AN ILLUSION IN RED AND WHITE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14325, 15 October 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN ILLUSION IN RED AND WHITE.

A SKETCH. t . UY STEl'liE-N CIIANE. NiglKs on Uio Unban were long, ui times exciting, oi ten dull, llie men on the small ieupingdcspatch boats became ua intimate as u they bud all been buried in tlie same eoibn. Correspondents, wlio, in i\ew Wk had passed us i'uiny good Jel. tows, sometimes turned out to be perfect rogues of vanity and selfishness, bub mill more often the conceited chumps ot l'urk Uow became tlio kindly and thoughtful men of the Cuban blockade. Also each correspondent told all Jie knew, and sometimes more, i'or this gentle tale 1 am indebted to one or the brightening Blurs of -New lork journalism. "iN'uw this is how I imagine it happened. X don't say it happened this way, but this is How 1 amagine it happened. And it always struck me a:, being a very interesting story. 1 hadii t been on the paper verv lon<' hut just long enough to get a goiid show, when the city editor suddenly gave mo this sparkling murder assignment.

It seems that up in one of tho back counties of New York State a farmer hud taken a dislike to liis wife; ujid so he went into the kitchen with an axe, and m tho presence of their lour lttlo children lie ust casuailv rapped ins wife on the nape of the licck with the head of the axe. It was carlv in the morning, but lie told Uie children they had better go to bed. Then he took his wife's body out in the woods _ and buried it. ' "This farmer's narao was Jones. Ihe widower's eldest child was named Freddy. A week after the murder, one of the long-distanced neighbours was rattling past the house in his bnekboard when he saw Freddv playing m the road. He pulled lip. and asked about the welfare of the Jones family. ''Ob, we're all right,' said Freddy, 'only ma—she ain't —she's dead.' "'Why when did she die?' cried the startled farmer. 'What did she die off' " 'Oh,' answered Frcddv. 'lnst week a man with red hair and big white teeth and real white hands cam 6 into the kitchen, and killed ma with an axe.' "The farmer was indignajiat with the boy for telling him this strange childish nonsense, and drove off much disgruntled. Hut he recited tho incident at a tavern that evening, and when the people began to miss the Jamiliar figure of Mrs Jones at the Methodist Church on Sunday mornings, they ended by having aii investigation. The calm Jones was arrested for murder, and his wife's bedy wa.s lifted from its grave in the woods, and buried by her own family. "The chief interest now centred upon the children. All lour declared that they were in the kitchen at the time of the crime, and that the murderer had red hair. The hair of the virtuous Jones was grey. They said the murderer's teeth were large and white. Jones only had about" eight teeth, and these were small and

brown. They said the murderer's hands were white. -Jones's Imiuk were the colour of black walnuts. They lifted their dazed, innocent I'iices and crying, simply because the mystorions excitement and tlieir new quarters frightened them.. they repeated their heroic legend without important deviation, and without the pamty sameness which would excite suspicion. "Women came to the iail and wept over them, and made little frocks for the girls, and little iveorhes for the boys, and idiotic detectives questioned them at length. '.Always they uphold the theory of the murderer with red hair, bin- white teeth, and white hands. Junes sat. in his cell, his chin sullenly on his first vest, button. He knew nothing about any murder, lie said. He thought his wife had gone on a visit to some relatives. He had had a quarrel with her. and she had' said that she was going to leave hirn for a time, so that he might have proper opportunities for cooling down. Had he seen the lilocd on the floor? Yes, he had seen Lhe blood on the floor. Hut he had been cleaning ami skinning a. rabbit at that snot on iho day of his wife's disappearance. He. had thought nothing «f it. What had his children said when returned from the fields : J They told him that their mother had been killed by an axe in tlio hands of a man with red hair, big white teeth, and white .hands. To questions as to why he had not informed the police of the county, he answered that lie had not thought it a matter of sufficient importance. He had cordially hated his wife, anyhow, and ho was glad to get rid of her. lie decided afterwards that she had run oil'; and he had never credited the fantastic, tale of the children. '

tlnib .Jones was guilty, but there was a fairly strong following who insisted "Of course, there was very little doubt in the minds of the majority that Jones was a. coarse and brutal man, and perhaps weak in his head—yes —but lint a murderer. They pointed to tho children and declared that children could never lie, and these kids, when asked, said that the murder had been committed by a man with red hair, largo white teeth, and white, hands. I myself had a number of interviews with the children, and I was amazed at the convincing power of their little story. Shining in the depths of the limpid up-turned eyes, one could fairly see tiny mirrored' images of men with red hair, big white teeth, and white hands. "Now, I'll tell you how it happened —how I imagine it was done. Some timo after burying his wife in the woods Jones strolled back into the house. Seeing nolxxly, he called out in thefarailiar fashion, 'Mother!' Then the kids came out whimpering. 'Where is your mother?' said Jones. The children looked at him blankly. 'Why, pa.,' said Freddv, 'you came in here, and hit ma with the axe; and then you sent us to bed.' 'Me?' cried Jones. 'I haven't teen near the h since breakfast time.' "The children did not know how to reply. Thoir meagre little sense informed them that their father had been the man with the axe. but ho denied it, and to their minds everything was a mere groat puzzle with no meaning whatever, save that it was mysteriously sad and made them cry. "What kind of a looking man was it?' said ,T<ones. "Freddv hesitated. 'Now—he looked a crood deal like you, pa.' " 'Like me?' said Jones. 'Whv. I thought von siM he had red hni-?' " 'No. T didn't.' renlied Freddy. 'T thoup-ht he had crey hair like yours.' " 'AVell ' sa r <7 .T-in»s. 'T saw a man with kind of red hnir going along .

