Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Thursday, December 10, 1931 McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA PAGE NUMBER THR1 Sight^JUnsee MARY ROBERTS RINEHART COPY&iGhT iQ3i S ^ MARY QOBERTS RiNEhART / Hera Are Some of the 4-H Club National Champions for 1931 ROBERT E. OWENS Guilford KI.Y. ELEVENTH INSTALMENT SYNOPSIS Six people, Horace Johnson (who tells the story), his wife, old Mrs. Dane, Herbert Rob inson and his sister, Alice, and Dr. Sperry, friends and neigh bors, are in the habit of hold ing weekly meetings. At one of them, Mrs. Dane, wjio is hostess, varies the program by unexpectedly arranging a spir itualistic seance with Miss Jeremy, a friend of Dr. Sperry and not a professional, as the medium. At the first sitting the medi um tells the details of a mur der as. it is occurring. Later that night Sperry learns that a neighbor, Arthur Wells, has heen shot mysteriously. With Johnson he goes to the Wells residence and they find con firmation of the medium’s ac count. Mrs. Wells tells them her husband shot himself in a fit of depression. At a second seance. Miss Jeremy adds details about a summer resort where Charles Ellingham was known to have been at the same time that Mrs. Wells was th>*re. She also speaks of a pocketbook being lost which contained some im portant car tickets and letters. Mrs. Dane, alone of the women, seems thrilled by the investiga tion. Johnson goes alone and in vestigates the deserted house. He is frightened by strange noises, as of an intruder in the house, but completes his in vestigation. He visits Mrs. Dane and tells her how he had carried off the fire-tongs and left behind his overcoat in his excitement. She then tells him she had adver tised for the finder of the poc ketbook and turns over to Johnson an answer she had re ceived from one having guilty knowledge of the crime. Dr. Sperry announces he is to be married to Miss Jeremy when the club meets again. Hawkins, the butler, is iden tified as being the person who answered Mrs. Dane’s adver tisement. Johnson’s missing overcoat is mailed to him, but the letters contained in a poc ket are missing. Sperry, ac- comoanied by Johnson, makes another search in Wells’ house for the letters written by the slayer. Johnson and Sperry do some detective work and uncover the fact that somebody with guilty knowledge has made away with some letters. Haw kins the butler, is suspected as well as Ellingham, a friend of Mrs. Wells, of knowing who the slayer is. The investigation has reached its final stages. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY There was, on the contray, a def inite place beyond which the medi um could not go. She did not know who had killed Arthur Wells. » To my surprise, Sperry and Her bert Robinson came together to see me that morning at my office. Sperry, like myself, was pale and tired, but Herbert was restless and talkative, for all the world like a terrier on the scent of a rat. “Hawkins will be here soon,” Sperry said, rather casually, after I had read the clipping. “Here?” “Yes. He is bringing a letter from Miss Jeremy. The letter is merely a blind. We want to see him.” Herbert was examining the door of my office. He set the spring lock. “He may try to'bolt,” he exclaimed. “We’re in this pretty deep, you know.” “How about a record of what he savs?” Sperry asked.- I pressed a button, and Miss Joyce came in. “Take the testimony of the man who is coming in. Miss Joyce,” I directed. “Take every thing we say, any of us. Can you tell the different voices?” She thought she could, and took up her position in the next room, v/Jth the door partly open. I can still see Hawkins as Sper ry let him in—a tall, cadaverous man of good manners and an Eng lish accent, a superior servant. He was cool but rather resentful. I lodged that he considered carrying letters as in no way a part of his work, and that he was careful of his dignity. “Miss Jeremy sent this, sir,” he said. Then his eyes took in Sperry and Herbert, and he drew himself up. “I see,” he said. “It wasn’t the letter, then?” “Not entirely. We want to have a talk with you, Hawkins.” “Very well, sir.” But his eyes (went from one to the other of us. “You were in the employ of Mr. fells We know that. Also we saw lu there the night he died, but hie time after his death. What Jne did you get in that night?” v 'About midnight. I am not cer tain ” “Who told you of what had hap pened?” “I