The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

"MW -0,.-...__....._~_.._..___.».. .....M..._.__. _._.._. . l ,iiu-u.n.mmau~nm-A:ass=varLMWâ€"QWW’.W- .r...,...._..c.. “A. . . . .. n . ._ .-. iv:- MWJawâ€"mymm W< .4 r . pvz': :vsml..1uvutu .~. c». i: Inn 1 .. ' our.“ damn: .9- A_,. w... - ' ' nmmmw.mu. . _ inmos- L. .14 rd .... . fi‘ 0 ‘ , semaaerrieerreererrrr , reeeteri t recreate reerreeeeieerrreeirrre place for everything, and every- thing in its place,” observed my friend Basil Wyman, as he carefully put away a bundle of old magazines in a corner of the cabinet which seemed about four times too large for his small study. He Was just about to close the cabinet doors when I caught Sight Of. a Small open box divided into four compartments, in each of which l‘elJ-osed an article, the one which first caught my eye being the stump of a half smoked cigar. “You are getting economical in your old age,” I remarked, pointing to the fragmentary weed. "Not exactly,” he answered, with a smile. "There is a history atâ€" tached to the contents of that box of especial interest to me, because it relates to an incident in my career when, in addition to my orthodox medical duties, I adopted those of a crime investigator." Scouting a story, I pressed for further details, providing there was no reason Why they should not be- told. _ For answer, Wyman drew the box from its resting place, and put it on the table, and we filled our pipes and glasses preparatory to settling down in our dual position of narrator and listener. - “You will observe,” commencedth doctor, “that the other three arti~ cles consist of a little wooden shoe such as ladies love to tie with gaily colored ribbon to their overmantels, a small blue vase also used for dec- orating purposes, and an ordinary violin string." “Truly a. heterogeneous tion," I murmured. ‘:Just so. Yet each had their ap- pomted place in the unravelling of a. crime, which would in all prob- ability have remained a mystery for all time, had it not been for their ass1stance. Do you remember about five years back Society being as- tounded to hear that the Lady Mary Daton, one of its reigning queens, had been found dead in her boudoir? The shoe and vase belonged to her. The cigar stump was found beneath the chair in which she lay stiff and cold; the violin string was tightly clenched in her Contracted fingers. But I must tell the events in their logical sequence if you are to under- stand the bearing each had on the story of how she met her death. “Well, in the first place, my conâ€" nection with the case was a very na- tural. one, for ever since I had been in practice for myself I had' been the family doctor to Lady Daton and most of her relatives. Consequentâ€" ly, when the poor lady’s body was _ discovered, I naturally was sent for. My primary examination left 'little doubt that she had died from tho collec- el‘fects of arsenical poisoning. A View which, anticipating matters somewhat, I may say was fully borne out by the subsequent post m-ortem. m. “She had been dead some four ‘or five hours when discovered and inâ€" quiries from her maid elicited the fact that she had retired to her bouâ€" doir, in the early part of the afterâ€" noon, giving instructions that on no account was she to be disturbed until she rang for the girl. Her in- structions were followed out to the letter, although nothing was heard from her until it time to dress for dinner, and then the disc in the servants’ hall, which indicated that the electric bell in her room had been touched, fell; and the maid hastened up. “She tap-pod at Lady Daton’s ' door, but received no answer,- and after knocking rather‘louder with a similar result, ventured to enter.” “Her mistress Was sitting in a chair â€" in the girl's own words â€" ‘crouchcd up. all of a heap,‘ with a small phial labelled poison clasped in her right hand. "For a few moments the girl fail- ed to realize the full meaning of the . scene, for she approached the unfor- tunate lady and put. some question regardinqr the dress to be worn that night. There was no response and then a glinmiering of the truth broke upon the maid, and she seized the hand which held the Violin string, only to drop it again with a. shriek, for it Was limp and cold. ' “Observe that at the very outset ' there was a mystery attached to the affair. I arrived on the scene with- in a quarter of an hour of the maid’s discovery, and could certify beyond doubt that Lady Daton had been dead for some hours, yet the electric bell'of her room had preâ€" ' sumany been pressed by someone - only twenty minutes before.