Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / Sept. 23, 1904, edition 1 / Page 1
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V 1 vv &00 Vear, In Advance. " FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR TRUTH." Single Copy, 5 Cent. VOL. X V. PLYMOUTH, N. 0., FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 23. 1904. NO. 27. iV MAN'S AMBITION He strives to win the long, hard race To let his name be known He longs to stand .in some fair place, Exalted and alone; t Be strives for riches or for" fame, And fop the winning waits to claim The honor as his own. .iff. ( m A PERFEG T DISAPPEA By TALBOT SMITH. c )jr jQ HE long and sensational 4 nnA trial was crer' cn' in sPIte O I O of the earnest, whole-heart- K r e(i attemPts of tue Prison" "WOf er's counsel,' had terminat ed in ;ue omy pos3ible verdict All was over for Winthrop Lyle. The Judge, in a queer, quavering whisper, bad drawn on the fatal headgear of loom in a manner to suit bis peculiar taste, and spoken these words which, even the most callous cannot hear un moved, and for the rext twenty -four days the doomed man was walking the sorrow-stricken path of the Valley of the Shadow. From that awe-inspiring moment Winthrop Lyle was no longer wholly human.. A metamorphosis had -changed the convict into a being whose soul was already knocking at the Eter nal Gate. The condemned man heard the ver dict unmoved, save for a tremulous movement of the lips, whic'v the most self-contained can never wholly hide, and passed clown those footworn steps so many unfortunates have trod to the 'Cll apportioned him. Here, by special permission of the Judge, he had an In terview with, his brother without the restrictions cf a watching warder. "I expected nothing better," said the prisoner, "and nothing remains for me now but r eparation for the end so -close at hand." This ,was said in a loud voice in order that the warder standing outside the door, which was .just ajar, should hear and form a mis taken conclusion. When Eustace. Lyle left the prison he carried with him, and concealed in an inner pocket, a letter which Winthrop had written when ine case seemed hopeless, and had managed to slip un seen into his hand. Not until he was at horn-1 rgain and behind a locked door did he venture to read it. It ran 'thus: Before the day of execution comes I shall be far away from this place or dead. I want you to do one thing and promise another. Leave .$10,000 with our lawyer. Itoomc, to be given to any one who asks for it, be he beggar, tramp or gentleman. And promise me that if I escape no one of my family shall make the slightest effort to find mo or follow me. Ordinary means of csrpe are out of the question. I shall be shepherded night and day by two armed warders, who are relieved at intervals of four hours. I know, and you will yourself see, prison doors are to be opened only from the outside, and wrere I to suc ceed in overpowering the guards and opening the door, some twelve other doors and gates would have to be nego tiated ere I breathed the outside air. . I have calculated the periods of duty and relief of the six men told off for "condemned cell duty," as it is called, and And two warders. Cox and Foster, .both young men, will be my guard from 10 to 11 a. ni. on Sunday next, when I shall be at exercise in the pris on yard. You must get at these men, not. ostensibly, but by ordinary courte sy. They use The.King's Crown, and. i.s I know from experience while here, Appreciate a good cigar. Spin a yarn Jt)t. bonded cigars to be purchased on Saturday, or the day after to-morrow, and you wish to share the delicacies with them. You need make no secret of our relationship. Give them a dozen or so each on Sunday morning as they enter the outside gates. Their hours of duty are from 8 to 12. I shall smoke after breakfast, as I am per mitted, and as all will be safe in the condemned corridor, will persuade them to join me. They will, for the odor of my undoctored cheroot will be au insumountable lever. ' The drug anyl 4ocj not take action AND WOMAN'S, Within her gentle bosom slis Conceals a daily prayer For riches and renown that he And she may jointly share ; She plans and tries as best she may To take and hold the height, some day, With him beside her there. S. E. JCiser. .iff. m m ) m m m ijr for sixty, to ninety minutes, accord ing to the dose. This will bring us to the hourof exercise. So far so good. Now, listen. The foreman of . the wotrks has a sick wife aud a screaming brood. Approach him, offer him a handsome set-off to pay and pension on condition that when at work to-morrow the brickwork of the wall they are repairing may be loosened; this will be insufficient alone, but the lad der always used in working hours must be inadvertently left behind when leaving for the night. You can guess the rest. The foreman gets the sack for "gross neglect' of duty," and falls back smiling on my comfortable check, and I, well, I never mind. When the news of my