nn excuse, saying I was with a H friend from Philadelphia, I think, and that I should H get up early in the morning to see him off." 1 lie had already stripped the body, -wrapped ifc-Sn H pieces of an old awning, packed it in the box, which, M filled with books, had stood In his office; disposed of M the clothing and everything else belonging to tbo dead M man and scrubbed the floor with water which h&nwr M from the pump in the street and afterward UudVt In H the gutter. H v Inethe morning he rose early and was Nearly H dressed when Caroline woke np." In the words of. H Ills confession: "I stated to her it was doubtful if I M would return to breakfastr did not return? wcafc to H the office and found all, apparently, as I had left it H 1 went after some nails and got them at Woods store. H The store was just opened. 1 returned to the office, H nailed up the bos on all sides and went down to the M East River to ascertain the first packet to New Or- M leans. I returned to my office by way of H Lovejoy's Hotel, opposite the park. I went to the M eating room and called for a hot roll and cup of coffee; M I could not eat, but drank two cups of coffee. iWent JM to my oflice, locked tno aoor anu bat uun li .va time. 1 examined everything about the room, wiped IH the walls in one or two places and then went home M and to bed." H Colt's trial was the sensation of the day and caused H as much popular excitement as have any of tho great M murder cases of recent times. It lasten Urn days and M was conducted by District Attorney James 11. Whiting. H The defence was "self-defence," and was Intrusted to IH several of the ablest lawyers of the period. jH The Amazing Escape. H In spite of the most desperate efforts, which began jH legitimately with the employment of the most brilliant H legal talent that a lavish expenditure of money could M provide, progressed valiantly from court to court, and M ended ignobly In frantic but futile attempts at bribery, M nothing could save tho doomed man from the Ten- M geance of the law, and the jnry, after deliberating for M several hours, brought ln a verdict of "Murder in the B first degree." The Governor was appealed to In vain wM and John 0. Colt was sentenced to bo hanged on H November IS, 1S42. M During all tliis time Colt's common law wife, Caro- M line Heushaw, had been unswerving ln her loyalty nnd M dcvollou and had visited him daily in tho Tombs. Colt M himself wos no less truo to the woman who loved him H so faithfully and begged to be allowed to marry her H before he was hanged. x H Strange to say, this grewsome permission wad tM cranted and at half-past eleven of the day named for VM the execution the woman presented herself at tho celt IH door, attired in a straw bonnet, a green shawl, a claret H colored cloak trimmed with red cord and a muff. She H was accompanied by the Iter. Mr. Anton, John How- H ard Payne, tho author of "Home, Sweet Home," and H a brother of the prisoner. Colt was cheerful, eelf-pos- H sesed and even jocose, and the marriage was imnxo H dialcly solemnized in the presence of Justice Merritt, H the Sheriff, Colt's brother, David Graham, Robert H Emmctt and John Howard Payne. VM The execution was set for four o'clock. The gal- H lows was erected and all preparations were complete. H The bride aud bridegroom were allowed to bo alone to- M gother for a time and at the conclusion of the cere- H mony all but tho unhappy couple withdrew from tha H Suddenly, and just as the clock was trembling oa H Ihe stroke of four, a cry of lire was heard. Tho cu H poln of the prison was in a blaze and tho engines wcra H soon rattling and clanging ln the streets. H lu spite of nil this confusion and distress the Sheriff H remembered his duty and that a man must die. Mr. M Anthon, who had Just performed tho marriage cere- M mony, was now sent to tho cell to notify the con jH demned wretch that his last moments had come. Tho H cell door had been considerately closed during this M sad parting Interview and when Anthon slow! drew M It open the sight that met his eyes caused him to M spring back with a cry of terror and dismay. Tho woman was gone and ou the bed lay the body M of a man with a knife in his heart! j Next morning, November 19, 3S-12, tho Herald M printed a long editorial, entitled, "The Last Day of M John C Colt; Ills Extraordinary Suicide and Deatn," H and lu another allusion to the subject, which was tho H chief if not tho only topk( of tho day, it raised the jH lmiortant question, "Who gave him the knife?" M Caroline Hcnshaw (or Colt) disappeared promptly H from public notice, and the body found on the bed H -.was given decent burial by Colt's grief stricken fain- H Thousands, however. In all part's of the country be- M llevetl firmly, as the newspapers of the time will show, that tho fire in the cupola of the prison was pre- arranged by Colt's wealthy friends, and that through M their Instrumentality the body of a man was pro- M vlded and placed In the cell during tho excitement of M tho conflagration, while Colt aud his bride made their IH escape lu the general confusion. jH Who kuows? jH All we can be sure of to-day Is that old "Pop" M Clark died" in tho poorhouse up the State that ho jH once wrote a copybook hand that he loved -tho wor' M "Caroline" and halod-or fcared-thc-word--CoItn " H |