*«***«*§****§**»« ** *•*■■:> **#* - ~~ ^r—
,: ***m*wiH*****#*#*#•?* *«*#«*******#***. ; iff ••*** ■-'■**■•
* *
**
If ##•$*»*'***#**H(‘*«*W -««
Local News of the Week.
«>»
i3?$f
■:;h;
Clean up your yards.
Rub-My-Tism will cure you.
Miss Laura Dickerson visited at
Lapile this week.
R. L. Lancaster was a visitor at
Lawson Sunday.
D. F. Collett spent Sunday in El
Dorado with his wife.
M. Eradshaw was on the sick
list several days this week.
Rub-My-Tism will cure you.
Mrs. C. T. Thompson is spending
a month at Eogg's Springs, Ark..!
for her health.
Mrs. D A. Keasler and children
visited this week with her mother
at Ruston. La.
A boy was born to Mr. and Mrs.
R B Reagan who liye just west of
town on Wednesday.
Miss Bonnie Bershn was down
from LI Dorado the first of the
week visiting relatives.
Mrs. J. B. Crockett was called to
Ba .trop last Saturday by the se
ri.-U^ illness of a friend.
A night crew was put on at the
planing mill Monday night with W.
E. McHenry as foreman.
For Sale Practically new
"Crusader” bicycle at a bargain.
See John Collett at postoffice.
I——
Miss Alice Taunton of Lapile
was here this week visiting her
sister. Mrs. W. R. Dickerson.
Mr. and Mrs. O. O. Nash are the
proud parents of a fine son which
was born to them last Saturday.
Mrs. E. E. Wilson of Junction
City was the guest of her daughter.
Mrs. F. J. Dupois. here this week
The El Dorado High school has
been allowed $700 and the one at
Junction City $500 from the state
for this year.
R J. Lasyore and family of New
Verda, La., are here v’siting the
families of T. P. Millstead and M
H Claybaugh.
Miss Pearl Cole who has been
visiting with her sister. Mrs. W. L.
Re 'gan. has returned to her home
at Farmerville.
Huttig Rebekah Lodge No 166
will give a box supper at the school
house on next Wednesday evening
Everybody invited.
5 or 6 doses 666 will break any j
case of Chills and Fever; and if!
taken then as a tonic the Fever
will not return. Price 25c.
J. T. Lawrence who was shot
two weeks ago Thursday is still
improving and his chances of re
covery are now fair if no complica
tions set in.
Logging Camp No. 1. in charge
G. G. Dunnigan, is to be moved i
this week to Tucker, La., which
will be about fifteen miles from
here instead of eight.
G. H. McGuire and daughters.
Audie. of Fayetteville and Nellie of
Brownwood. Texas, are here this
week visiting his daughter. Mrs. F.
O Mahony and family.
Mrs. G. M. Durham and children
left Tuesday for Kenefick. Okla.,
where they will make their future
home. Mr. Durham will remain
here until the first of the year.
Mrs J. B. Taylor and children,
who are now living at Electric
Mills, Miss., were here Sunday
night enroute to Lapile to visit her
mother who is reported to be ill.
We treat Piles successfully with
out knife or chloroform. Refer
ence and information on application
Drs. McCall &. Williams,
l.awson, Ark.
Mrs. Lu'a Thurman of Bernice.
La., and Mrs. Ammer McClung of
New London, Ark., arrived in Hut
tig last Saturday on a visit with
their brother, J. C. Bridges, and
family.
Louis Bauerhne of Camden has
been appointed Deputy Grand
Master of the Masonic Grand
Lodge for this the 1 7th district to
succeed M. A. Nelson, who recent
ly moved out of the district.
J. W. Pike and wife of Monrce
where the guests of Mr. and Mrs.
C. C Bell several days this week.
Mr. Pike is the manager of the
Bell-Pike Piano Co., with stores
at Monroe and Shreveport.
The 10th Annual Reunion of the
Southwest Arkansas Confederate
Veterans' association will be held
on the association's camping
ground at McNeil. Ark., commenc
ing July 30 and closing August 2.