flight reaches you, look upon me as dead and buried in Newton Churchyard. In fact, it won't help you to do otherwise. Winthrop was in good spirits at the close of his brother's visit, and kept himself in the same mood for the next few days, in spite of the trying scenes of farewell with his friends and rela tives. The Lyle family, wealthy and pow erful, was bent on preventing by any means the disgrace of the scaffold. It was a great triumph for justice when influence, intrigue and the skill of the Iawyerscame to naught in court and elsewhere. Even public opinion, won to sympathy by the brilliant struggle which Lyle made for his life, by his talent, his spirit, his beauty of face and manner, his steady and solemn declarations of innocence, was resisted and overcome by the officers of jus tice. The care taken to prevent a prisoner under sentence of death from escape or suicide is very thorough, but it re minds one of the care taken by rail way companies to prevent accidents. No matter how perfect the system, it depends on men for success, and en gine drivers will 'drink, signalmen fall asleep, telegraph clerks miss the right word and guards fail to swing a .warn ing lantern. Everything worked successfully. Wealth and the rank of the convict achieved wonders, and an escape which read more like a romance of Dumas than a chronicle of Newgate occupied public attention for the usual nine days. Every one remembers the stir created by Lyle's disappearance. The officials, mad with rage and shame, really exhausted the means at their command to find the criminal. Finally the case was put into the able hands of Detective Lord, one of the smartest and most vigilant men in the secret service. His efforts came to naught within a year. Lord held on for six months longer, studying with infinite patience clews, actual and thecretic, that prom ised something. Lyle had vanished in to thin air. Had he dissolved into ele mentary gases at the prison gates, he could not have left leds trace of his path into the world. Not one clew ever led to any result, not even to a decent 'neory of his escape. Lord con tinued the pursuit out of pure fascina tion for a mystery which overtaxed his powers and took the edge off his natural shrewdness. After resigning his post, and joining an orchestra as first vi-din for faith in his abilities finally deserted him this fascination accompanied him, and proved a great bore to his friends from the endless speculations it led him to indulge. On his mantelpiece Tie kept a photo graph of Winthrop Lyle, and the slim, hard figure, the pale, thin high-bred face, the severe expression and dark eyes had a prominent place iu his sleeping and waking dreams. In the end no one took any interest in his cherished mystery, save the boy who played the 'cello in the orchestra. It was always a great relief to Lord to turn from constant brooding on the tints of Lyle's picture to the society of the young musician; for Josef Ganz was a soft boned, easy young German, slow in speech and movement, given to song and laughter, fond of his wife and 'cello and baby; fonder of the Lyle problem than Lord himself. When the boarding-house in which he lived, the day dreams and the world grew wearisome, the detective went over to his friend's house and spent a Sunday evening with Ganz. He had a cosey home, and its owners, its pic tures, its very furniture, spoke of ease and comfort. Josef was fair skinned, fat and jol ly, and loved to .sit with his baby or his 'cello at his right hand. His wife and child wore plump and rosy, and even the gray professor father, with his habits of study and solemn expres sion, had a fat and contented air about him. Not having been' long in the country, they spoke English with a gentle ac cent. German pictures hung on the wall, and Gorman colors were every where. Frau Ganz could not abide English cooking, and at her table were ever dressed the seasoned dishes of the Fatherland. When they sang songs or indulged in old memories, the little village near Munich was the theme. The one promise to baby to induce him to- be good was a visit to Munich wheu he had come to be a man. Among these simple people Lord might talk his hobby to death and be listened to with reverence. "It's so nice to hear a clever detec tive speak by the hour of a great mur derer and villain," Frau Ganz said to her neighbors. The old professor did not pay much attention, while his eon Josef was a tireless listener, and had many speculations on the plan of es cape, used by Lyle. "I have a theory," began Josef slow ly. "What, another?" The detective laughed and the professor glanced ir ritably at his son. "A new one," said Josef, placidly. "Some time, when I have fitted the joints, I will tell you how that Lyle escaped. He was no ordinary man, and when he disappeared, it was for ever. It is an art to disappear well, and he must have been skilled in the art. I know its rules, and the princi ples on which these rules are based. It is curious