told vou that before, I met the detectives going out.” “Exactly. *• Now, Hawkins, you had come in, locked the door, and placed the key outside for the other servants?” "Yes sir.” “How do you expect us to believe that?” Eperry demanded irritably. There was only one key. Could you lock yourself in and then place the key outside?” , . “¥<», sir,” he replied impassively. opening the kitchen window, I could reach out and hang it on the nail.” “You were out of the house, then, j at the time Mr. Wells died?” “I can prove it by as many wit- 1 nesses as you wish to call.” “Now, about these letters, Haw kins,” Sperry said. “The letters in the bag. Have you still got them?” He half rose—we had given him a chair facing the light—and then sat down again. “What letters?” “Don’t beat about the bush. We know you have the letters. And we want them.” “I don’t intend to give them up, sir.” “Will you tell us how you got them?” He hesitated. “If you do not know already, I do not care to say.” I placed the letter to A 31 before him. “You wrote this, I think?” I said. He was genuinely startled. More than that, indeed, for his face twitched. “Suppose I did?” he said, “I’m not admitting it.” “Will you tell us for whom it was meant?” “You know a great deal already, gentlemen. Why not find out from where you learned the rest?” “You know, then, where we learned what we know?” “That’s easy,” he said bitterly. “She’s told you enough, I daresay. She doesn’t know it all, of course. Any more than I do,” he added. “Will you give us the letters?” “I haven’t said I have them. I haven’t admitted I wrote that one on the desk. Suppose I have them. I’ll not give them up except to the District Attorney.” “By ‘she’ do you refer to Miss Jeremy?” I asked. He stared, and smiled faintly. “You know who I mean.” Elinor Wells, in deep mourning, and Clara, Mrs. Dane’s companion and secretary. While I am quite sure that I was not thinking clearly at the opening of the interview, I know that I was puzzled at the presence of Mrs. Dane’s secretary, but I doubtless accepted it as having some connec tion with Clara’s notes. And Sperry made no comment on her at all. “Mrs. Wells suggested that we come here. Horace,” he began. “We may need a legal mind on this I’m not sure, or rather I think it unlikely. But just in case—suppose you tell him, Elinor.” I have no record of the story Eli nor Wells told that night in our lit tle reception-room, with Clara sit ting in a corner, grave and white. It was fragmentary, incordinate. But i got it all at last. Charlie Ellingham had killed Ar thur Wells, but in a struggle. In oarts the story was sordid enough. She did not spare herself, or her motives. She had wanted luxury, and Arthur had not succeeded as he had promised. They were in debt, and living beyond their means. But even that, she hasten ed to add, would not have matter ed, had he not been brutal with her. He had made her life very wretched. But on the subject of Charlie Ellingham she was emphatic. She knew that there had been talk, but there had been no real basis for it. She had turned to him for comfort, and he gave her love. She didn’t know where he was now, and didn’t greatly care, but she would like to recover and destroy some letters he had written her. She was looking crushed and ill, and she told her story nervously. Reduced to its elements, it was as MARY 7ERE 1 RICO- Keewahn Minn CHARLES L. BROWN -Battle Ground Ind These Boys and Girls Won National 4-H Championships at the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago. AAARIOM DOLAN Sun Pteirie, Wis. CARL Charlottesville Ind- OLDHAM Roscoe Owens won the Moses trophy for having the most outstanding leadership record ih 4-H Club work. Charlie Brown, who is a Freshman at Purdue, gets the Lipton trophy as the “most outstanding” 4-H boy. Mary Rico made the best achievement record for 4-H girls and also gets a Sir. Thomas Lipton trophy. She is a Freshman in Minnesota Agricultural College. Marion Dolan gets the Moses trophy'for girls, for rural leadership. Carl Oldham, star 4-H animal husbandman, won a $300 agricultural college scholarship, award ed by Thomas E. Wilson. TWELVE HUNDRED FARM BOYS AND GIRLS ATTEND 4-H CLUB’S NATIONAL CONGRESS By CALEB JOHNSON U; ! . IwliU Hawkins half rose from his chair. We tried to assure him that we rere not, in a sense, seeking to in volve him in the situation, and I ven went so far as to state our position, briefly: “I’d better explain, Hawkins. We are not doing police work. But, iwing to a chain of circumstances, we have learned that Mr. Wells did not kill himself. He was mur dered, or at least shot, by some 'me else. It may not have been de liberate. Owing to what we have ‘ larned, certain people are under suspicion. We want to clear things up for our own satisfaction.” “Then why is some one taking, down what I say in the next room?” He could only have guessed it, but he saw that he was r1<?ht hv our faces. He smiled bitterly. “Go on.” he said. “Take it down. It can’t hurt anybody. I don’t know who did it. and that’s God's truth.” And, after long wrangling, that was as far as we got. He suspected who had done it, but he did not know. He absolutely refused to surrender the letters in his possession, and a sense of deli cacy, I think, kept us all from Dressing the question of the A 31 matter. “That’s a personal affair,” he said, “I’ve had a good bit of trouble. T’m thinking now of going back to England.” And, as I say, we did not insist. When he had gone, there seemed to be nothing to say. He had left the same impression on all of us, I think—of trouble, but not of crime. Of a man fairly driven; of wretch edness that was almost despair. He still had the letters. He had, after all, as much right to them as we had, which was. actually, no right at all. And, whatever it was, he still had his secret. Herbert was almost childishly crestfallen. Sperry’s attitude was more philosophical. “A woman, of course.” he said. “The A 31 letter shows it. He tried to get her back, perhaps, by hold ing the letters over her head. And it hasn’t worked out. Poor devil! Only—who is the woman?” It was that night, the fifteenth day after the crime, that the solu tion came. Came, as a matter of fact, to my door. I was in the library, reading, or trying to read, a rather abstruse book on psvchic phenomena. My wife, I recall, had just asked me to change a banjo record for “The End of a Pleasant Day,” when the bell rang. In our modest establishment the maids retire early and it is my cus tom, on those rare occasions when the bell rings after nine o’clock, to answer the door myself. To my surprise, it was Sperry. accofftniittiAd by tjyo ladies, one of them heavily veiled. It was not until I had ushered them into the reception room and lighted the gas that I saw who they were. It was follows: On the night of Arthur Wells’s death they were dressing for a ball. She had made a private arrange ment with Ellingham to plead a headache at the last moment and let Arthur go alone. But he had been so insistent that she had been forced to go, after all. She had sent the governess, Suzanne Gautier, out to telephone ^ Ellingham not to come, but he was not at his house, and the message was left with his valet. As it turned out, he had already started. Elinor was dressed, all but her ball-gown and she had put on a negligee, to wait for the governess *o return and help her. Arthur was *n hts dressing-room, and she heard him grumbling about having no blades for his safety razor. He got out a case of razors and searched for the stroo. When she ^“membered where the strop was, it was too late. The letters had been beside it, and he was coming tow ard her, with them in his hand. She was terrified. He had read only one, but that was enough. He muttered something and turned away. She saw his face as he went toward where the revolver had been hidden from the children, and she screamed. Che rile Ellingham heard her. The door had been left unlocked bv the governess, and he was in the lower hall. He ran up and the two men grappled. The first shot was fired bv Arthur. It struck tbo celling. The second she was doubtful about. She thought the revolver was still in Arthur’s hand. It was all horri ble. He went down like a stone, in the hallway outside the door. They were nearly mad, the two of them. Thev had dragged the body in, and then faced each other. Ellingham was for calling the po lice at once and surrendering, out she had kept him a wav from the telephone. She maintained, and I think it very possible, that her whole thought was for the children, and the effect on their after lives of such a scandal. And, after all, nothing could help the man on the floor. It was while they were trviner to formulate some concerted plan that they heard footsteps below, and, thinking it was Mademoiselle Gautier, she drove Ellingham into the