1912.__
Roosevelt followers in Arkansas
have issued a call for a meeting of
the Progressives in Little Rock
on July 30. Union county is en
titled to two delegates, but we pre
dict that the convention which se
lects them will not consist of many
more members.
D-. R. P. Burns, who has been
employed by the Huttig Logging
Co. for the past two years as camp
physician, has tendered his resigna
tion to take effect August 1. He
will remain here however and of
fers his services to the citizens of
Huttig and vicinity.
The ladies of Lawson will give
an entertainment at Union church
at Huttig, Friday night. July 26.
consisting of an Operetta, in two
acts. Drills, Pantomines, and Farce
in one act. “Sister Masons." Ev
erybody attend. Proceeds go to
help build a church at Lawson.
The Republican county conven
tion which adjoui ned pursuant to a
call by the chairman, will meet in
El Dorado at the office of FJat Mc
Nalley on Friday, July 26, to name
candidates for county officers.
This will make three tickets in the
field to be voted on in September.
We will print the names of their
nominees next week.
John Wanamaker, America’s
foremost living merchant and form
er postmaster-general of the
United States, entered upon his
<T5th year recently. Mr. Wanamr
ker was horn Philadelphia and fas
been a life-long resident of thst
city, with the exception of a brief
periodof his youth when he was a
clerk in a store in Indiana.
The Woman's Home Mission sc
oietv met Monday afternoon at the
church at the usual hour with eight
members present and Mrs. E. Spen
cer as a visitor. Scripture lesson
I st and 2nd chapter of Acts reed
by members. T his being our regu
lar monthly meeting day we had
the reports of all committees and
officers present. Each member
remember the meeting next Mon
day and bring a visitor.
Notice.
The Union Saw Mill Gompany
will pay $50.00 as a reward to any
one. not in its employ, who will fur
nish information from which any
person shall be convicted of depre
dating or trespassing upon the tim
ber of said Gompany.
This lrt, day of February, 1905.
Union Saw Mill Co.
By F. W. Sc )tt.
Secy, and freas.
I
bYNOP5!3.
CHAPTER I Harding Kent rail? on
J«ouis€* Farrish to propose marriage and
finds the house In great excitement ov^i
the attempted suicide of her sister Kath
arin«r Kent starts an investigation and
finds that Hugh Crandall. suitor fo:
Katharine. who had been forbidden ihe
1 ouse by General Farrish, had talked with
Katharine over the telephone just h fare
f' e shot herself. A torn piece of yellow
I P' r is fi" rrt. at s’glit of which Hen
• ra! Farrish is stricken with paralyses.
There was enough agony in the Par
rish home without having this sorrow
ful secret blazoned to a curious world
in three-inch type, without having a
horde of reporters and camera men
constantly surrounding the house, be
sides, if Katharine recovered, sooner
or later she would he sure to learn
what the papers had said. The knowl
edge that her foolish crime against
herself had been thus sensationally
proclaimed would he a blow from
which the sensitive girl—hitherto
jealously shielded—would never re
cover. If she should not recover—Doc
tor Wilcox and 1 were trusting to
chance to find n way of explaining her
tenth. The servants—nil of them
rustworthy and long in service—had
been cautioned not to mik to anyone
about the afternoon's events. The
doctor’s aides and nurses, of course,
had been silent. This is part of their
business. How, then, had the papers
obtained the news so quickly? 1
could think of but one possible way.
More than likely sorre telephone girl
who had heard Louise calling Doctor
Wilcox had given It to the press. Even
in the half darkness of the middle of
he block where 1 stood I could read
he woul “S-U-I-C-l-D-E" stretched
across the page In letters of red. I
hastened to the corner where the dou
ble globes shed down a brilliant light,
anxious yet dreading to read what the
paper said. At the first glance I
breathed a sigh of relief. The article
was not about Katharine Parrish. T
had not thought of the possibility of
there having been another suicide that
day, but there it was:
Mystery in Self-Murder of Aged Law
yer.
Ordinarily I pay little attention to
stories of crime. But the afterroon
had given me a new and bitter appre
ciation of the meaning of suicide.
