Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, June 19, 1897, Page 7

\ \ PARYNG JUAN NeLSO (By Emma M. Wise.) =) HERE was a long lane leading from the highway back to Juan Nelson’s house. It was a narrow, snow-be- sprinkled road that stretched away while the tortuous between the bleak, denuded woods that lined it on either side. When the sheriff turned into the pri- vate thoroughfare he began to review the directions that had been given him at the postoffice: “Follow the lane and you'll find a barn at the other end. Back of thé barn there’s another short wagon track leading down into a hol- low. In that hollow there is a house, and in that house you'll find Juan Nel- son.” He repeated those instructions over and over again to the accompaniment of the clatter of the horse’s hoofs against the clods of frozen earth and the creaking of the buggy which lunged in and out of the deep ruts and wheel tracks. The snow had been sift- ing down lightly at intervals through- out the morning, but along toward noon the weather had moderated a lit- tle and the low-hanging clouds gave promise of a heavy storm, which had fairly set in by the time the sheriff reached the barn. There were high bars impeding his progress at that end of the jane, and he grumbled fretfully when he got out into the snow to let them down. He led his horse through the barn yard to where the cattle were huddled close together in an open shed and headed him into a second lane that ran down to the hollow. It was only a short distance down the slope to the single house that steed in the depres- sicn of land and the sheriff did not get back into the buggy. It was a little house that Juan Nelson lived in, half frame and half log. The weather boarding had fallen off in some places and where the mortar had crumbled away there were chinks be- tween the logs through which flakes of snow seemed to be insiduously drift- ing. When the sheriff first turned in- to the scarce-defined roadway there was no person in sight around the lit- tle cottage, but before he was half-way down the incline a flock of bare-headed children, accompanied by three dogs, swarmed out from the back of the house and stood watching him bashful- ly. He spoke to the largest boy, who had advanced farthest to meet him, and that red-headed youngster took to his heels and ran toward the rear of the building whence he had just ap- peared. There was no fence around the rude dwelling and the sheriff, following the boy’s lead, made his way into the back yard. Soon after leaving the barn the sound of an ax had been heard, and when the officer came to a halt in the midst of the small regiment of chil- dren he saw that it was a woman who was splitting wood. She was tall and gaunt and thinly clad. She ceased chopping when her visitor alighted and leaned against the handle of the ax, which rested firmly on the log. “Mrs. Nelson, I presume,” he said, advancing toward her. She pushed back her light, stringy HE IS INNOCENT. falr with one hand and looked at him keenly. “Yes, sir.” The sheriff's glance wandered off to- ward the surrounding hill-tops, then back to the woman again. s Mr. Nelson at home?” he asked. “Yes, sir.” “May I see him?” A suspicious look had crept into her small, blue eyes and her voice took on an extra degree of sharpness as she answered, “I don’t know. He ain't feelin’ very well. Juan’s been real sick for more’n a week. He’s pretty low to-day. Can’t you tell me what :t is you want?” “No,” he said, “I must see him per- sonally. It is very important.” She dropped the ax then and brush- ing the snow from her bared face and head she stood close before him. “Mister,” she said, “I believe I know who you are. You're the sheriff, ain’t you?” He nodded. When he was first elect- ed to office six years before he had been proud of his title but that day its glory had departed and the honor it brought seemed empty and dead, “You needn’t tell me what you’ve come for,” she said in tones that were more strident than before. “The neighbors told me you would be here. Mister, they’ve lied to you. My hus- pand never stole anything. He’s very aut sick to-day. Don’t take ’im away this “tafternoon. It’ll kill him if you do.” “It’s my duty, madam,” he said, firm- ly. “I must see him, anyway. If you resist I must go in by force,” he added, as her pale face flushed angrily. “Very well,” she replied, quietly. He hitched the horse to an apple tree and followed her into the house. The seven or eight red-headed children crowded in with them and grouped around the fireplace in which two large Icg3 were cmoiderirg in'a heap of ashes. Juan Nelson sat shivering in one corner with both thin hands out- stretched toward the embers. The wo- man’s sharp drawn face took on an ex- pression of tenderness as she hurried toward him and laid her hand gently on his long black hair. “Father,” she said, “here’s a gentle- man come to see you.” A fit of coughing overtook the man and cut short the “howdydo” with which he began to greet the sheriff. The officer sat down near the