Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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• .* X.'S Thursday, December 17, 1931 m«i:ormick messenger, McCormick, south Carolina ^ PAGE NUMBER Sight MARY ROBERTS RINEHART COPYRIGHT /Q5/ 6v MARY ROBERTS RinEhART 'Y final instalment "She had been our first governess for the children ” Elinor said, “and she often came in. She had made a birthday smock for Buddy, and she bad it in her hand. She almost fainted. I couldn’t Ufcll her about Charlie Ellingham. I couldn’t. I told her we had been struggling, and that I was afraid I had shot him. She is quick. She knew just what to do. We worked fast. She said a suicide would not have fired one shot into the ceiling, and she fixed that. It was terriole. And all the time he lay there, with his eyes half open ” The letters, it seems, were all over the place. Elinor thought of the curtain, cut a receptacle for them, but she was afraid of the police. Finally she gave them to Clara, who was to take them away and burn them. They did everything they could think of, all the time listening for Suzanne Gautier’s return: fpiod the second empty chamber of the re volver, dragged the body out of the hah and washed the carnet, and called Doctor Sperry, not knowing that he was at Mrs. Dane’s and could not come. Clara had only a little time, and with the letters in her handbag she started down the stairs. There she heard some one, possibly Elling ham, on the back stairs, and in her haste, she fell, hurting her knee, and* she must have dropped the handbag at that time. Thev knew now that Hawkins had found it lat er on. But for a few days they didn’t know, and hence the adver tisement. “I think we would better exntain Hawkins,” Sperry said. “Hawkins was married to Miss Clara here, some years ago, while she was*with Mrs. Wells. They had kept it a secret, and recently sne has broken with him.*’ . “He was infatuated with another woman," Clara said briefly. “That’s a personal matter. It has nothing to do with this case''” “It* explains Hawkins’ letter.” “It doesn’t explain how that medium knew everything that hap pened.” Clara put in, excitedly. “She knew y it all, even the library paste! I can tell you, Mr. John son, I was close to fainting a dozen times before I finally did it.” "Did you know of our seances?” I asked Mrs. Wells. “Yes, I may as well tell you that I haven’t been in Florida. How could I? The children are there, but I ” “Did you tell Charlie Ellingham about them?” “After the second one I warned him and I think he went to the house. One bullet was somewhere , in the ceiling, or in the floor of the nursery. .1 thought it ought to be found. I don’t know whether he found it or not. I’ve been afraid to see him.”' She sat. clasning and unclasping her hands in her lap. She was a proud-woman, and surrender had come hard. The struggle was marked in her face. She looked as though she had not slept for davs. “You think I am frightened,” she ''aid slowly. “And I am, terribly frightened. But not about discov ery. That has come, and cannot be helped.” * “Then why?” “How does this woman, this'med ium, know these things?” Her voice rose, with an unexpected hysterical catch. “It is superhuman. I am almost mad.” “We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Sperrv said soothingly. V . t&i * > • i Slim CLAUS LETIIItS McCormick, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am ten years old and I am go ing to school every day. I am in the fourth grade. I want you to ! bring me a doll and tea set, some ; fruit and candy. Don’t forget my sisters, brothers, mother and fath er. Your little girl, LUCILE SPENCE. “I stole the stick from your office,” Clara told them. it?” “None whatever.” “Did you ever see Miss Jeremy before the first sitting? Or hear of her?” “Never.” “Or between the seances?” “No.” - / Elinor rose anji drew her veil ^wn “We must go.” she said. “Surely now you will* cease these terrible investigations. I cannot stand much more. I am going mad.” “There will be no more seances,” Sperry said gravely. “What are you going to do?” She turned to me, I daresay because I represented what to her was her supreme dread, the law. “My dear girl,” I said, “we are not going to do anything. The Neighborhood Club has been doing a little amateur research work, which is now over. That is all.” Sperry took them away in his car, but he turned on the door step, “Wait downstairs for me,” he said, “I am coming back.” \ I remained In the library until he returned, uneasily pacing the floor. For where were we, after all? We had had the medium’s storv elab orated and confirmed, but the fact remained that, step by step, through her unknown “control” the Neighborhood Club had followed a tragedv from-its beginning, or al most its beginning, to