| Show THE CLAYTON MYSTERY READERS ot of the NEWS will remember a barbai barbarous ims murder which occurred at Plum merville conway county arkansas on the night of the am of january of this year Jo johme hirM clayton being befog the victim he was a candidate for congress in the election of november 6 preceding his opponent being colonel breckinridge democrat who was a candidate for reelection election re although the most active measures were taken by the local authorities and others including colonel breckinridge himself to discover the motive for the crime and detect and bring to justice the perpetrators it all came to naught and mystery en shrouds and has all along encompassed the whole affair so great has been the interest in the subject that the new york world recently decided to add an 40 other to its ite journalistic enterprises and if possible ferret out the guilty parties and to this end dispatched a special and capable representative to the scene of the tragedy his report occurs in that paper of the ath instant and occupies over eleven columns it is noteworthy that the special mem was none other oilier than john C klein who figured str strikingly Magly and prominently in connection with the late samoan troubles ad whose blood the germans not only demanded but counted on for a while the correspondent made little rock bock his base of operations and opened his campaign by ascertaining the drift of sentiment among the people at large regard rig ng the tragedy he says the honest democrats as wll well as republicans deprecated tho the dut dastardly ardly deed notwithstanding the there was a disposition shown by the latter to make political capital of it A the charge that those who committed the crime were presumably democrats being worked industriously and for much more than it was worth an honest and upright man 11 says klein a clias christian gentleman the father of six motherless children and a being who bore no enmity toward his fellow men was brutally murdered by 17 some wretches who unfortunate ly belonged to the democratic party but to hold the democratic leaders of arkansas who so strongly condemn deran his bis cruel taking off responsible for the tb e senseless and indefensible abt of some of the scum acu m of which both the democratic and republican publican Be parties have their share is unfair and unmanly anly to charge them virtually with being accessories before the fact is monstrous it is noteworthy in this connection that an interview with powell clayton the victims victim brother once a united states senator and a noted politician developed the fact that he hold held the democrats Demoe as a party blameless beless but charged them with the responsibility of a condition of things which made such euch deeds and the safety of the perpetrators ble there would seem to be more political bitterness and personal sorrow than calm and reasoning judgment in such a conclusion the correspondent met a demo amt who gave him some valuable aud and Ister interesting esting facts about conway county the mom man had lived in arkansas for twenty years and notwithstanding his partisan zeal did not believe it should be carried to the point of condoning all offenses committed by a few misguided agh men he scouted the idea of ofa justification in the fact that democrats were enraged to the point of violence because of political outrages alleged to have been committed n the state by republicans and showed conclusively that it was the work of irresponsible pon sible men in Plum merville who kill democrats and republicans indiscriminately whenever a real or fancied grievance arises were my identity revealed iu connection with this conversation said the man 1 I would be assassinated on the first night that I 1 passed in Plum merville because the men who killed john M clayton would kill me as quickly if not quicker for talking this ahls way this would seem to locate the perpetrators so for far as the positive evidence of one man indirectly erectly corroborated by several others and by striking circumstances may do it but dragging out to the light of day the guilty men themselves seems as impossible a performance now as before the searching investigation of mr klein was made he Is somewhat mystified at his own deductions but is confident the crime rests if not on Plum merville at least on conway county and he admonishes the residents of it that the world holds them responsible saying in that connection all the people of england are not dot responsible for the mistreatment of ireland nor are the people of russia for the oppression of poland but in the eyes of the world they are responsible 11 the theory of another of the murdered mans brothers judge W H H clayton that his brother was sent pent hence by the direct agency of ex governor simeon P hughes whose object was to make a republican county democratic reads strangely in connection with the conclusion of mr klein who charges the crime upon the county if it is naturally a republican county the judge being a republican would seem to have perpetrated a solecism looked at ai from any light it is a dark mysterious deplorable affair |