window, where an old dress skirt did duty as a pane of glass, and looked at his pris- oner. It was all so different from what he had expected it to be. Juan Nelson had been described to him as a des- perate thief, and he had been on the point of bringing two deputies with him. Having changed his mind in that particular he had expected to walk straight up to the man, clap the mana- cles on him and say: “Juan Nelson, you are my prisoner.” But, somehow, even that part of the programme was changed. He felt that he would have to lead up to his errand easily. “Mr. Nelson,” he said, “I have had frequent communications from your neighbors recently. I am sorry that they bring grave charges against you. I, as the sheriff of Clarendon county, find it my bounden duty to investigate. What have you to say for yourself?” Another fit of coughing shook the man’s slight frame. “I will answer for him,” said the wo- man. “He is innocent.” “I am afraid you will have a hard time proving that,” said the sheriff. “The case, as I understand it, is this: The farmers hereabouts have been sus- taining heavy losses of meat, flour and other provisions for the past three months. The thieves have been track- ed, and on more than one occasion the footprints have led them to your house. What do you say to that? If you are not guilty you are undoubtedly in col- lusion with the ones who are. Besides, it takes a good deal of food for such a large family and three dogs. The gro- cers state that they have not sold you enough stuff this winter to keep soul and body together in one man. Yet you have eaten. Where did you get it?” The woman stepped forward between the sheriff and her husband. “Where did we get it?” she cried, passionately. “Ah, that’s the question, or, rather, it would be the question if we had had anything. But we haven’t. Look here,” and she pushed up her thin sleeve, “Do you see this shriveled muscle, dried up skin and large bone? Do you see how emaciated and hollow- eyed he is? Do you see the rags of the children? Now, ask where we got it? See here,” and she strode toward the cupboard and threw back the door. “Here’s a little cornmeal and a piece of pork. We had corn-meal yesterday. We've had it every day for a month. And we’ll have it again to-morrow. We get that for the work I do at the barn yonder. Somebody has been losing hams and chickens and bread and pre- serves. Do we look as though we have been living on such fare? But it ain’t my fault that we haven’t,” she added, fiercely. “If it hadn’t been for Juan I'd have done my best to get my share of the boodle. We've got the name; we might just as well have the game. Juan Nelson is innocent, I say. Look at him,” and her voice grew soft and tender once more. “Does he look like a@ man who would be able to walk six miles on a winter’s night, carrying the plunder they claim was stolen?” “But, the footsteps,” argued the sheriff.” “Ah, the footsteps. I know nothing of them.” “The evidence that can be produced against you is overwhelming,” said the officer. “I must make the arrest. If you are innocent you will undoubtedly be able to prove it at the trial. Tell your lawyer——” “Our lawyer,” interrupted the wo- man, bitterly. “Lawyers are apt to do so much for such people as we are!” The sheriff clasped the handcuffs on Juan Nelson’s thin, blue-veined wrists and wrapped round him an extra horse blanket he had brought for that pur- pose. They neared the door. The chil- dren wept aloud and started toward their father, but the woman waved them back. Her lips twitched, but she was calm and rigid and made no out- cry. Juan stopped on the threshold and kissed her. “Good-by, mother,” he said, broken- ly, ‘May God have mercy on us all. If I ever get out——” He coughed again. That spell being ended the sheriff assisted him in walk- ing across the yard and helped him get into the buggy. The woman went slowly after them. Once she made a movement as if to speak, but the words died away unsaid. The buggy crept slowly away from the little house in the valley. At the top of the hill the sheriff and Juan Nel- son looked back. The woman, with the children clinging to her skirts, was still standing near the corner of the house, looking after them through a swirl of snow. Japanese Gobo. A Japanese correspondent of Garden and Forest says that the burdock, which the Japanese call “gobo,” is a valuable food in Japan. The tender shoots are boiled with beans, the roots are put in seup and the young leaves are eaten as greens. The plant has been cultivated for centuries and the annual value of the crop is about $400,000. This will be very surprising to American farmers, who look on ‘the burdock as a “pesky weed.” What They Need. A health journal is telling people “how to lie when asleep.” If it could persuade them to tell the truth when awake it would be doing a real service. —Trifles. FOR WOMAN AND HOME ITEMS OF INTEREST TO MAIDS AND MATRONS. Summer Grass Cloth Gown—Traveling Dress for a Young Girl—New Mode in Dress Trimmings—-Some Household Hints. . The Kiss in Court. LAWYER