Standing there under the light of a
Fifth avenue corner I read the hastily
written .article word by word.
Andrew Elser, the article explained,
uad lived for many years in a West
i'wenty-third street boarding-house.
Tittle was known about him theie ex
pt that lie was a lawyer. Several
airs ago lie hud given up his down
ovn office. .Most of his income was
erived from his fees as custodian of
u orphan boy’s esta'e. About four
'clock in the afternoon the landlady
ad heard a noise in his room like that
f a body falling. On entering she
id found him lifelers on the floor,
he had called a policeman, who sent
or an ambulance. The ambulance
loctor found that Mr. Elser had taken
icison.
It struck me ns a peculiar colncl
lence that two persons so far apart in
he social scale as Katharine Parrish
lid Andrew lilser should have chosen
e same hour of the same day to seek
heath. Was there something in nr
rolory after all? Had the stars de
creed that both should die? Had
some conjunction of the planets, some
evil aspect in the Zodiac driven both
if them—the young heiress, it) the
doom of joyous youth, and the aged
awyer, in his decrepit poverty—re
lentlessly, helplessly, to self-destruc
tion?
t>o noop whs tne impression mane on
•no bv the coincidence tliHt I took the
in per with me and road the acoount of
■riser’s suicide to Louise. Kven as I
■■cad it aloud, this inexplicable thought
came to me with startling force:
Suppose that these two suicides at
'he same hour were more than a mere
■oincidence. Was it possible that the
•mine shadow had fallen on both these
lives? Had the same mystery driven
.hem to a death pact?
It seemed absurd. It was unlikely
hat Katharine Parrish had ever heard
of Andrew Kiser. If the family hfd
known him Louise would have men
tioned it. And yet—why had these
two persons sought to die on ttie same
hour of the same day? The question
would not let me steep that night.
CHAPTER III.
The Second Clue.
"I can't do it, Harding. You are
asking an impossibility.”
I was sitting in Inspector Davis’
room In the post-office building. The
first thing in the morning 1 had gone
there to enlist his aid in clearing up
tiie mystery that hung over the Par
rish home. With the confidence based
on a friendship that had ils begin
nings in boyhood association I felt
sure he would do all he could to help
me. I wanted, if possible, to learn
through him whence had come the
yellow letter.
Miller Davis, though only n year old
er thru I, already had become one of
riie governments moil tri ' secret
agents. His rise in the serve o hr
been phenomenally rapid. The ri
bery of the post-ofii<o where he war
employed had given him his start. A
iitlle later, wi ll the im rest thread to
follow, he had run to earth a skilful
hand of stamp counterfeiters, and
three of its members were now serv
ing long terms. Only a year nro, wlier
all tlie oth .r inspectors had failed
find the flaw in the registry service
that permitted a red-striped seek wit
two hundred thousand dollars' wor
of registered mail to disappear, D
vis, putting his Veen, analvtleal ml’
on the ease, within a week had di
coveted the flaw in the system at'
only a few days later had arrested lh
ox-convict who had profited by it.
With the natural Interest, of an ol- j
friend I had followed his career an
was familiar villi most, of his biiilbru
achievements. Rvi n though the serai
which was pm-ling me had no en
velope and bore no postmark, so ronfl
dent was I in his fu i leaching power? i
I would hardly have been amazed if !>■ \
had told me nil about it as soon as ’ j
showed it io him. Imagine, tiien, n-\
disappointment at his absolute refusa
to take up tlie* matter at all.
“Don’t you see how important it is?' j
T cried. "This little scrap is the ke'- i
to the whole mystery."
He was sitting with his hack to tlm
light—a trit k most business men hav
these days, so that they can spc yon.
face in full light, while you have difli
cutty in reading theirs—yet from hi i
tone 1 fell that lie was inwardly
amtiFcd at my anxiety.
