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Show mr COLONEL 111 WOE MM ""Wit W, lillUWW' is Vs GUARDS PRESIDENT S LIFE I AUTHOR'S NOTE. The material facts in this j story of circumstantial evidence J are drawn from an actual re- i corded case, only such change of names and local color being 6 made as to remove them from the classification of legal re- - G ports to that of fiction. All the essential points of evidence, X 6 however, are retained. - CGCOOOOaCCGOSGCOCOa? I u V 9 V HE Calf Skin club had as sembled early for its week ly session and every mem place with Judge Grower m uie cnair. vvnen tnf pa routine business was tin Ished the chairman rose and said: "We now will hear from Judge Stoakes who we trust has a story relative to circumstantial evidence. Judge Stoakes." Judge Stoakes, a large man of dig nified presence, whose silver hair alone bespoke his 70 years, rose and began: "My story is of the troubled In Missouri following upon the days civil war, when factional rancor still ran high and the conqueror and the conquered lived together in outward amity but with secret suspicion. I had just hung up my shingle in a little town In the southern part of the state which had been the hot-beof factional warfare, now captured by Lyon, now held by Price, and repeatedly preyed upon by the roving bands of irregulars of either side. Among the most noted leaders of these latter was Col. Jim Parrar. Among the northern sympathizers he was classed with Quartrell and the Youn-gers- , but when the struggle was over he settled down quietly in the little town of Chester, and his tall form, his flowing moustaches, his campaign hat and long coat became him as the costume did many another warrior of the lost cause. "Col. Farrar's household consisted of but one daughter, 17 years of age, and of that rare type of beauty which bo often crops out in an adventurous and warlike stock. Her name was Lucile and she soon set the heart of every yousg man in a flame. I myself fell at the first glance, and as I look back down the long stretch of years I can see the black hair, the rosy lips and the flashing eyes of Lucile Farrar as I watched her in silent adoration in the meeting house, upon the street or flying along on her pony which seemed as full of life and spirits as its fair rider. "It was silent adoration upon the part of us all, for never a glance did the fair Lucile have for any of us. But when Melvin Lessure came to Chester it was different. Something in her woman's heart must have drawn her toward him, for all the indifference and all the scorn were gone and they gave themselves up willingly to a love that quickly ran the gamut from passing interest to passionate devotion. "The very mention of a suitor for his daughter's hand was sufficient to send Col. Farrar into a rage terrible He noted the growing to witness. intimacy of Lucile and Lessure with jealous anger. But he could not watch her always, and many a time when he was away looking after the interests of his extensive plantation near the town we less fortunate youths saw Lessure starting on long walks with the fair Lucile. "Melvin Lessure inherited all the flrey impulsiveness of a long line of French ancestry and was not the yotlth to brook long this uncertain entente of his lovemaklng. He had a big plantation several miles from Chester and had moved into town for he social advantages that looked large to us then. He was amply able to support matrimony in a style equal to the best in the community. He was handsome, studious and courtly In his manners and seemed to be eligible from any point of view. The local Madame Grundy could find no reason why Melvin Lessure and Lucile Farrar were not a perfectly matched couple. "But the rock on which their happiness seemed destined to break was 'hat of factional rancor. Col. Farrar was of the south unreconstructed and anreconfltructable. Gaspard Lessure, Melvin's father, had cast his lot with ihe north and had died at his own his property defending ioorway against the enemies of his adopted m iter a plan which had formed in his irain to revenge himself upon her .Mr ft d r tlait. "Melvin Lessure was no match for Col. Jim in brawn or bluster, but he hosftated not to go to him with his suit, and the storm he provoked I give you M It was later reconstructed through the searchlngs of the law. "'NeTer, by the Almighty, never!' roared the colonel. 'Before I would ee my daughter married to one of the accursed assassins of my country I would slay her with my own hands. Get out of my sight and never dare to raise your eyes to a daughter ot Ihe Farrars.' V "Melvin Lessure stood with white face, clenched hands and gritted teeth while Lucile threw herself at her father's feet and weepingly begged and implored him to mitigate the harsh sentence. But he cast her rudely from him with a curse, and, turning to Lessure with murder in his eyes, said: " 'You You. want my daughdog! ter you! why, I shot your father down in cold blood because he differed Do you think with me politically. I'll do less for you for trying to rob me of ray daughter?' " 'So it was you who killed my father,' returned Lessure in a voice beneath the quiet of which lay the tense fixedness of a stern, unbending resolve. 