its end. Was everything nn which I had built my life to go? It’s ohiloso- ohv, its science, even its theology. state that there are those among us who have accepted that theory in the Wells case, but who have preferred to consider* that behind both it and the physical phenom ena of the seances there was an intelligence which directed both, an intelligence not of this world as we know it. Both Herbert and 1 Alice Robinson are now pronounced spiritualists, although Miss Jeremy, now Mrs. Sperry, has definitely abandoned all investigative work. Personally, I have evolved no theory. It seems beyond dispute that certain individuals can read minds, and that these same, or oth er socalled “sensitives,” are cap able of liberating a form of invis ible energy which, however, they turn to no further account than the useless ringing of bells, mov ing of, small tables, and flinging about of divers objects. To me, I admit, the solution of the Wells case as one of mind reading is more satsifactory than explanatory. For mental waves re main a mystery, acknowledged, as is electricity, but of a nature yet unrevealed. Thoughts are things. That is all we know. Mrs. Dane, I believe, had sus pected the solution from the start. The Neighborhood Club has re cently disbanded. We tried other things, but we had been spoiled. Our Kipling winter was a failure. We read a play dr two, with Sper ry’s wife reading the heroine, and the rest of us taking, other parts. She has a lovely voice, has Mrs. Sperry. ' But it was all stale and Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am writing to tell you what I would like for Christmas. I want a dump cart, some fruit and candy. Marion wants a doll and some fruit and candy. Do you know my teacher. Miss Irene? Your little boy, WINSTON CAMPBELL, JR. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am writing you to tell you what I want for Christmas. I want a big pencil box, a pair of jack stones, and fruits, nlits, candy. Good Santa please don’t forget my good teachers. Their names are Miss Irene Langley and Miss Lucy Brown. I am in the 2nd grade. Your little girl, CORNELIA H. FREELAND. Plum Branch. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a box of candy and a doll that will go to sleep. Don’t forget my good teachers, Miss Irene Langley and Miss Lucy Brown. Your little girl, MILDRED MCDONALD. before the revelations of a young unprofitable, after the Wells affair, woman who knew hardly the rudi- i With Herbert on a lecture tour on <What about the stick that was tak en from my library?” * “Will you tell me how you came to have it, doctor?” • “Yes. I took it from the lower hall the night—the night it hap pened.” “It ,was Charlie Ellingham’s. He had left it there. We had to have it. doctor. Alone it might not mean much, but with the other things you knew—tell them, Clara.” “I stole it from your office.” ^’ara said, looking straight ahead. “We had to have it. I knew at the second sitting that it was his.” “When did you take it?” “On Monday morning, I went for Mrs. Dane’s medicine, and you had oromised her a book. Do you re member? I told your man, and he lowed me to go uo to the lihrarv It was there, on the table. I had ^xoectcd to have to search tor it, but it was lying out. T fasten»H ic to my belt, under my long coat.” “And placed it in the rack at Mrs. Dane's?* Snerry was watch*^ m-r intently, with the same sort of vrlm Intentness he wears when ex amining a chest. “I put it in the closet in my room. J meant to get rid of it, when I > ad a little time. I don’t know how V, got downstairs, but I think ” “Yes?” "We are house-cleaning. A house maid was washing closets. I sup- t/ose she found it and, thinking it was one of Mrs. Dane’s, took it d/ewnstalr*. That is, unless ” It clear that, like Elinor, she had <> supernatural explanation in her mind Hhe looked gaunt and hag gl'd "Mr. Ellingham was anxious to it/' she finished. “He had taken Mr Johnson's overcoat by mistake night when you were both in ••oa house, and the notes were in it. saw that the stiik was impor- "Clara” Sperry asked, did. you -a th* ds«' vou advertised for vour anatber similar advertise- '7 saw it. It frightened me.” ' y#v have no idea who inserted ments of the very things she was destroying? , Was death, then, not. neace and an awakening to new things, but a wretched and dissociated clutching after the old? A wrench which only loosened but did not break our earthly ties? It was well that Soerrv came hack when he did, bringing with him a breath of fresh night air and stalwart sanity. He found me still pacing the room. “The thing T want* to know,” I said fretfully, “is where this leaves us? Where are we? For God’s sake, where are we?” “First of all.” he said, “have you anything to drink? Not for me. For