met a pretty Miss While he was walk- ing out one day, And stole from her ‘a honeyed kiss— Which was not just the proper way. At once a case of tort was brought Which legal rules could not deny; The lawyer he'd no justice sought So frail a suit as that to try. The action, when it got in court, Met, with a jury lenient, And many a quillet and retort Day after day on it was spent. The lawyer claimed no maiden should So much rare loveliness display; A kiss like this he understood Was flotsam on the state's highway. The maiden said her rosy lips No casement were for him to use, Though they all others might eclipse— His answer was somewhat abstruse. And thus pregressed the argument Concerning kisser and kissee, When to the jury it was sent, Who failed entirely to agree. But, sent into their room again, They gave their voice to the defense; And found the girl in fault, for plain “Contributory negligence.” —Joel Benton. or in squares, the skirt plaited or fitfed as one prefers. And frills of cashmere ‘trim a cashmere skirt in festoons across the side breadths only, these in clusters of two just below the hips and just above thé hem, bows of ribbon ending them on each side of the front breadths, and on each side of the back fullness. This arrangement on a prin- cess frock is gracefully repeated on the bodice by festooning two ruffies across the bust from choux on each side, the ruffles continuing higher up over the shoulders to form epaulettes over the sleeves. Another cashmere model fetchingly trimmed with narrow ruf- fles of the same stuff has two set to- gether about the hem, a third one above them curving up at the front and meeting at the waistline, thus giv- ing a decided overskirt effect. This last ruffle appears to continue up the bodice and about the neck at base of the choker, a second ruffle trimming the bodice bretelle fashion and form- ing a narrow epaulette at the top of the small gigot sleeves. A narrow vel- vet ribbon abour the waist ties with a bow and long ends in front. Traveling Dress for a Girl. A simpie traveling gown for a girl of 12 is made of rough dark green serge. The skirt is a moderate godet, with the fullness carried up to the back in flat plaits. The waist is a loose, dartless blouse with the fullness con- fined by a narrow tan suede belt, and the short basques are slashed to show a facing of tan taffeta. The waist is such a loose affair that it may be worn as a jacket over a blouse of pongee, or by inserting a V of the tan broad- cloth that the revers and cuffs are made of it may be worn as a simple bodice. The hat with this little suit Summer Grass Cloth Gown. A striped grass cloth dress, with small embroidered figures, was ordered by Miss Virginia Fair for the season at Newport. When completed it wiil be sent there to await her coming. This is a method much adopted by fashion- able women who do not want to pack so many trunks for the summer. The modistes are ordered to send their gowns directly to their summer desti- nation. The skirt is plain about the hips and plaited at the back. Around the foot it has a broad band of sage- green taffeta, lighter than the ground- work of the skirt. The waist is a sage green, with a bolero effect in pale sage cloth, braided in black. The sleeves are of the grass cloth, and there is a black ribbon collar and a black belt. A very broad brimmed sailor hat is to be worn witk this. It is white, faced with sage-green silk and trimmed with a band of black ribbon. Different vests ean be worn with this. Little, sleeve- less waists of china silk, washable, are very nice for wear with a bolero, New Mode in Trimmings. Skirts and bodices are trimmed with “What's the. prisoner charged with?”| a lattice work of lace insertions or of said the judge. “Whisky, your hon- or.” “Then discharge him, officer.” ribbon bands, arranged in Vandykes is of dark green rough straw, with ar enormous bow of blue and green plais taffeta at the front and a narrow band of dark blue velvet around the crown. Her Possessions Beautifal. ‘ Mme. Patti, who is a wonderful housekeeper, has a perfect passion for linen. Her cupboards are among the wonders of Craig-y-nos. With inno- cent coquetry, Caroline, her faithful servitress of thirty years’ standing, tied up the beautiful sets of mie pillow cases and towels and table- cloths and napkins in pink and bluc ribbon, with little’ bows, sc the cupboard, when _Tesembles a flower garden. might well make the same that Mme. Ro- land made when one of her friend: said, wonderingly.: “How vants love you!” | F c how I love is literally is even (c no man is a ine to her ttl, indeed, rants and a hero- Adage thai sat sai is ee ct e ‘ IT 8 HARD TO ESCAPE NEW METHOD OF IDENTIFYING CRIMINALS. Now Adopted by St. Louis—The Police Department of That Already Wrest- ling with French Measurements and Mathematics. * ROM the St. Louis Post Dispatch: Since the adoption by the police com- missioners of St. Louis of the Ber- Ny ~ tilion system of SUS aentification the heads of depart- ments have begun to rub up their French