“I’m afraid you overrate my detect
ive ability and my powers as a post- I
office Inspector,” lie said. “While 1 am j
inclined to agree with you that this hit
of paper may have some bearing on
the case, there is nothing to show from
what post office It came, through whose
hands it passed, or by whom it was re
ceived. It may not have come through
! tlie mail at all. More (ban likely seme
messenger brought it. Before I could
undertake an investigation I would
have to know, first, that it, had come
; through the mail; second, that ther“
i was some evidence that the mails were
being used for an unlawful purpose;
and third. I would want to be certain
before 1 began tlie investigation, that.
I would win out. That’s the secret,,
old chap, cf mv success, of every
body’s success. Don’t tackle things
you can’t do, (lien you never fall.”
Davis’ refusal was a greater blow to
me than 1 cared lo admit. Louise and !
I in our final conference the night be- I
fore hi d decided that (here were three i
s’eps that would take us fat into the
light.
First, I was to try at once to find
Hugh Crandall. I was to ask him ,n
explain the rupture with Katharine. I
the attitude of Oeneral Farrlsh toward
him. his knowledge of the yellow let
ter. and why he had railed Katharine I
on the telephone tlie afternoon before. 1
Second, failing to find Crandall. I
was to make pome pretext for visiting
It's rooms. Ills sudden departure and
Ids cautioning tlie janitor to admit no
one had a suspicious look. While
neither Louise nor 1 had discussed
what might tie there io explain the
mystery, i was thinking that in all
I probability I would find a bundle of
1 letters from Katharine, some of which
i might furnish a clue.
i utrfl, I was io h'-k inspector
•o help mo (race Uio yellow letter
1 bad anticipated little diflicully 1;.
Rsoertaining Crandall's whereabouts.
A brokor of standing docs not vanish
overnight without i it form in*-, liis bind
npss partners. Before coining to the
insiieotor t bad telephoned to Cran
dall's oflico. Great was my amazement
to learn from one of his partners that
they were as much puzzled as t over
his sudden going away. They had
merely received a telegram saying
that he had been railed out of tov.u
unexpectedly and did not know when
he would return. The telegram had
been sent from an oflice near ids rooms
ihe night before There was no busi
ness affair that would take him away,
so they supposed that it was some
urgent personal matter.
White I chatted for a moment with
Davis over our boyhood days 1 was
thinking what step l should take next
The problems of learning Crandall's
whereabouts and gaining a-wess to his
i rooms did not seem so simple as they
had ttie night before. A clerk entered
: with a card for Davis, and 1 rose to
go.
“Don’t go yet,” he said. “It’s only a
man from police headquarters. IHr
errand will probably take only a min
ute,”
As I resum d inv scat Defective
Dowd was ushered into I he room. He
was the typical police sleuth, thick of
head and foot, ready to suspect the
suspicious and (o see the obvious. In
i appearance. In sp- ech. in manner of
thought, he and the inspector were al
most exact opposites. One was a griz
zled, blear-eyed man of lifiy whom
1 even the clumsiest criminal could not
1 have mistaken for anything hut what
ho was; tho oilier, young looking for
rven his thli t.y years, might have heen
readily mistaken for a college tutor or
an alert reporter. It amused me to
see with what d- ference t:;e man from
headquarters approached him.
"Meg vnur pardon for disturbing you.
Inspector," lie said, nervously twist
tag Ids hat, “but I've got a little mat
ter here the chief wanted me to put
up to you.”
lie turned toward me with a sus
picious glance, but Davis hastened to
assure him that lie could speak freely
before me.
‘‘It's this,” he explained, “the old
man wants to know about.”
As he spoke lie drew something from
his inner pocket and laid it on the tn
pei tor's desk. As my eyes followed
his hand I gave a sudden start. With
ilflieultv I restrained an expression of
Placement. The object about which
■e had come to inquire was a torn
ellow envelope. *
I glnii'ed quickly a* Davis. T fully
vpeeled to sep in his face something
f Ihe same astonishment 1 had felt. I
as disappointed. With a casual
lance at the enveli pe lie turned to
’owd as if waiting for him to go on.