- “Of Course there was an inquest, and this point‘ was raised. The ex- planation that either the maid was mistaken regarding the falling of the disc,-or that the wire had got into contact with some other bell in the house was accepted by the Corâ€" oner and jury, but did not satisfy me._ “In my evidence I also mentioned ' the stump of the cigar found be- neath the chair; pointing out that its presence in a lady's boudoir was, to say the least of it, strange. , Twonticth century representatives of the gentler sex are, I know, addicted to the practice of cigarette smoking in the privacy of their own rooms, but; they draw the line at cigars. I may here say that the blue vase and « ornamental shoe‘ had either been dragged firom their usual place on the mau'telpicse 0r had fallen, for -monient after. they lay on the hearthâ€"rug directly facing Lady Daton. “However, the jury did not think that the questions I had raised had any important bearing on the case. “No doubt the startlingpiece of evidence which Was prove that Lady Daton was in the habit of taking small doses_of ar- senic for the benefit of her comlplexâ€" ion, prevented their giving proper oonsideration to my minor points. “A neighboring chemist swore he had personally served the deceased lady with the phial full of the poi- son that ‘very morning, and that he had been in the habit of doing so once a week when she was in towu. “The result of the inquiry was that the jury found Lady Daton had died from an overdose of arsenic ad- ministered by herself. And in the absence of proof that the lady was in any mental or bodily trouble, they added a rider to the effect that to the best of their belief the un~ happy event was the result of an ac- cident.” Wyman paused for a moment and I filled up the blank by remarking that I had forgotten ‘whcther the Lady Mary Daton was married or not. . “No, old chap, she was ‘The Lady’ in her own right,” he answered. “and as both her father and mother had proâ€"deceased her by six years and she had no brothers or sisters she came into all the property which was not entailed. Amongst it was the towu house in Marbury Crescent, where she eventually met her death. When she entered society she Was chaperoned by her aunt, the Hon. Mrs. Radlcigh, and these two lived together, of course, with a retinuc of servants, spending the season in London and the remainder of the year either abroad or at Lady Da- ton’s country house in Hampshire. “I have already explained that I was by no means satisfied with the coroner’s verdict, but apparently with the exception of Mrs. Radleigh I stoodalonc in my opinion. ‘ “I had met Lady Daton a great deal socially as well as professionâ€" ally, and had made somewhat of a. study of her character. I have nev- er met a. clearer-headed or more busi- nessâ€"like woman. She was only twenty-four when she died, but ever since she had come of age, she had managed her own affairs with con- spicuous cleverness, and no steps were ever taken without she thor- oughly mastered the details previâ€" ously. "Now I ask you, was it likely that a Woman with. that character would make the terrible mistake of taking an enormous over-dose of arâ€" senic by mistake? “I was not altogether surprised to hear that she was addicted to the arsenic habit. It is practiced more than is generally supposed â€" and Lady Baton had a naturally bad complexion, moreover was very sensitive regarding it. I felt sure that she would have thoroughly sat- isfied herself as to the dose she could take with safety, and would have been more than careful not to overstep the bounds. "I discussed the question with Mrs. Radleigh, and found her opin- ion was in accordance with my own. Consequently she gave me full auâ€" thority to take any further steps I deemed advisable and offered me any assistance she could give. You will remember that the violin string was found tightly clasped in the dead girl’s hand. ’ “Now in the first place there was absolutely no reason why a violin string should be in the house. Lady Daton certainly did not play the inâ€" strument, nor,,so far as we could ascertain, did any of the other iii- mates. We searched every room, but there was no trace of a violin or any parts appertaining to, it, beyond that solitary string. “I asked Mrs. Radleigh if to her knowledge any of Lady Dawn’s iiiâ€" tim'ate friends had been violinis'ts. For a long time she could think of none, then suddenly she ejaculated: “ ‘Why, Reggie Marston!’ adding a ‘But that was years ago.’ A “I urged her to tell me about the person she referred to,» explaining that however remote the acquaintâ€" ance was, it might have an import- ant bearing on the sad affair. “In answer to my inquiries. I learnt that there had been some years before a boy and girl love affair between poor Lady Daton and the Reggie Marston alluded to. The lady’s parents had objected on the grounds of their youth, and the fact that Marston .» was solely dependent upon his own efforts for a livelihood. The result usual in such cases fol« lowod. The lovers parted vowing eternal fidelity, and Marston, who was an officer in the Mercantile serâ€" vice, was drafted to a foreign staâ€" tion. IIis vows apparently worried him but little, for eighteen months later news arrived that he had mar- ried a rich woman in Ceylon and by that time Lady Daton had 'ap- parently got over her girlish predil- ection for him, for she received the intimation with some jesting remark anent a sailor's love. ' “As hinted by Mrs. Radleigh, this Marston had been a very capable performer upon the (violin. " The mention of Marston’s profession caused me to prick up my ears, for I had already noted that the cigar