and interesting, this art." Lord felt curious about this matter, knowing that Ganz would make a clear, forcible statement of his the ories. For he had studied logic and rhetoric at Innsbruck, and could put a case in which he was interested very strongly. "There is such an art," Josef began, and your man Lyle was skilled in it. It would be a treat to hear him discourse on it." "Wouldn't it, now," said Lord, with scorn. "Especially if, while listening, one had the reward of capturing him in his inside pocket. But that .will never be." , 'Trobably not," said Josef, "unless he gets tired of hiding. You know, I always took an interest in the poor fellow. I seem to know him as well as you, so often have you described his words and ways. He was a thor ough Englishman by birth, training, appearance, cleverness. Old family, high spirit and all that; Cambridge graduate, well dressed good figure, athletic; brown hair, green eyes, pale, severe face; quick in movement, speech and thought. Then lie was in ventive, fond of mathematics, also of pleasure, but cared nothing for music or wine or books. And he learned enough of drug.? to poison his wife too cleverly." "How could he have been so hard and cruel?" said Frau Ganz, with a sigh. "I don't believe he did it," said Josef, softly. "His lawyers, the great pub lic, his relatives, and many good peo ple believed him innocent. Lord says the case got an awful sifting, and the more they sifted the less certain some were of his guilt, while others were more certain." "But the art, the art!" cried the im patient detective. "Ah. yes, the art, to be sure. Well, first, have I described Lyle accurately? I might say he was just the opposite to myself in most things." "Two young men," answered Lord, "couldn't -be and look, less alike." .Tose'f smiled. "I arrived in this country about the time he escaped from jail. I could read English then, and, I remember, the newspapers were full of him. But until I met you the case did not inter est me. Let me show you what the principle forces a man to do. when it is suceessfullj carried out. You think it means running away to Brazil or Tersia, in a wig and blue spectacles, as they do in a play. New The man who disappears according to this principle, must escape, not only from his pursu ers, but from his friends, and, above all. from himself. He must change his country, never meet old friends again, get a new language, a new trade, a new place in society, a new set of parents and relatives, a new past, a new habit of body, a new ap pearance. He must think, speak, walk, sleep, eat and drink differently from in past days; he must change the color of his hair, skin, eyes; in fact, he must become another man as really as if he had changed natures with a par ticular person." "Der gondry is safe," said the pro fessor, with a huge laugh, "und so is der brofession of detective. Who gould bragtise dose rules; und if dey gould, what use would be detectives?" "It makes fine talk," said Lord. "All very well if such things could be done. As they' can't, your theory isn't worth a straw. It's impossible." New York Tribune. Mother Elephant and Her Baby. A remarkably intelligent elephant, working a few years ago on a new bridge in Ceylon, bad a young one to whom she was devoted. It died, and she became inconsolable. Formerly the gentlest of creatures, she grew irritable and even dangerous. One morning she broke the chain which confined her and escaped into the forest. One night, about ten days after her escape, the officer who had been in charge of her went out to lie in wait for bears at a pond in a jungle at some distance. As he and his native attendant were returning, early in the morning, the native silently nudged him, and they saw in the dim, gray light an elephant with her calf making their way toward the camp. They both sprang behind trees, and when the elephants had passed the native insisted that the older one was their old friend, the in consolable mother. When they reached the camp they found that the truant had returned, and. had gone from one person to an other,, touching each with her trunk, as if exhibiting her adopted child, which she had evidently begged, bor rowed or stolen in her absence. Her good temper and usual docility returned at once, and her owner blessed the good fortune which bad en abled her to procure a baby elephant. Xo Finger Bowls. One of the many strange unwritten laws which must be observed when royalty is being entertained is that which forbids the use of finger bowls at dinner for any of the guests except the royal ones. This custom dates from the early days of the Georges, when the nobles were divided in their alle giance bet wen the reigning house of Hanover and the exiled Stuarts. To many of these nobles allegiance to the Stuarts was a religion and often the outward acts of allegiance to the reigning sovereign were perverted into treasonable acts of homage to the ex iles. No dinner was complete with out its toast to "the King" in those days, to evade which was an act of treason punishable even with death and loss of titles, and estates. The Jacobites, however, discovered a way to avoid this penalty without sacrific ing their loyalty. Holding the wine glass over the finger bowl, they drained the glass to "the King," with a mental reservation "over the wa ter." This simple ruse was soon dis covered and the use of linger bowls was forbidden. Buffalo Courier. Corn liaised by One Missouri Farmer. One Missouri farmer, David Rankin, of Tarkio, .