mathemat- {es and delve more deeply into prison literature. Even the chief's private secretary, Mr. Espey, who, by reason of having been a newspaper man, knows a little of everything, admits he is a kindergartner on this subject. It is neither an easy nor a quick transi- tion from the old style of descriptions and photographs to the more modern Bertillon method, and it is rather re- markable that St. Louis should have waited so long before making the change when the Joliet penitentiary and nearly all the chief cities and principal prisons have been working for years under the French plan of identifying prisoners. Alphonse Ber- tillon first presented his method to the public in 1881, when France was agita- ting the question of the deportation of habitual criminals. It was promptly adopted. It reached this country through the prison congress held at Detroit in 1887, and found a friend and advocate in Maj. R. W. McClaughery, then warden of the Illinois peniten- tiary at Joliet. Since then it has come slowly into general use. A majority of readers are familiar with the ad- vantages of the system, but the practical application is not so well known. Its results are shown best at Joliet, where, of over 1,500 photo- graphs now classified and filed, any one picture can be found in a min- ute’s time, from the subject’s meas- urement, thus showing that no two persons are precisely alike in every particular. The identification of a prisoner rests upon the knowledge of the following indications: 1. Length and width of the head. 2. Length of the left, middle and little fingers. 8. Length of the left foot. 4. Length of the left forearm, 5. Length of the right ear. 6. Height of the figure. 7. Measurement of the outstretched arms, : 8. Measurement of the trunk, from the bench to the top of the head of the person seated. These different operations necessi- tate the use of special instruments called caliper-compasses and sliding compasses, and of three graduated measures, permanently fastened to a suitable wall, two being placed verti- cally and one horizontally. These in- struments have not yet been ordered by the St. Louis police department, but as soon as a Bertillon agent can be lo- cated the order will be made, and with the instruments will come a teacher to drill the main office in the system. Two or three lessons ordi- narily suffice to make an operator tol- erably proficient. As two or three of the measurements can be modified or influenced by trickery on the part of the subject, the operator himself must practice the motions that are apt to alter the result, and allow his assist- ants to do the same, so that he may be able to easily discover these trick- eries whenever they appear in actual practice. Not taking into account the time needed to ascertain either the civic status of a prisoner of the various particular marks of the subject, the simple process of measuring, after the period of grouping has been pass- ed, does not require more than four or five minutes. In order to become efficient the operator must know un- mistakably the nearest approximation to which each measurement or each indication can be ascertained. Thus, if the officer taking or comparing de- scriptions knows to a certainty that the length of the head never exceeds an approximation of two millimeters— this measure leing the largest pos- sible, divergeacy—a difference of four millimeters or more between two head length measurements would be condu- cive proof to him that the measure- ments were obtained from two differ- ent persons, as the examined subjects cannot exercise the slightest influence on their cranium diameters, It is quite common to find two subjects of the same height, but a hair’s breadth in head-length fixes the difference, It is said the non-universality of the me- tric system is no obstacle whatever. In cities where the Bertillon system is not in use, the figures on the Bertillon instruments are taken, not as actual measurements of length, etc., but as ciphers or signs designating a certain information sought for, as is now done by means of scars and marks. The measurements and descriptions are taken at the Joliet penitentiary in the following order, the prisoner being brought into the operating room barefooted and in shirt-sleeves: Height—Measurement of the person standing erect. Outstretched arms— From finger tip to finger tip, the arms being extended in a right-angular cross with the body. Trunk—From bench to top of head of a person seat- ed. Head—From cavity at the root of the nose te the remotest point of the back of the head; the diameter from side to side, between the two points most remote from each other, situated over the ears and on a horizontal plane at right angles to the measurement of length. Right ear—Measurement from the top of the rim to the lowest point of the lobe. Left foot—From extreme point of back of the heel to the en@ of the farthest projecting ‘toe. Left middle finger—From point of knuckle to tip of finger, the finger being placed at right angles to the back