'Then, Col. Farrar, I tell you that I will have your daughter and I will avenge my father. Are you mine till death, Lucile?' " 'I am yours till death,' said the girl as she went over and placed her arm proudly about his neck. "Very little was seen of Lessure in town after that and it was whispered that he was staying out on his farm and keeping out of the irate colonel's way. "About two weeks after his unsuccessful interview with Farrar, which was noised abroad as such things are in a small town, Lucile Farrar disappeared, and the tongues began to When for a week wag in earnest. she had not turned up the towns people, who had little love for Farrar at best, were ready to believe anything. His threat against his daughter was known and the bolder ones did not hesitate to whisper that he had put it into execution. These hints took form by degrees and at last a witness came forward who told of passing the colonel's house, situated on the edge of town, late at night, and of hearing low moans and pleadings. "At last suspicion took such fierce root that the sheriff headed an investigating party. Col. Jim was away and they had free run of the premises. "The search led to a cave in the side of the hill, once used as a cellar but long since abandoned. There they found torn pieces of a dress, a bloody hatchet and some tangled locks of black hair drenched with blood. The dress and the hair were easily identified as belonging to Lucile Farrar, the hatchet as the property of the colonel. "When charged with the crime his knees tottered and he nearly fainted. He made no direct denial but moaned and cried like a child. During the trial that followed he seemed stunned and oblivious to what was going on. "1 will admit that the courts of would be loath to accept so inadequate a corpus delicti, but our blood was hot in thoHe times and it seems to me we hanged more than we do now. Service was had on Lessure and he testified to the facts of the I'pon this quarrel and the threat. evidence and the prisoner's failure to deny they found their verdict of guilty anil fixed upon the death penalty. "As the day of execution approached Col. Farrar continued in a state But of almost total Insensibility. when the sheriff came to read the death warrant he roused and raising his hand to heaven, said. " 'before my maker I swear that am guiltless of my. child's death.' "They led him to the scaffold and on the way he passed Melvin Lessure who was watching the scene like a bird fascinated by a snake. Col. Farrar requested the sheriff to stop, and 1 The changes in officialdom at the national capital that followed the inauguration of William H. Taft as president extended even to the personnel of that secret service corps charged with protecting i lie person of the chief magistrate of the nation. It is not strange that each president should prefer to exercise strictly his personal preferences regarding the secret service men detailed as his personal escort, for very few officials of high or low degree are more closely or more continuously associated with the chief executive than these protectors in plain clothes. President I'aft's selection for the post of principal bodyguard was Secret Service Operative L. C. Wheeler and it all came about in this wise. From the very day that Taft was elected president, four months in advance of the date on which be was inaugurated, the chief of the secret service, considering that Judge Taft was a personage whose well being was of vast import to the nation detailed two of his best Mr. Wheeler was one of these men operatives to guard the president-elect- . and he accompanied the Tafts everywhere they went to Cincinnati; to Hot Springs, Va.; to Augusta, Ga., and to the Panama canal, with "side trips" to Washington, Philadelphia, New Haven, New York and other points. The qualities which Mr. Wheeler displayed during this strenuous season made a most favorable impression upon the new president and he asked that Mr. Wheeler be made his principal bodyguard when he was installed in the White House. Now when President Taft walks, rides, drives or motors abroad in the streets of Washington or m the suburbs Secret Service Agent Wheeler is his inseparable shadow. The conscientious secret service man scarcely lets the distinguished object of his attention out of his sight during his waking hours. If the president plays golf, the faithful Wheeler is close by to ward If Mr. Taft occupies