THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS. THE LAST CRIME AND THE SEARCH FOR THE MURDERER. London, September 17.

Everyone is talking about the last Whitechapel murder, and no one has anything worth listening to to say about it. At the time of writing, after four days' panic, popular vigilance, and police and detective investigation, the mystery remains a mystery still. This is the more tantalising because the margin between the known and the unknown is so small. We seem to know pretty well everything about the murder bar the name and personality of the assassin. A very small exercise of imagination is needed to fill in what happened between the hour of 2 a.m. when the unfortunate woman, Sarah Chapman (or " Sivvy " as she was more generally called), staggered out of the common lodging house in Dorset-street, intent on earning enough by prostitution to pay for her "doss" (bed), and the awful discovery of the mutilated body soon after six. The crime must have been committed in broad daylight, as at half-past four a workman passed through the yard and there was nothing amiss. It is, I fancy, this thought more than anything else that has so terrified the East-enders. The murderer, they reflect, must be a man of diabolic nerve and great strength. The world, he knew, was just waking up. An any moment he might be interrupted. Moreover, one scream from his victim and he was doomed. True, the woman was drunk and therefore comparatively easy to kill. Still, that the maniac (for a maniac the wretch most certainly is) should have slaughtered her within a few yards of a whole houseful of sleeping folk, none of whom, despite open windows, heard an unusual sound, is certainly appalling. Several arrests have been made during the week, but I do not attach much importance to any of them. Personally, I think, if I were on the detective "lay," that 1 should turn my attention to the adjacent slaughter-houses and their inmates, and feel special interest in any powerfully built man I found there. Slaughterers, bear in mind, are about and at) work at five in the morning : they carry just such a knife as the murderer must have used, and their clothes might be covered with blood without the fact attracting any attention. One can imagine, too, that an insane slaughterer's mania might easily take the form of mui*der and disembowelling, etc., etc. Another tenable theory is that the murderer is a doctor or medical student. A singular piece of circumstantial evidence which supports this, is that the viscera were laid beside the body after the same manner as doctors lay them when conducting a -post mortem. On one point both the police and the pub lie seem agreed, viz. , that all the four murders in the district were the work of one hand. Local prejudice points to a mysterious brute, called " Leather Apron, '' as the perpetrator of the crimes. It seems a man rejoicing in this 6oub7-ique(, but otherwise unknown, has been terrorising the Whitechapel unfortunates from time to time. Every sort of crime is now attributed to him, but so far as can be ascertained, his offences did not amount to more than coarse and cruel practical jokes. So far, a good many apparently innocent persons have been examined without anything of importance resulting. The " sensation " it, of course, a great stroke for the papers at this dull season. On Monday the circulation of the " Star " exceeded 284,000, the highest figure they have touched yet. Their noon edition alone, in which the capture of a supposed "Leather Apron" was announced, cleared out 53. 000. It is at times like these people can't help recalling the many terrible offenders our much-vaunted police have failed to bring to justice of htte. The Kentish Town murder and the Canonbury murder, both committed within the last few months in open day, are still mysteries.

FINDING A CLUE. A man named Piser, a Polish Jew, whom a Wbitechapel detective declares is the original " Leather Apron," was arrested on Monday and detained till Tuesdayafternoon, when the police had to confess they could find nothing against him. An important clue, however, tui'ned up on the same day. A little girl happened to be walking in the back garden or yard of the house, 25, Hanbury-street, the next house but one to the scene of the murder, when her attention was attracted to peculiar mai'ks on the wall and on the garden path. She communicated the discovery to betec-tive-Inspector Chandler, who had just called at the house in order to make a plan of the back premises of the fchree houses for the use of the coroner at the inquest, which will be resumed to-day. The whole of the yard was then carefully examined, with the result that a bloody trail was found distinctly marked for a distance of five or six feet in the direction of the back door of the house. Further investigation left no doubt that the trail was that of the murderer, who, it was evident, after finishing his sanguinary work, had passed through or over the dividing fence between Nos. 29 and 27, and thence into the garden of No. 25. On the wall of the last house there was.found a curious mark, between a smear and a, sprinkle, wbich had probably been made by the murderer, who, alarmed by the blood-soaked state of his coat, took off that garment and knocked it against the wall. A butting on the end of tlie yard at No. 25 are theworksofMrßailey.apacking-ea&emaker. In theyardof this establishment,^ an out-of-the-way corner, the police yesterday afternoon found some crumpled paper, almost saturated with blood. It was evident that the murderer had found the paper in the yard of No. 25, and had wiped his hands with it, afterwards throwing it over the wall into Bailey's premises. The house No. 25» like mo&t of the dwellings in the street, is let out in tenements direct from the owner, who does not live on the premises, and has no representative therein. The back and front doors are therefore always left either on the latch or wide open, the tenant of each room looking after the safety of his own particular premises. The general appearance of the bloody trail and other indications seem to show that the murderer intended to make his way as rapidly as possible into the street through the " house next door but one, being frightened by some noise or light in No. 29 from retreating by the way which he came. On reaching the yard of No. 25 he, it is believed, made for the back door, and then, suddenly remembering his bloodstained appearance, he must have hesitated a moment, and then, catching sight of the pieces of paper lying about, doubtlees retraced his steps to the end of the yard, and there sought to remove the blood-stains. He might have had some thought of retreating by way of Bailey's premise?, but the height of the walls made such a course somewhat perilous, and he finally elected to geb into" Hanbnry-street by way of the house.