of the hand. Left fore-arm—From point of the el- bow to the tip of the farthest project- ing finger, the elbow being placed at sharp angles with the upper arm. Left eye—Analysis of the colors, possible confusion of pigment and peculiarities. Nose—Profile, form of the ridge, length, projection, breadth and pecu- liarities. Forehead—Inclination, ap- parent height and width, and peculiar- ities. The marks and scars follow as a matter of course, and then the work is finished. The height, arms and trunk measurements are taken by per- pendicular and horizontal graduated measures placed on the wall. The head is measured with a caliper com- pass, the ear with a small sliding com- pass, while the fingers, fore-arm and foot are taken by means of a large sliding compass. These descripticns and measurements are filed, with pho- tographs, by divisions or groupings. Given the length of a prisoner’s head, and the officers turn the head group- ings for a picture. The head index om the files show the small, medium and large, each division separated again. into classes by measurement, the me- dium being these of, for instance, 19 cemeters to 19.4; the large lengths 19.5. and more, and the small measuring less than 19. Thus, the officer, in his work of identification, need only ex- amine about ten pictures out of a pos- sible 10,000. There are now over 4,000 pictures in the rogues’ gallery of the Four Courts, and by the Bertillon sys- tem any one of such a number covl@ be located almost instantly. VERY TACTFUL. How a Pretty Girl Relieved a Ciergy- man’s Embarrassment. She was a most modest-appearing girl and as pretty as a girl well couid be, says the St. Louis Globe-Dem.crat. Her great blue eyes looked out from un- der her new bonnet in a way ‘iable to bewitch any man. She came into Union square a recent afternoon and slowly descended the steps, apparently uncon- scious of the many admiring glances cast in her direction. In her arms were many bundles, all of them small, but of such odd shapes that they were diffienIt to carry. As the young woman took her fcot from the last step of the long stairway a look of perplexity flitted across her face. Then, as she started to cross the waiting room, those who were watch- ing her saw something on the fioer, where she had dropped it. A ¢ men started forward to pick it up, saw what it was, and then maneuvered so that it would appear as if they had not noticed it. The young lady, aware of her loss, kept straight on and never looked behind her. But there was one man there who had seen the article fall and he went after it. He wore the straight collar and peculiar garb of the clergy, while glasses told of the most embarrassing of afflictions, nearsightedness. Run- ning quickly to the little object that lay so harmlessly upon the floor, he picked it up and hastened after her. He touched her on the arm, and lifting his hat, he said: “I beg your pardon, my dear young lady, but you dropped your——” It was then that he saw for the first time what he had picked up. He was holding the little band of black with a red bow on it in the full view of those who were in the waiting room, and he did not know what to do with: it. The young woman’s hands were oc- cupied with bundles, and he felt it would scarcely be right either to drop it or put it in his pocket. For perhaps a moment he stood there blushing. He tried to speak, but the best he could do was to stammer out some unintelligible syllables. In the meantime the girl stood speechless. First she flushed and then grew pale. Then her face seemed to indicate that she was amused at the clergyman’s embarrassment. Then, with a sweet smile, she dropped her bundles on a seat near by, and, taking the circlet, said: “It’s so good of you. My brother Tom would never have for- given me if I lost one of the sleeve- holders his fiancee sent him.” And she gathered up her bundles ang walked away. X Ray on a Terrier. The fox terrier is now officially reg- istered as a transparency, the X ray shining through him like a candle through a Chinese lantern. The expe- riment has just been tried on an ari- mal of this species which had swallow- ed a diamond ring, the trinket appear- ing in its midst, visible as a goldfish in a glass case or a fly in amber. The utilities of this penetrating beam may expand till it will show up other than the paltry pilferings of a terrier, per- haps eyen the swag of the political boss, notwithstanding the opacity of its bulk and origin.—New York Tribune. Official Corruption In China. A striking picture of the official cor- ruption that prevails in China is af- forded by some diplomatic reports sub- mitted by the English foreign office to. the houses of parliament at Westmin- ster. Among other things it is shown. that so great is the stealing that, were the imperial government to abolish the rice tribute from the provinces of: Kingsu and Chekiang alone, it would: effect an economy of more than $2,000,- 000, which is the sum that its collection now costs ov§: and above the revenue: that it yields, nts