a box at the off inquisitive or suspicious persons. theater his involuntary escort is not far away, perhaps sheltered by the curtains of the box. If the chief magistrate strolls to church on Sunday morning the secret service man walks a short distance behind. President Lincoln always insisted that his bodyguard should walk by his side and chat with him as though he were an intimate friend. None of our later presidents have pursued that course, although under the Taft regime there has been introduced an innovation in that the secret service men who accompany the president to church wear frock coats and silk hats and could not be distinguished by the unknowing ones from fashionable club men sauntering leisurely and apparently unconcerned behind the president. Wheeler, like to the other secret service men on duty at the White House, is about 30 years of age. He is of athletic build and keeps himself All these secret service guards in the best of condition by daily exercise. go well armed, but the weapons are carefully stowed away out of sight and there is nothing in either the dress or manner of these men to indicate thei lather both for his insulting words and for the death of his own parent. He had cut off a portion of her hair while she slept and dipped it in the blood of a lamb. He had also sprinkled blood over pieces of her dress. The hatchet was easily procured. These he had placed in the cave during one of Col. Farrar's numerous absences from the house and there also he had himself emitted the moans which had been heard. He would have carried his hellish plot through to the end but that the colonel's plea for forgiveness at the gallows unnerved him. "This confession was made partly at the place of execution and partly afterward in the jail. As soon afc it became clear that Lessure had an important statement to make the sheriff turned to the colonel to take the in signia of death from his head. Far rar, unobserved by all who were in tent upon the words of Lessure, had office. sunk into a sitting posture. The sheriff stepped up to him and raised the black cap. He was dead. "Lessure was immediately placed NEW INDIAN COMMISSIONER Robert Gordon Valentine, the newly appointed Indian commissioner, is only 36, a fact which leads some irreverent members of the elder contingent to remark that the chorus at Washington Is full of squabs and all the leading men are juveniles. Nevertheless, Mr. Valentine Is so well in touch with the affairs of the Indian bureau that he was the personal choice of retiring Commissioner Leupp for the succession. Valentine's knowledge of the Indian was mostly gained back in Massachusetts, where the only Indians are those who come along with the medicine shows. But he knows Lo, because he knows the poor white men pretty well. At least, those New England persons who pride themselves on following cold facts rather thaij fancy and sentimental theory believe they know poor, weak human nature. The cigar store Indian with the red blanket and the roostetr feathers and the bear tooth necklace will not be in favor with the new Valentine regime any more than he was with the preceding Leupp Valentine admits that, next to a coroner's certificate, the administration. best certificate of goodness Lo can have 13 to chuck his feathers, put on overalls and a hickory shirt, grab a shovel and get to work with the other Americans. The Indian of romance and Leatherstocking doesn't look as good to Valentine as the Indian with his crops all cultivated and his farm work up to date. After graduating from Harvard Valentine was a teacher, a bank clerk and then a newspaper writer. The latter job led to his political preferment m V ice-col- extending his haid to Lessure exclaimed: 'Young man, I have wronged you and I have no wish to leave this earth with the ill will of any man. I ask .your forgiveness for standing between you and my poor child and for the death of your father which I believed to be in the line of duty toward my country.' "Lessure trembled violently but did not reply or raise his eyes. The march to the scaffold continued. A deputy was forced to support the tottering form of Farrar while the sheriff Then the adjusted the black cap. sheriff stepped back and all was in readiness for the fatal word when Lessure sprang forward and cried in an agonized voice: I alone am guilty I "'Stop! alone! ' "The officers of the law called him forward and demanded an explanation. He declared that Lucile was not dead but that they had run off and been married and his wife was then living in concealment in St. Louis, for fear of the wrath of her father and until he could settle up his affairs and join her. Rut he had not divulged to rttt that night with a pistol procured, no one knew how. Lucile went mad on hearing of the tragedy, and was confined some time in an asylum. She