THE INQUEST. At the inquest on Wednesday but Htble n«w light was thrown on the dreadful

affair. The iirsfc witness was a brother of the deceased, a young man who eeemed to give his evidence with great reluctance, and in so low a tone that few of the jury could have heard anything of it. The publicity into which he was so painfully dragged was evidently very distasteful to him. Janr>es Kent came next. Ho described himself aa a packing-case maker, and cave his evidence with a good deal of action, holding up his horny hands before his throal to show how the woman had probably struggled against her assailant, with quite a ghastly effect. He was one of thoso called in by the man Davies, who had rirst made discovery of the body. James Green was another, and the questions put to him turned mainly on the probability of anybody haying touched the body before the police arrived : but he added nothing very material in the way of information. Mrs Richardson, who has been alluded to as the landlady of the house, but who explained that she herself rented only a part of it, and sub-let some of the rooms, gave evidence turning chiefly on the tenants of the place. She herself had the first tloor front and the downstairs back, in which she was accustomed to hold a weekly prayer meeting. On the first floor back lived an elderly man with an imbecile son 37 years of age. She heard no noise during the night of the murder, though if there had been any, she would certainly have heard it. She attiruv d. and when afterwards recalled repeated, that she had no knowledge of the yard or the staircase being lesorted to for improper purposes ; but her son, a rough-looking young man, unaware, ib may bo presumed, of the line his mother's examination had taken, stoutly affirmed that both yard and staircase had been so used, and when subsequently re-called he not only repeated his statement., but added that his mother had been made aware of it. Mrs Hardiman, the proprietress of the cat's-meat shop on the ground tloor, followed this witness, but added nothing of impoitance. John Richardson, the young man already alluded to, was closely examined as to his business in the yard on the morning of the murder. Richardson's appearance and his hoarse voice were not altogether prepossessing, and the coroner appeared to think the circumstances of his visit required explanation. It was not quite daylight, and he went in to see that the cellar was locked. He admitted that lie had a largish knife in his coat pocket, and that all he did in the yard was to glance at the padlock of the cellar, and cut a piece of leather off his boob. He was sent to fetch the knife, which was impounded, but he came on the whole very well nub of his cross examination. The next witness was quite unexpected, and created some little sensation. He was no other than John Piser, vie notorious " Leather Apron," and his appearance as a witness wa» not understood/ He took the oath in the Hebrew fashion, and fell at once into an attitude of easy composure,, which he maintained without moving a muscle through a tolerably long examination. Piser is an nndersi/ed «ian, with a dark Jewish countenance, scanty black hair, about an inch of whisker down each side of the face, the shaving of which had been neglected for the past two or three days, and a well-trained moustache. He wore a broad, turned-down collar, a light necktie, and a suit of dark clothes. He spoke good English, and answered all questions in a perfectly calta, clear voice, but with the deliberation of a man who had just been in deadly peril, and still felt the need of the "utmost I caution. He acknowledged at the outset that he was the man known by the nickname of Leather Apron. He explained that he bad on Thursday night last gone to the house in which hit brother, sister, and stepmother lived, and he had never left them till ho was apprehended. '• You were the subject of suspicion, were you not ?" inquired the coroner. "I was subject to a false suspicion," replied Piser, speaking very distinctly and making an emphatic paiibe. The coroner thought he had nob been well advised in staying in. "I will tell you why," promptly retorted the man, speaking with great impressiveness. " I should have been torn to pieces." Uewished, he said, to vindicate his character to the whole world, and Mi- Baxter informed him that he had been brought there partly to_ give him an opportunity of doing so. His account of himself was perfectly straightforward, and the coroner explained that his statements bad been corroborated. Upon this the foreman of the jury observed that he and his follow jurymen considered that the witness had cleared himself, and Piser, evidently well pleased, returned his thanks, and bowed all round. He then retired to the back benches, where ho was presently joined by De tective-Sergeant "Thicke, bhe officer who had apprehended him. His evidence showed beyond doubt that this insignificant, quiet-speaking man, with his plain tale, really was the dreadful and mysterious "Leather Apron," whose reputation had made thousands quake with terror.