end now before you was not of a. type usually smoked in England. In my earlier days I travelled a. good deal, as you know, and had met that stamp, of 'smoke’ in Gibraltar and there only. I knew that it was the sort that sailors usually got a stock of when calling at that port. You will see that it Was possible that the two articles foreign to the -room adduced, to. man of Marston's tastes. “Having deduced this you can guess my feelings when Mrs. Rad- leigh volunteered information that the ornamental .shoe and blue vase which had been found on the heartlh rug had been his gifts. to poor Lady Daton on returning home from a voyage. “I examined the ribbon by which the shoe had been fastened to the overmantel and found that it Was torn asunder as though the shoe had been dragged from its 'fas-tening by violence. » . “Very shadowy grounds for pecting a man of murder, you will say, old chap. But it is these very trifles which have brbught criminals to the scaffold. ' “Were there any letters or papers amongst your niece’s effects which had any bearing upon her connection with young Marston?’ I asked Mrs. Radleigh, suppressing the excitement I felt. " 'I believe my unfortunate girl kept a diary at that period of her life,’ replied the old lady. ‘I will instruct one of the servants to get it for yOu.’ . “I turned the leaves with rever- ent and trembling hands when it ar- rived. It was pitiful, this record of a young girl’s first love affair, when one remembered that only six years after she had met a violent and mys- terious death. I will only give one extract. It detailed the parting of lovers, expressed her grief at the enforced commands of her parents and so on. But the lines that mov- ed me most were, so far as I can re- member, as follows: " 'Dut he will return rich and famous to claim my promise some day, and should anything prevent his coming he will send as a love token by a trustworthy messenger one of his beloved violin strings, tw0 knots tied at one end.‘ "I closed the book and drew the violin string from my pocket, and knew beyond all doubt that Reggie Marston had encompassed Lady Da- ton’s death, for there were two knots in the same position as those mentioned in the diary, tied in this one. “I sat dazed for a few minutes, staggered by this terrible confirmaâ€" tion of my suspicions, and then reâ€" covering somewhat cabled to a friend in Ceylon: " ‘Require information regarding man named Reginald Marston, sup- posed to have married widow in Cey- lon five years ago. Is he still in Ceylon?’ “Whilst I was waiting for the re- ply I made a thorough examination of the room, and pieced together in my own mind the details 0f the crime. After events proved pretty conclusively that my conjectures were not far wrong. "I came at them by noting a few facts connected with the room. In the first place Lady Daton had not changed her boudoir when her par- ents died. The window had been wide open on the fatal day â€"â€" the weather being hot -â€" and, what was still more important, it could not be seen from the road, nor was it overlooked by any other windows. When I also saw that'a» waterspout ran up alongside it, I had no longer any doubt as to the general correct- ness of my deductions. St! S- "Within twentyâ€"four hours I had a reply to the cablegram. It ran: “ ‘Marston’s wife died a year ago, husband having dissipated every penny of her money. He left here six months ago supposedly to take up previous profession. Police here would like news of him.’ “I will not weary you with a de- scription of how I tracked the mur- derer down. Let it suffice that I eventually ran him to earth in a. common lodging house in Wapping. “A glance at his face assured me that dissipation had brought him to death’s door. Without any preamâ€" bio I told him that, I knew of his crime. He would have started to bluster, but I silenced him with the words: " ‘I will' describe to you the exâ€" act events. of that afternoon. You arrived in London the previous night and being desperate determin- ed to appeal to your former sweetâ€" heart to keep her promise. There were reasons not altogether un‘con- nected with the police of Ceylon which rendered it inadvisable ' that you should go openly to the front door and ask to see her; so you climbed up the waterspout to her boudoir Window. She was in the room, and you claimed the redemp- tion af her promise. " 'She pointed out that your own action had annulled it. You atâ€" tempted to appeal to her feelings by producing the violin string which was to have been your love token. This only amused her and aroused your anger. Seeing the blue vase and wooden shoe you had'once given her, on the overmantei, you tore them down in your rage, and flung them at her feet. You had been drinking previous to your entry, to screw up yourcourage, and the spirâ€"’ it began to take effect on you. “ ‘Lady Daton ordered you to leave, and threatened to call for asw sistance, and that moment you flung her back in the chair and forced the poison which you had previously noticed .on the table by her side, downher throat before she had real- ized your intention, holding her there until it had done its work. SOmething prevented you leaving for some hours afterwards, probably the gardener was at work below, but at last the coast was clear and you slipped out by the same -Way you entered. The time then was about 6.30. ' I can fix it because, 'alâ€" it, i you ' though you probably 'did not know accidentally touched the electric bell pushâ€"which was by the windowâ€"as you got out. One more pointâ€"you left behind the remains of a cigar. Here it is.’ * “I pushed it towards him, but drew my hand back hastily for the shadow of the hangman's noose had been . too much for his enfeebled nerves. He was dead."â€"â€"I’earson’s Weekly. ‘ FOREIGNâ€"films u Lulu AMAZING I‘A‘CTS ABOUT THE WORLD’S CAPITAL.‘ Quarter of a Million More Females Than Men.-â€"â€"A Million School Children. Let me take you, in imagination, to a mighty street, down which stream the four and a half million men, women and children who make up the County of London. There would still be millions left in the suburbs, for Greater London has - a population of considerably over six and a half millions of human beings, says a writer in Pearson’s Weekly. Look at them as may come, young and old, sound and halt, three-quarâ€" ters of them are true Londoners, bred and born. But look. What strikes you most ? The women are in enormous excess. From a marrying point of View, Lon- don is_ not the place for women. Not only is the number of bachelors increasing at a rapid rate, but there are more than a quarter of 21. mil- lion more females than males. Lonâ€" don’s superfluous females could peoâ€" ple a town as big as Newcastleâ€" uponâ€"Tyne, and .yet leave enough over to fill Chester. Many of these Women will have to migrate to find husbands. There is plenty of room for them in the colonies. ' Look at the school children ; there are nearly a million of them. And then the old people of over seventy- frve ; see, there is a band of them far over 50,000 strong, mostly woâ€" men. They would fill Inverness and Perth, would these old Londoners. Why, what a healthy place this en- ormous city must be, especially for women. London women live much longer than the men. Count how many people there are who have liv- ed over a hundred long years. There are two dozen of them, and nineteen are women. Most of those babies you see are boys. It is only at ages above five years that the FEMALES EXCEED THE MALES. These facts make you anxious to know how many of these people who rush by are married. Well more than a third are married. The widoWed alone number 270,000. However, these young men you see are not so anxious to get married as were their fathers ; they prefer single bliSs as they would term it. ' Some of these'people who pass by us have married young enough in all conscience. Why, ten of those girls of fifteen are wives. More remark- able still there are two widows of sixteen ; one lives in Bermondsey, and the other in Westminster. Lonâ€" don lias only three boyâ€"husbands unâ€" der seventeen. ‘ Who have those fifteen-yearâ€"old wives married ‘2. Well, one has mar- ried a boy of tWenty ; two have marâ€" ried men of between twenty-five and thirty ; while the other seven are not living with their husbands. How do all these people make a living ? Their businesses "are num- berless. There are even twentyâ€"eight female blacksmiths, of whom eleven are single women. Their occupations are constantly undergoing a change. The biggest alteration during the last ten years has been an increase of over 180 per cent. in the numb-er of female clerks ; that is, exactly ten times as big an increase as in male clerks. The next biggest increase is in the number of men employed in the elec- trical trades, an increase of nearly 170 per cent. There has also been a vast increase in the number of actors male and femaleâ€"mostly male, al~~ though there are more females on the stage. Amongst these people there are many more artists than literary workers. This is especially true with respect to the females, for there are only 666 women journalists while there are 1,414 unmarrie-tl women artists, not to mention 264- married. The number of foreign born people who pass us would almost full Carâ€" diff, seeing that THERE ARE OVER 161,000. The Russians take the lead with 38,000, followed by 27,000 Cer- mans-. Germans do not appear to be particularly fond of London, as there are not many more of them than there were ten years ago, and the same observation applies to the. French. The contrary is true of the Italians, who have more than doubl- ed, and the Russians, who have far more than trebled. Stepney is lhe great foreign colony ; in fact, a fifth of its inhabitants are foreignâ€" ers. . We shall not see anything like the same number of Asiatics or Africans that we should have done a decade ago. There are only twentyâ€"three Chinese women in all London, and when we have counted every foreign-l er from the East the total will be‘ 420. .Aslatics are far rarer in Lon- don than most people imagine. ' The favorite district for Americans is Westminster. By far the greater portion are people without occupa- tion, though the chief occupation is 'makers, male, and 108 female actors, whilq there are'aiso seventy male‘ and six- teen female journalists. What do all these foreigners do 1 Well, most of the Russians are tall ors,gthough _a goodly few are boot ' and cabinet-makers. Th( Germans go in for baking, waiting, tailoring, hairâ€"dressing and office work. Franco furnishes most cooks, and next favors oflicc work. Italy comes'next to Germany in the num ber ‘of waiters, and next to Fraud in the number of cooks. It has a clear lead in the costernionger busi- ness, in fact, over a thousand haw- kers are Italians. It also furnishes the majority of organ grinders in th( Metropolis. _.._._.'