"It’s evidence in tl e Kiser ease,” the
elective went.on,''turned in by the
can on post who reported the suicide,
'e was that eld party that was found
b ad in his room tip on West Twenty
lord street. To rry mind, it’s just a
lain case of suicide-—an old man tirod
i living. The poison bottle was there
a tho floor ho Me him. I don't sop
ot'ning suspicious about It. but the
liiet has taken a notion that there-!
•unething behind it and wants to
now where this letter eame front. We
parched the room, but this torn on
velope whs all we could find. The
vostmark’s torn through, but h<
bought maybe you could trace it any
how.”
Til r's v hat 1 ran do and I'll lot
you know in the morning.” said Hie
inspector calmly, dismissing the do
'ectlve with a nod. From his inalter
of-face tone and apparent lack of In
impost I would not have boon surprised
if he had refused Hits under aking,
'no, as he had mine, though it seemed
to me that, the two hits of yellow pa
\i '
•'Beg Your Pardon fm- Disturbing You,
Inspector.”
"nr connected tiie two suicides nt the
Fame hour ns something decisively
n ore than :i mere coincidence.
As soon, however, ns the detective
had left the room (lie inspector's whole
manner changed. With the glitter of
excitement in his alert eyes he turned
to me and explosively said:
“Quick, let me see that yellow
scrap.”
1 had placed it carefully In my wal
let after he had refused my request
As I drew it out now he almost
snatched it from my hand. Putting it
ee his desk beside the torn envelope,
I"’ picked up a reading glass ant’
studied both pioeos carefully. His in
spection lasted for several minifies
r :>d meat, while, 1, too, studied the t.on
envelope. .
Both in color and texture the paper
*o closely resembled the scrap that ’
was po'diivc that they were of th
sit me lot. The envelope bore tin. au
dress of Andrew Kiser, in West Twet)
iy-third street. Bart of the post in ark
— most of it. In fact—had beer d<
stroved, as if in the careless opening
of th" letter with the finger. All tha’
was decipherable was a capital A’
and part of another letter that might
have been either an ”N” or an "II.” It
the lower part of the circle was a frag
mrnl of a letter that looked as if U
night have been an “N.“ I noticed,
too, that the stamp had been stuck o"
rather carelessly, in a lopsided man
per.
My mend, rus Inspect ion completed,
turned to me npnjopeticfillv
“I bee your pardon, Harding Kent."
be paid, "von • i\pre entirely right
'I here two hi*s of paper are key-notes
in an important mystery, one that it is
writ worth my while to try to solve."
"What made you change yonr m'nd
so suddenly?’’ I asked, for though 1
quite agreed with him, ids manner
had puzzled me not a little.
TTe leaned hack in his chair and
turned it so that he faced me. lie had
a sharp, explosive way of speaking,
biting off his words almost before lie
had completely enunciated them.
“Can't you see? <>ne footprint leads
nowhere. Two footprints s art a path
Y-hen you brought that yellow s^rap
to me you were merely guessing that
it might have something to do with
tiie strange happenings in the Parrish
home. There was no way in which
yon could have positive knowledge,
nor could i. You were only guessing."
“indeed. I wasn't!” I exclaimed In
dtgi an ly. "“What drew my attention
to it was Genera! Parrish's exclama
tion of terror at the sl^ht of it Just be
Fore "fie fell, paralyzed?’
Davis shook his head determinedly,
"That meant much—or nothing: It,
may have been mere senile hysteria
superinduced by the great shock. At
some time In Ills life he may have had
some unpleasant experience which
was associated in his subconscious
memory with a yellow document..
Wrought up as he was by the newa of
his daughter's attempt to kill herself,
the brain cells called into action w« re
those that had recorded other distiit t>*
lug experiences, perhaps a month ago,
perhaps forty years ago. No impres
sions in the brain records are ever
lost. The sight of the yellow pat r
probably recalled some other yellow
paper. There was then no evidence
whatever that It was this particular
piece of paper that so agitated hint.”
“Hut you think so now,” 1 suggested.
“The situation has entirely changed.
There was nothing to show that this
piec* of paper had ever come through
the mail. There was nothing to con
nect. it with suicide. Dowd comes In
here with a similar piece of paper that
plainly has been mailed We now
have not one footprint, but two—the
beginning of a path. Once started on
the path, we can solve the mystery.”