] the- road up yonder, and I thought maybe that might Lave been him.' "Little Lucy, the second child, here piped up with intense conviction, 'His hair was a. little teeny bit red, I saw it.' "'A : t),' said Jones. "The man I saw had very red hair. And what did lus teeth look like? Were they big and white?' ** !' 'Yes, answered Lucy, 'they were.' . J '' vy " l-'i'eddy seemed to incline to think it. wh''t' L ' LIS tCCt]l maj IIaVC heßn k ig and "Jones said little more at that time, no intimated to the children unit their mother had gone off on a visit and a though they were lull of uonuor, and sometimes wept because or the oppression of an ineomprehensib.e feeling m the air, they said nothing, j ones did his chores. Every, thing was smooth. "The morning after the day of the murder Jones and his children had a breakfast of hominy milk. " this man with red liaiA "ml big white teeth, Lucy,' sail Jones. 'Did you notieo anything els* about him:-" "Lucy straightened in lie,- chair, mid showed tliu childish desire to come out with brilliant informatio* winch would gain her father's an. proval. l ,'.' '_^, lllld white hands—hands all H.' 1| 0 "' about you, Freddy?' •I did not look at them much?', but I think they were white ' answered the boy. "/And what did little Martha jutico.- cried tlio tender parent. 'Did V.-vT 0 tllc ' ' } ' K ' J,ul ma n?' "-Uartha, aged four, replied solemny, llis hair was all yed, and hi " d „ ,vas white—all white.' " 'That's the man I saw go up tha road,' said Joues to I'reddy. 'Yes sir, it seems like it must hava been him,' said the boy, his brain now completely muddled. "Again Jones allowed the subject °J .M, 1 * wife's murder to lapse. Tha elmdren did not know that it was a murder, of course. Adults were always performing in a way to mako children's heads swiin. For instance, what could be more incomprehensible than that a man with two horses, dragging a queer thing, should walk all day, making tlio grass turn down and the eartli turn up? And wiiy did they out the Jong grass and put if; in a oarn? And what was a cow for!' i)id the water in the well like to be there? All these actions and things were grand, because thev were associated with the high estate of grownup people, but they were deeply mysterious. If. then, a man with red lyi.r big white teeth .and white lianda shculd hit their mother on the nape <>! the neck with an axe, it was merely a phenomenon of grown-up life. Little Henry, the baby, when he had a want, howled and pounded the table with his spoon. That was all of life to him. He was not concerned"' with the fact that his mother had been murdered. "One day Jones said to his children suddenly. 'Look here; I wonder if you could have made a mistake. Are you absolutely sure that the man yon saw had red hair, big white teeth iind white hands?' "The children wero indignant with' their father. 'Why, of course, pa. we ain't made no mistake. AVe saw him as plain :is day.' "Later Young Freddy's mind began to work like ket. hup. His nights . were haunted with terrib'o memories of the man with the red hair, big white teeth, and white hands, and the prolonged absence of his mother made him wonder and wonder. Presently hc quite gratuitously developed the theory that Its mother was dead. He knew about death. Ho h-.d once seen a (lead dog: also dead chickens, rabbits., and mice. One day he asked his father, •]>«, is ma ever coming hack?'

I ;-Jones said: 'Well, no; I don't think she is.' Th's answer confirmed the boy in Irs theory. He kiV-vr that dead people did not come bark. "Tl-.e attitude of Jones toward this descriptive legend of the man with the axe was very peculiar. He enmo to be in oposition to it. He protested against the cr.nviet'ons ,-f +he children, but he could hot, move them. It was the ono thing in their lives of which thej wore stonily and abi-ulule- ' ly positive. "Now that really ends the story. The jury hung Jones as high as they could, and they were quite risiht: because Jones confessed before he died. Freddy is now a. highly respected driver of a grocery waggon in Ogdenhurg. When T was up there a i/no'l mauv years afterwards people told n'fl thai'when he everse.oke of the tragedy at all he was certain to denounce tl'G alleged confession as a lie. He eon. sidered his father n. victim of the stupidity of juries, and some day he hopes to meet the man with the red hair, white hands, whose image ,sti'U remains so distinct in his memory that he could pick lira out in a crowd of ton thousand.