rear of the house, from which later he managed to escape. But it was Clara who was coming up the stairs. (CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK.) -tXT- Fuller Mush—It says here that more men than ever went to the Hawaiian Islands last summer. I won4er why? Anon Y. Mous—Haven’t you heard? The grass crop was a to tal failure there. The twelve hundred brightest, most industrious and healthiest boys and girls of America took pos session of Chicago last week. It was not the largest convention that has ever been held in Chicago, but to anyone who looks ahead to the America of the future it must seem the most important. I know it did to me. For these twelve hund red farm boys and girls are the outstanding leaders among the 850,000 members of the 4-H Clubs. If by any chance you don’t happen to know what the 4-H Clubs are, they are the local organ izations of farm boys and girls through and by means of which the young people in the rural sec tions of every part of the United States are being taught, and are teaching themselves, to be better farmers and better home makers. The four H’s stand for Head, Heart, Hands and Health, and the emblem of the 4-H Clubs is the four leaf clover. To be selected as a delegate to the annual nine day 4-H Club Na tional Congress, which is held in connection with the International Live Stock Exposition and the Chicago Coliseum Poultry Expo sition, a boy or a girl must have made such a record in his or her home county and state as to stand out among all others. These twelve hundred boys and girls from forty- four different states or nearly all of them, have all of their expenses of their trip to Chicago paid by local organizations and the railroads running through their home terri tories. Every one of- them has been a prize winner back home, and they came to Chicago to show the results of their year’s 4-H Club work and to compete for national championships in the long list of varied activities which make up the work programs of the 4-H Clubs. They got in a lot of sightseeing while they were in Chicago, but the most interesting sight of all to the outsider was these young folks themselves and their enthusiasm for their farm work. They had a lot of it still to do in Chicago, they had to show themselves and their work to the best advantage to win national honors, medals and trop hies, and the $150,000 in cash prizes and awards in the farm record keeping project, canning, health, meat animal production, project achievement, style dress revue, leadership and 4-H scholarship contests; the corn, cotton, peanut, potato, canning, clothing and home furnishing exhibits; the egg, poul try, baby beef, pig and lamb shows; and in the crops, home economics, livestock and poultry judging con tests. : from Wes: Union, Doddridge Coun- I have not the space here to print ty. West Virginia, who found them- the names of more than the first selves the best junior livestock prize winners in the different class- judges of America and won jointly es. In some of the classes there a silver trophy provided by the late were as many as a hundred prizes. Sir Thomas Lipton, and college For example, an even hundred ‘cholarships, worth $1,000 given by boys and girls this year got $500 the Chicago Association of Corn- each for an agricultural college ; merce. These boys are George Will- scholarship, a total of $50,000, giv- j iams, and Edwin Corathers. George en by the International Harvester: Williams, in addition, won the high Company to celebrate the one individual score in livestock judg- hunaredth anniversary of the in- j ing, which gave him another ag- vention of the reaper by the first I rieultural college scholarship worth Cyrus McCormick, whose grandson, $500. Cyrus McCormick, Jr., presented the awards. The healthiest girl in the Unit ed States is Gertrude Heikes, of Dakota County, Nebraska, and the healthiest boy is William Sanders, of Johnson County, Indiana. Both Gertrude and William made the George Hanger of Pennsylvania, won the high score for judging horses; Aaron Murray, of Okla homa, the high score on cattle judging; Robert Painter, of In diana, is the National 4-H Club champion sheep judger, and Har old Eberspacher, of Nebraska, highest scores ever recorded in theoroved the best individual judge national 4-H health contest. Ger trude, who was sixteen years old last Thursday, December third, and is five feet four inches tall, made a score