“Then you think there is some con
neetion between the two bits of pa
per?”
I know there Is, said Davts.
j "These hits of yellow paper are of the
| same quality and texture—to all ep
| pearances the game paper. Two pi r
\ sons in whose possession thev wa-.e,
attempt suleide on the same day. 1 he
same person, or al least the same type
writer, wrote both the address on the
envelope and the contents of the let
ter. This envelope came from a corn
j try post-office In either New York or
I New Jersey within a month—some
j post-office the name of whit h begins
1 with ‘Ar 'or ‘An.’ There are not many
rural offices that will tit in all p tr
Oculars. In two dais or sooner, I i n
tell you exactly from what office they
were mailed.”
“Letters—you think 'here were two?
Might not this he the envelope in
i which this paper came?”
“That presupposes an acquaintance
j between Elser and Miss Fairish, at
least a connection of some sort. Did
she know hint?”
"I don’t think so. TTer sister and I
were talking of the Elser suicide last
night after we saw the evening papers.
1/ouise surely would have known It If
her sister w as acquainted with him.”
"Perhaps,” aaid Davis doubtfully.
"There isn't a human being oxer ten
that has not a secret that they keep
front some one. It looks to nte, though,
as if in all probability there were two
distinct letters. That is what makes
me suspect a pilot. 11 convinces me
that the mails ate being used for an
Improper and more than likely a t rim
itial pu pose. This brings tie case or
both cases properly In my domain as
a post-office inspector."
"And I can count on your assistance,
after all.” 1 said joyfully. "When calx
you begin work?”
“I have begun,” he said tersely,
pushing over for mv Inspection some
thing he had hastily scrawled on a pad
lying on his desk. It was an older ad
dressed to the superintendent of the
railway mails, which read:
"Have all railway clerks on New
York and New Jersey routes report
from what rural office xvi liin the last
month tliev have received large quan
tities of letters in yellow envelopes,
if letters have been discontinued,
when? DAVIS."
"Large quantities!” I gasped. “Were
there more than two?”
"Of course," ho snapped. In a wav
that sh> wed nte he did not wish to lie
questioned further. Then he reached
; for his hat and coat, and w ith an alt
rupt "Conte along!” led the way to
the elevator.
“Where are you going?" I asked as;
he rushed me hurriedly through Park
place to the Sixth Avenue Elevated.
"To Twenty-third street,” he replied,
“to find out what the police have not.”
In the “L” train I told him In low
tones of Crandall's apparent connec
tion with the case and of bis sudden
disappearance. He sat silent, his
whole bearing Indicating sm h abstrac
tion that T doubted if he had heard a
word I was saying, hut suddenly, Just
before we left the train, he startled
me by asking:
"Do you know Crandall? What
I color ate tits eves?”
I regretted that l h*1 to say no t*>
the first question, ani ihal I flirt pot,
to the latter, which query amazed n o
greatly. What connection the color
of a man's eyes could possibly bar®
with two at tempts at suicide and a lot
of mysterious yellow loiters from <*
rural post-office was entirely beyond
me Curious as I was, I hesitated to
question him tut the subject, for ex
perience had taught me that he was
better at asking than answering.
Instead of going directly to the
hoarding-house where Kiser b:,d killed
hinf^eif. he took the other side of the
street and turned abruptly Into, a
, house, beside the door of which was a
' doctor’s piste.
"Is Doctor Herper in?" he asked of
the maid, and on being shown Into tho
physician’s office, introduced himsetf
is "Inspector Itavls" and hegsn ques
tioning ttie doctor about the Kiser sui
cide.
i ro Be < * os i inui o N ■ i W11 i
You will find ott sale at th«%
I Inion Saw Mill company store,
the Union hotel and Bell’s nsam
parlor four different local po t card
views in colois. If these sell wo'l
the publisher expects to add sev
eral other views to the list. I Ic y
will ha sold al. two for five ' nets.
oultoGtibo fot Tho lluttia N.ws