.¢-;\..'......‘.~ Joyous CROWDS. The Man in: the Asylum and in - the Street Compared. The' London Lancet seriously dis cusses the psychology of-jubilation. After referring to'the s'hduting, the bell ringing, the.feather-tickling, and so on it proceeds: ' “Of course, such exuberance is an insanity of the moment. When it is over we make excuses and look sheepâ€"faced when brought to refleo tion; but we are able to settle dowu to our prosaic existence much more quickly than would have been pos- sible if we had fought against the volcanic explosion of feeling and en. deavored to cool ourselves by more gradual and rational methods. "In these public outbursts of en- thusiasm in the night time, which sees the culmination of the seismic disturbance because inhibition is then at its lowest ebb and the lighf of day is gone, we must have. more light so we flout the quiet heaven: with artificial fire. The silence of night is oppressive and wemus't haVe a soothing noise. So we “shout and then laugh and sing until till! lava of jubilation has run out and We can rest lapped in’the peace that follows an irresistible lettingâ€"go. “So might argue the crowds fill~ ing our streets on Mafeking and peace nights and the affinity of thin frame of mind to madness musf strike observant men. The essen- tial difference between the madness of a man inside an asylum and th( insanity of a man outside is that the former has his failure of inhib« itlon at times when there isno ex- cuse except his own personal moc bid condition. When, therefore, thf rest of society is unprepared it re sents the forcible exhibition of whal is against its feeling of the mo ment. The lattcr's outburst exact 1y represents that feeling and th( sanity of what is really a, manifesto; tion 0f insanity is acoepted by all." The Lancet argues that these ebult litions are good for the community, though it says: “We feel that thif is tantamount to confessing thal the march to civilization has no( modified human nature so much as might be believed. The world if very much as it was long ago.'Ther< is still the same tendency toWart explosiveness, mind storms, and lost of inhibition, and it takes verj little to seduce the sedate citizei into the destructiveness of th( child, the ‘rag' of the universitj student or the ‘hooliganism’ of tin man in the street. Habit may dc much. The events of the last threl years have been in the nature of a new experience. There was no pro paration and no gradual adaptatiox to new conditions, while everything that argued for explosivcness waJ provided." -~-â€"-+â€"---â€"-. GAMES 0F TAG. Lively Pastimes in Favo’r ‘Among Children in Switzerland. Swiss children make believe that the pursucr in the game of chase 0: tag is invested With an imaginarj evil spirit, Whose power is subject tc certain charms. For instance, if they touch Cold iron, a gateâ€"latch, a horseshoe or an iron nail the powel of the demon is broken. Sometimes they make gold or silver their charm. They playcrossâ€"chase, in which the runner who darts across tin patch between the pursued and tin pursuer becomes the object of Llll catcher, and the fornzcr one goo: free. Again, if the runner squats he is free, or he may squat three times, and after that the charm is lost The chaser often disguises himself, and unless the captives can guess who he is the captive is banished from the game. s’lfhey also play turn< capâ€"the chaser wearing his cap with the lining outside. Another Swiss game is called pot. of gold. One of the swiiicst runners takes a stick and pretends to dig for a pot of gold. He works away for a few minutes,”- then cries out “I’ve found it," and runs away with it at the top of his speed. 110 has the advantage of a few paces at the start, for while he is digging the other~ players are grouped behind him' at least one rod distant. The player who catches him gets the pot of gold and becomcs in turn subject to rubbers. This keeps every playei on the chase continually. +â€"â€"â€".â€" AS MUCH PARCUMENT AS LAI.T A piece of land which the; have purchased for £25 has cost the Pontel‘ract Rural District Council £21 , for conveyance from the land‘ owner,‘ Mr. Sothcronâ€"Estcourt. Tin clerk to the council remarked at a meeting that it seemed to him thf land transferred i‘céght almost bi covered by the four squa re yards of prim-inherit which the conveyance as that of playâ€"acting. There are 103 gcupiell. 0g}. ./ .. ._.-.l «Mb. I359 v\.\W\J-§.~. h,- _ «a, l. y. .n\. «figs-h“ .‘ Eifi; D