Show 1710 1 CP M laps auld M 0 Is THE AMERICAN ARAM th tho fame of eugene aram such as it la promises to be imperishable edward 11 II buloff was a far greater criminal than aram and quite quit a as groat great a In cc holar cholar and tile his ignominious death was a comparatively recent matter yet ho he Is all but forgotten within tile tho recollection of men now living his name was a household word throughout the country but thoro there was no hood to embalm him in song and no dulzor to make him the central character of a novel other murderers camo came forward and did their devoir and Rul runoffs offs memory died tho the death death this remarkable man was war born bom in now brunswick in 1819 and ads waa a bookworm from earliest childhood ills thirst for knowledge amounted to a passion ifo ho lapped up information as eagerly as a worm warm dog laps up water lie he was an omnivorous reader anything in tho the shape of a book attracted him and he had the faculty of absorbing everything that was worth knowing in a volume and then remembering it ills his memory was abnormal in his advanced years he could quote books ho he read when a child and seen since the study of languages langu agoa was hla his favorite pursuit and lie he knew nearly all the tongues of the earth ills ilia knowledge was profound and it was all acquired without the aid of teachers had he been blessed with a moral character he surely would have been numbered among the great men of that the facts were wera known in ill hw home lie ho was a tyrant and bully an am made title life it a burden for his young wife ills his conduct at last tc came so outrageous that the neighbor roso rose as aa one man and talked with sod enthusiasm of tor and feathers so it loft removed to the village ol of fanst near ithaca chero ho he began t the I 1 io ars tice of medicine t 3 Alean meanwhile while lie ho began work upon book that was to bo be hla his master masterpol pl and malte malio his name immortal it if v 3 a treatise on philology and scholl achilta a who examined fragments of ills his mal i scripts long afterward declared tl tb t the erudition of the author was waa jima y astonishing ills his wife in sy I 1 pathy with hla his work sho she could it t find it possible to lovo love and adila adal i a plan man who writa profound ayi essays oY dyring d r tho the daytime and then bur burglar glai A Hen lien houses at night perhaps chii if murdered her no better ri a 1 son tor for it has ever been discovered on june 24 1846 1845 arutoff went to a neighbor and borrowed a horse and wagon the alio neighbor helped him to lift IL a largo box into tho the wagon and he drove awny away lie ho journeyed to ithaca which town lie ho reached at sundown and spent several hours in a tavern holding wassail with sundry loafers ile ho seemed boisterously happy and tho the loafers declared him a prince prenco of entertainers after a while ho paid hla his score hitched up hla his horse again and drove to lake cayuga there he be secured ft a boat and rowed away with the long box aboa aboard rd the next morning he drove cheerily back to his big home and when the neighbors asked where his wife was he ha told them she had gone to ohio on a visit this satisfied the neighbors but it satisfy runoffs Rul offs brother ln in law who began an investigation with the tha result that ruloff was arrested charged with the murder of his wife the body of the victim could not bo be found so ho he was tried and convicted on a charge of abduction and sentenced to ten years in tho the penitentiary lie he was a good prisoner and all hla his spare time was agven to study immediately upon his release he was rearrested charged with murder but he made such an eloquent speech in his own defense that lie he was acquitted but the th people want this mar man at largo large they considered him a monster and as dangerous as a rattlesnake so he was again arrested charged with the murder of his own child lie was convicted and sentenced to be hanged after his bis conviction he made a successful effort to gain the admiration hill confidence of the jailers son a youth named jarvis ile he told great stories of burled buried treasures to such good effect that young jarvis helped him to escape and the two reached the mountains of pennsylvania where ro they led a vagabond life for a year then ruloff tired of 0 being a fugitive away from books and libraries doted derod to tho authorities and by means meana of somo some legal twists managed to regain his liberty after a while this mille the people so peevish that a lynching lunching lyn ching party called at tho the jail but ruloff had disappeared ills his subsequent career for several years was a compound of study and villainy sometimes he worked at his bla great treatise and at other times he ha indulged la in grand and potty petty larceny on a hot august night in 1870 a burglary was committed in gingham bingham ton three robbers entered a store and having removed their shoes so BO they could work quietly they began ransacking the place two clerks who were sleeping in the store were awakened by somo some slight noise and they put up a bravo fight to save their mas property they were getting tha one of the robbers D w a gun and fired this thia country but he had nothing of the kind lie ho was born without a conscience and crime was to him at once 0 a vocation and a recreation As a boy lie he worked in a new bruns wick drug store and stole things as ho he needed them later lie he studied law and refreshed himself by various small crimes during his leisure hours for one of these ho he was sent cent to prison for two years and while locked up he read everything in tho the prison library atter after his release he be wont vont to now new york statland state and located in the small town ol of dryden there he became a in a school for girls and married oni of his pupils a girl of sixteen years W il II a relative of the girl made a tusa fuss over it and this annoyed ruloff greatly so to be revenged he h poisoned wife and child this crime was not suspected at the time and it was waa only after several est eat of it when one of the robbers irow row a gun and tired alred and one of tho the berks fell mortally wounded the ebbers escaped for the time but a lay or two later a stranger was found limping along alone tho the road and was waa gathered in lie ile was soon eoon Identified as ru loft whose fame was everywhere in ithone hose days ruloff felt reasonably sate elate tor for his comrades turn states evidence ile ho had Ise ento that A tow few days later their bodies were found in the river one of thum was jarvis ruloff had a deformed foot and ono one of the shoes found in the store was made to fit that foot so BO his connection with the crime was established well enough ile ho was his own attorney at his trial and the speech ho he made was waa a wonderful effort it was much like that of eugene aram in fact he quoted aram to somo extent saying that hla his days daya were given to honest toll toil and his nights to arduous study iiii dig argument was along the line that so BO clety biety spare him his great work on philology was approaching completion and it the world was waa robbed of 0 that wital volume it would bo be the greatest catastrophe of modern times the jury decided however that society would be able to struggle along without it and found duloff guilty he ha was sentenced to death and went to the scaffold ola protesting that civilization was doing itself nn an irreparable injury an eminent scientist examined his brain and announced that thai roloff was by nature a thief and murderer no moro more responsible lor foi ills his acts than a tiger and no more deserving of pity only the high places in ills his criminal career have been touched in this account A complete story would baake a book as large jarge as hla his own volume or philodor |