vourself. You look sick. “We do not keep intoxicants in the house.” “Oh. piff’e,” he said. “Where is it, Horace?” “X have a little gin.” “Where?” “Wed,” said Sperrv, when he had lighted a cigar. “So you want to afteryard.” I drew a chair before th* book shelves, which in our old-fashioned house reach almost to the ceiling, and. withdrawing a volume of Jo sephus, I brought down the bottle. “Now and then, when I hove bad a bad day.” I explained. “I find that it makes,me sleep.” He poured out some and I drank it, being careful to rinse the glass. “I would like to save something out of the wreck.” “That’s easy. Horace, you should be a heart soecialist, and I should v-vp tbo law. It’s as plain as the alphabet.” He took his notes of in-* sutings from his nocket. “I’m .going to read a few things. Keep what it left of your mind on them. This is the first sitting. “The knee hurts. It is very bad. Arnica will take the pain out.” “T want, to go out.* I want air. If I could only go to sleep and forget it. The drawing-room fur niture is scattered all over the house.” * “Now, the second sitting: “It Is writing.” (The stick.) “It is writing, but. the water washed it away. All of it, not a trace.” “If only the pocketbook were not lost. c:ar-t.icket.s ond letters. * It will be terrible if the letters are found.” “Hawkins may have it. The curtain was much safer.” “That part’s safe enough, unless it made a hole in the floor above.” “Oh, If you’re going to read a lot of irrelevant material ” “Irrelevant nothing! Wake up, Horace! But remember this. I’m not explaining the physical phe nomena. We’ll never do that. It wasn’t extraordinary, as such things go. Our little medium in a trance condition has read poor Clara’s mind. It’s all here, all that Clara knew and nothing that she didn’t know. A mindreader, friend Horace. And Heaven help me wjden, I marry her!” » As I have said, the Neighborhood Club ended its investigatiqns with this conclusion,* which I believe is properly reached. It is only fair to spirit realism, and Mrs. Dane at a sanatorium for the winter, we have now given it up, and my wife and I spend our Monday evenings at homte. THE END tllillHii When Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a sleepy doll that can cry, and bring a little water bucket and dipper, some fruits and candy. Bring Miss Irene a bok of candy. Your little girl, AMY SEIGLER. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am telling you what I want for Christmas. I want a little ball, and don’t forget my good father and mother and don’t forget my good teachers, Miss Irene Langley and Miss Lucy Brown, bring them a box of candy. Your little girl, KATE WHITE. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I want you to bring me a doll that, can cry and go to sleep and candy and fruits, and Miss Brown and Miss Irene a box of candy and Jane Seigler a doll that can cry once and go to sleep. Your little girl, MYRTLE SEIGLER. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a doll that can go to bleep and Edna a doll that can go to sleep too, and Miss Irene a box of apples. Your little girl, LOUISE SEIGLER. , Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I want you to bring me a hay waKdn and a rake and candy and fruits and nuts and be sure and bring Miss Irene a big box of candy and bring my little sister a big doil. Your little friends, MYRTLE and JANE. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: . Please bring me an air rifle'and some shells for it, and anything else that would be nice for a good little boy, and some candy, fruits and nuts. Please bring Miss Irene something too. v Your little boy, ^ GEORGE SHRINE, JR. W HAT many people call indiges tion very often means excess acid in the stomach. The stomach nerves have been over-stimulated, and food sours. The corrective is an alkali, which neutralizes the acids instantly. And the best alkali known to medical science is Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia. One spoonful of this harmless, tasteless alkali in water neutralizes instantly many *imes that much acid, and the symptoms disappear at once. You will never use. crude methods when once you learn the efficiency of this. Go, get a small bottle to try. Be sure to get the genuine Phillips* Milk of Magnesia prescribed by physicians for 50 ye^rs in correcting excess acids. 25c and 50c a bottle— any drug store. Card Of Thanks God, in His infinite wisdom and ’ove, has seen fit to take from us our dearly beloved mother and sister, Mrs. Eunice McCelvey. and while we bow in humble submis sion to His divine will, yet our hearts are grieved and we would like through these columns to ex press to the many loving friends and relatives who so sweetly and tenderly ministered to her, and to us our heartfelt thanks and high appreciation . for their sweet thoughtfulness during these hours of sorrow, and also thank you for the many lovely flowers, the mute tokens of love. May God bless you all. The Family. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a little car, some apples, oranges, candy and some Brazil nuts. Katie Bell wants a carriage to roll her doll in. Bring mama and daddy something too. Your little boy. HARRY WILLIS. SAim CLAUS LmRS McCormick, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Thought I would write you a few lines. Please bring me a nice dump truck, an airplane, lots of nice fruits and candies and fire works. Please don’t forget my lit tle brother, Bobby. He is one year old. , Don’t forget my teacher. Miss Irene. Well, I’ll close. Hur ry and come. I can hardly wait. Your little boy, RAY WALL. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me an air rifle and a little tractor and a dump truck like Artie Holleman’s, and some candy, apples and oranges for daddy and mother. Bring some thing nice for Doris, Robert and Tommie, and Miss Irene, too. Your little boy, . LONNIE QUARLES. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a football and an air rifle and shells. I want some candy and fruits too. Bring Miss Brown and Miss Irene some candy too. Your little boy, CALVIN SEIGLER, JR. P. S.—Please bring a pair of gloves and a base ball too. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a gun and one wagon for Bettie and me together. I would like a steam shovel or dump truck, fruits, nuts and candy and rifle and shells. .Don’t for get mother and daddy and my teacher, Miss Irene. I will be 250 miles from here Christmas night at Farmington, N. C. Your little boy, ARTHUR HOLLEMAN, JR. McCormick, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Will you be so kind as to bring us a gun and a tricycle apiece, al so lots of fruits, nuts and candy? We have been good little boys and we don’t want you to forget' our school teacher, Miss Irene, and our baby brother, Carl. Lots of love, CLARENCE and VIRGIE WALL. P.* S.—And please bring some shells for the gun and some gloves. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am writing you to let you know what I want you to bring me for Christmas. I want a watch and a knife with a chain on it, al so some fruit. I won’t ask for much for I know you are poor. Your little boy, ELBERT JENNINGS. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I hope you are well. Here is what I want you to bring me: Some fireworks and some apples, .or anges, nuts and bananas and candy and a rubber ball. Your little boy. .* RALPH RIDLEHOOVER. Plum Branch. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a little gun, some fireworks, lots of pecans, some fruit and candv and a little toy tractor that will run. Your little bov. TOM BLADON. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a pencil box, pencil sharpener and a baby doll. Please don’t forget my school teacher. Miss Irene Langley. Bring her some oranges. Bring my little sister- a doll and my little brothers some toys and fruits and candy. Also my little schoolmates, and please don’t forget my grandmoth er and granddaddy Mitchell, also grandmother Seigler and my little cousins. • Your little girl, LOUISE SEIGLER. SAMA CLAUS LETIEUS McCormick. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a little red au tomobile large enough for me to ride to the road in. I don’t like to walk to get in the school bus. I want a rocking chair and some crayons. I like chocolate candy and red apples. Your little boy, JOHN WISE. Troy, 6. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Will you please leave me a wag on, a football, five tablets and five pencils Christmas? I also want some candy, nuts and fruit. My little brother, Robert, wants a lit tle red automobile to ride in. Your little bov. ALEX HANVEY. Troy, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am a little boy in the first grade. Please bring me 3 pencils and 5 tablets, because I have to write in school. I want a little wagon to haul stove wood in the house and candy too. Your little boy, CLYDE LINK. McCormick, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I want you to bring me some fruit, nuts and candy and please leave me a new dress and a pair of slippers. Don’t forget little brother. He wants a little auto mobile, and some suckers. \ ' Your little girl, • ELIZABETH BROCK. McCormick. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I want you to bring me some fruits, nuts and candy Christmas. Also air rifle, shots and a football. I will not ask for much as times are hard. Don’t forget mother, daddy and little brother. Your little boy, ELVIN BROCK. McCormick. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please leave me a tricycle Christ mas. I want a book sack for I am going to school at Buffalo. X would like to have some cocodnut candy and fruits. Don’t forget to bring my teacher something nice. Your little girl, MIRIAM EDMUNDS. ’ McCormick. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I want you to bring me a train, and a little red wagon Christmas. Please bring me 5 tablets because I am going to school this year and my teacher makes me write lots. I also would like to have some candy and fruits. . / Your little boy, THOMAS BRITT. McCormick. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a story book and 7 tablets as I need them at school. I want a box of red striped stick candy, some fruit and nuts. Your little friend, AUDREY LOVELESS. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a story book with Mother Goose stories and a bell and some harness that will fit my goat, and a wagon seat for my goat wagon, also some candy and fruit. Please bring Miss Irene and Miss Brown and Mrs. Lankford some thing too. Love, BETTIE HOLLEMAN. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a box of caps for my cap pistol, some fireworks, a football, some candy, fruits arid nuts. Please bring a little doll and whistle for Louise, and a whistle for me too. Your little boy, JOHN ROBERT McKINNEY. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a sleeping doll, a ball, tea set, candy, fruits and nuts. Don’t forget my little brother, Al bert, bring him a little wagon and pop gun, and Herma Lee a doll. Please bring Miss Irene and Miss Brown something too. Your little girl, ALMA HOLLEMAN. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a pop gun, a doll and some candy, fruits, and nuts. I am going to give the doll to my little sister. And I would like a bouncing ball too. Your little boy, COOtIDGE CLIM. Plum Branch, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I want you to bring me some fruit and candy and a knife and a gun, an air rifle and shots. Bring Miss Irene a box of candy. Bring Miss Brown a box of candy too. Don’t forget my little sister. Her name is Amanda." She wants a doll and a Persian cat. Your little boy, EARL COLLIER. Troy, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: You were so good to me last year that I won’t ask for much this year. Please bring me all kinds of fruits, candy and nut^ and a nice pocket knife. Don’t forget all the other little boys and girls. Your little boy, LUTHER ROPER. Troy, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Will you please bring me a big* two-blade knife and fruits, candy, and fireworks? I am ten years, old, in the fifth grade, and try t<y learn my lessons. Don’t forget my mother, daddy, and granny. Your little boy, PAL ROPER. Troy, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus': I am a little girl four years old and I try to be good. Please bring me a rub-board, d wash tub and a cake of soap to wash my doll’s clothes in. I would also like a nice story book and candy, fruits and fireworks. Your little girl, LUCRETIA MULL IN AX. Troy, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Christmas is nearly here, so I don’t want you to forget me. Please leave me a wagon, a box of cray ons, some fruit and candy. Please bring “Little Granny” something nice. Your little boy, SAMUEL LINK. McCormick. S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am a little girl in the first grade and I am very good in school. Please bring me a box of crayons, a writing book, and two pencils, al so candy and fruit. ' ‘Your little girl, LOUISE BROCK. Willington, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: Will you please bring me a doll with curley hair this Christmas? Don’t forget to put some stick can dy and fruit in my stocking. Your little girl, EVELYN BROCK. Troy, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am a little girl ten years old. I want you to bring me a pair of gloves, a pair of scissors and nuts, fruits and candy. Don’t forget my little brother and sister. Your little girl. FRANCES CHEATHAM. McCormick, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am a little girl eleven years old. I am in the fifth grade. Will vou please bring me a pair of goloshes, rain coat, rain cap and pair of shoes, fruits, nuts and candy? Don’t forget my mother, father, sister, brother, teacher and school friends. Bring them something nice too. Your little girl, FRANCES GOFF. McCormick, S. C., Dec. 14, 1931. Dear Santa Claus: I am a little girl seven years old. I am in the second grade. I want you to please bring me a pair of gloves, pair of goloshes, a rain coat, a rain cap and a pair of shoes, fruits, nuts and candy. Don’t for get my mother, father, teacher and schoolmates. Bring them some thing nice. Your little girl, LOIS GOFF. ‘