of 99.9 out of a possible 100 and only failed making 100 per cent, by the fact that some of her teeth do not exactly meet when her mouth is closed. William Sanders, eighteen, five-feet nine inches, made a score of 99.1, a : slight fault in his teeth also keep ing him from a perfect score. Ruth Carsten of Gage County, Nebraska, won first prize in the home furnishing contest with home-made furniture, or rather furniture that she had adapted from old pieces. Home furnishing and decoration is an important part of the work of 4-H Club girls. of hoqs at the Congress. “Prince of junior animal hus bandmen” is the title which was bestowed on Carl Oldham, a nine teen year old boy from Charlottes ville, Hancock County, Indiana, na tional winner in the 4-H Club Meat Animal Livestock Project Contest. Carl’s prize is $300 agricultural college scholarship. Marion Dolan of Wisconsin, and Roscoe H. Owens of Guilford, Chenango County, New York, are the year’s National 4-^H Club lead ers. They are the boy and girl having the most outstanding rec ord for rural leadership during the year. Another contest in which both a and a girl are both winners fcfc that for the “most representative ' »jp Dorothy C. Hinder of Long Green, j 4-H Club boy and girl. For their Baltimore County, Maryland, got! year’s work Charles L. Brown, of first prize for a 4-H Club girl’s} Battle Ground, Tippecanoe Coun- complete costume, a browp and ty, Indiana, and Mary Teresa, yellow two-piece dress of a new Rico, of Keewatin, Itasca County, cotton material suitable for gen- Indiana, got silver trophies award- eral sport and street wear. The ed by Sir Thomas Lipton. total cost of the winning costume Anybody who missed seeing these including hat, shoes, hose and un- youngsters at Chicago was just dergarments, was $16.38. simply overlooking a chance to get Audrey Spencer of Woodbury an eyeful of the most upstandine. County, Iowa, is the year’s champ ion in the children’s, clothing con test, and Cora Torgerson of Al bert-Lea, Freeborn County, Minne sota, took first honors in the na- outscanding American citizens ot the future. .Because these 4-H Clubs arfe not play clubs—they are work clubs. As nearly as the peo ple who know most about this 4-H tional window decoration contest, club movement can figure it—and while Georgia Huber of Hendricks they keep pretty close track—the- County, Indiank, exhibited the best value of the agricultural products produced during the past year by 4-H Club members is above $17,- cotton school dress/ Canning vegetables, fruits and meats is, of course, an important 000,000. They cultivated more than part of the farm girl’s education. 150,000 acres of ground in caring Phyllis Howard of Cambridge City, for their crops,, forestry, garden Indiana, exhibited the prize-win- and fruit projects. They produced ning five jars of canned vegetables, more than one and one-half mill- and her chum, Frances Fryman, 1 ion bushels of com. They raised also of Cambridge City, walked off! more than twenty-one and one- with top honors with her exhibit j half million pounds of cotton. They of five jars of canned fruits, while own more than 175,000 head of live- Marjorie Mae Brandeburg of Fruit- ; stock. Thev raised more than 2,- dale, South Dakota, took first prize 275,000 chickens in their poultry for canned meat, and Hazel Mey- enterprises. ers of Woodbine, Maryland, show- Four-H Club girls prepared more ed the best five jar family assort- than three and one-half million ment of canned food. | jars of canned goods from products It was a team of three boys ! of their own raising during 1931. New Tariff Board Head Settles House Majority Bone in Throat Fatal |j Robert Lincoln O’Brien, who was stenographer to President Cleveland, has been' appointed chairman of.tfie Tariff Commission, succeeding Henry P. Fletcher. He is a former Boston editor. Carl Wright Johnson, Democrat, of San Antonio, Texas, who won the seat vacated by the death of Harry M. Wurzbach, Republican, gives his party 218 votes to the 217 onposition votes of all parties. txs Now and then you’ll find a prac tical joker who appreciates a joke upon himself. Lya de Putti, noted screen ac- t tress, who recently swallowed a 1 chicken hone which lodged in her | throat, died when pneumonia set in after the operation. She was horn 1 in Budapest. > There are plenty of mental ov-* ens that work overtime, which ac* counts for so many halfbakect judgments.