-jvows more corn on his farm than is raised in the States of Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Washington, Utah, Oregon and Hhode Island combined. What is more to the point, Mr. Ran kin sells none of his corn, lie feeds all of it to his own cattle, and almost every year has to buy a good deal be sides from his neighbors. Kansas City Journal. Nevada has a mile of railroad for each five citizens, but only 87-100 of a mile for each 100 miles of area. HE TOLD HER SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL: Lie told her she was beautiful, She frowning bade him go; She knew he sought her fortune, for JJcr glass had told her so; Still, still he called her beautiful She knew her face was plain, For twenty times a day. alas! The truth was told her by the glass That had no prize to gain. He told her she was beautiful, "Nay, do not jest," she cried; He told her she was beautiful. And knew she knew he lied: Still, still he called her beautiful She answered; "Cease, I pray; Your words are false, as is your heart; It is not love suggests the part You basely seek to play!" He told her she was beautiful, And. chiding him, she tied; He told her she was beautiful She stopped and turned her head-' Still, still lie called her beautiful, And rushed to where she stayed, And, prating still -about her charms, lie folded her within his arms, And rapture tilled the maid. Chicago Kecord-HeraM. , "Do you syrapalhiz? with Russia or Japan?" "I sympathize with the tax payers Iu both countries." Cincinnati Commercial-Tribune. And then, again, it will not take . Such great gobs of gray tissue If, after all, we only in?ke Some platitudes the issue. Chicago News. Brown "Is Smith the boss over at his house?" Jones "Mrs. Smith says he isn't, but I notice he picks out all the new wall paper." Cincinnati Tri bune. Percival 'The stage is a paradox, don't you know!" Edythe "How so?" Percival "Why er it is stationary yet it has wings and flies." Pennsyl vania Punch Bowl. Lady Maud "Do you think it's un lucky to be married on Friday. Sir John?" Sir John (confirmed bachelor) "Certainly. But why make au ex ception?" Punch. "Did anyone call me up while- I was out?" asked thetmtcher. "No," replied the boy, "but a customer whose meat for dinner hadn't arrived called you down." Houston Post. "Which are you betting on, the Cau casian or the Mongolian?" "Neither. I think Pittsburg's goiu' to win in spite of the bad start the team's got." Chi cago Record-Herald. "Do you know the nature of an oath, my little man?" asked the judge. "I ought to," replied the boy. "I was caddy at your golf club for two sea sons." Yonkers Statesman. The Cow "Gee! I'm thirsty. I wish I belonged to a Wall Street syndicate." The Rooster "Why do you wish that?" The Cow "'Cause they never forget to water their stock." Puck. Contentment does not spring from wealth, We're told, and that may be; And yet we know it doesn't flow From grinding poverty. Philadelphia Ledger. Paw (finishing up a story) "And so I washed my hands of the whole busi ness." Little Willie (interestedly) "Did somebody send you from the table to do it, paw?" Pittsburg Dis patch. Employment Agent "What was the matter with your last place?" Domes tic "The missus was too perticuler." "In what way?" "She wouldn't let me lock th' baby in th' foldin' bed w'en I had company." New York Weekly. The Judge "Prisoner at the bar,, what have you to say for yourself?" The Frisoner "I only hope, Jidge, that you will return good for evil." The Judge "Oh, don't have any doubt in that direction; you'll get a good sen tence all right." The passenger who had been holding himself up by a strap sat down in a seat that had just been vacated. "There is plenty of room, ma'am," he said to the pudgy little matron sitting next. "Don't move." "We don't have to," she said with a cheerful smile. "We own the house we live in." Chicago Tribune. A Mixed Metaphor. The following, as a pulpit mixed metaphor, beats any that you quote, writes a correspondent to the West minster Gazette. It was heard in a York church some years ago, and I can guarantee its genuineness: "An open' door is presented to you, my brethren; if you will but embrace it it will afford you an abundant harvest." Chairs with footrest3 were used ia Rome A. D. 150,
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
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Sept. 23, 1904, edition 1
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