recovered and ended her days in a convent. "That, gentlemen, is my story." There was a stirring of chairs and a general lighting of pipes which had been allowed to go out in the rapt attention that prevailed while Judge Stoakes was speaking, when Judge Grower arose and said: "I believe I voice the sentiments of the club in extending thanks to Judge Stoakes." iCopyriBbt. COMPELLED TO BORROW He blew his brains out under arrest. in his cell 1909, by Joseph B. Bowles.l BOTH STRENGTH AND BEAUTY Proper Respiration Adds to Each, But active by deep inhalations, thus loosIs Too Little Underening the tension of unemployed members. The persistent and regular pracstood. tice of a breathing exercise will not woonly do this, but will give poise and There will be fewer men and much less nervous prostraThe movements of respiration stand tion when proper attention is giving in a double relation to the nervous to breathing, says an exchange. As to introduce system, being Delsarte has said, there should lie oxygen into therequired blood, which takes up at freedom the at center, "strength the oxygen, and freeing itself of the the surface," and this freedom is but carbonic acid It contains, the latter acquired by learning to use one's thus acts as a powerful stimulus to enand will. By developing lungs at the lung nerves. larging them the thoracic cavity Is inOne should remember to avoid collarcreased, and upon the degree of this -bone breathing, to cultlyate the power depends expansion. raised and active chest, and to gain In order to control one's nerves one control of the diaphragm In order to must learn to command one's involun- have complete mastery of breathing. tary muscles, which are diaphragm, It Is not necessary to take a long, I!y the heart and the Intestines. to some far away place tiresome breathing deeply and controlling one s In order trip to be taught to care for breath and so increasing one's lung oneself, for nature will come to one's capacity, the heart action Is stimulat- aid with joyful alacrity In one spot as ed, and this supplies the nerve centers well as another. with fresh blood, and the nerves act But knowledge is not the only thing upon the muscles and the brain upon required. It is Its application that the nerves and muscles. In order not to have any waste of counts, and this means steadfast nerve force, the chest should be kept Henry M. Flagler, the Standard Oil magnate, who Is popularly supposed to carry the state of Florida around in his pockets, has been compelled to abandon one of hl3 dearest ambitions and announce a bond issue for the railroad he is building from the mainland across the coral beds to Key West. Up to date the engineering world has seen nothing more unique in its way than this railroad of J00 miles. Flagler has been constructing it much as a man would build a stable, his malinger in charge of the work being unlimited as to expense and only bound to make the road a good one. It has been Flagler's pet idea that when the road is completed it should be without a penny of indebtedness of borrowed money. No notes nor bonds nor other evidences of obligation were to be in its records. It was to show that the big built three palatial hotels at an expense of more had which fortune, Flagler than $5,000,000, was equal to meeting all bills for the construction of a rai- uf 1 lroadeven such a railroad as this. The announcement, made the other day, that a bond Issue is to be put out shows that the Flagler fortune was not at all points equal to the emergency. Still, nobody will believe that the poor commissioners are likely to Next to John D. be called upon in Mr. Flagler'c behalf for some time yet Rockefeller, he is the largest individual stockholder in the Standard Oil Co. He was a poor boy, clerking In a country store, before he heard the rapping of opportunity on the door. But he let go his bundles, sallied out and got lock on the rapper before the echoes had died away. a half-Nelso- GERMAN RAILWAY MINISTER Herr Von Breitenbaeh, as minister of publlt works and railways In the Prussian government, railroad sysis at the head of the public-ownetem. Germany has owned her railroads for a number of years and they are managed by an especially capable and conservative body of officials. Reports Just received from the experts who have been studying the situation there declare, Mik however, that the plan is not a succes respect both to the service received and the financial results public ownership Ir Germany is declared to be a long way from satisfactory. At the present moment llerr Von Breitenbaeh has in contemplation several changes of importance In the methods of his departments which look toward finally making the Prussian railroad busi ness profitable to the government or satisfactory to the public, if either of both cases can be brought about. 9 |