Industrial relations -- Fiction; Strikes and lockouts -- Fiction
The probabilities of the case were much discussed that night at police
head-quarters, in conferences from which the reporters were rigorously
excluded, and the next morning the city newspapers revelled in the
sensation. They vied with each other in inventing attractive head-lines
and startling theories. The _Bale-Fire_ began its leader with the
impressive sentence: "Has a carnival of crime set in amongst us? Last
night the drama of Algonquin Avenue was supplemented by the tragedy of
Dean Street, and the public, aghast, demands 'What next?' A second
murder was accomplished by hands yet dripping with a previous crime.
The patriotic witness who, yesterday, with a bleeding heart, denounced
the criminality of his friend, paid last night with his life for his
fidelity." In another column called for a "monument, by popular
subscription for Andrew Jackson Offitt, who died because would not tell
a lie." On the other hand, _The Morning Astral_, representing the
conservative opinion of the city, called for a suspension of judgment
on the part of its candid readers; said that there were shady
circumstances about the antecedents of Offitt, and intimated that
documents of a compromising character had been found on his person;
congratulated the city on the improved condition of Captain Farnham;
and, trusting in the sagacity and diligence of the authorities,
confidently awaited from them a solution of the mystery. Each of them,
nevertheless, gave free space and license to their reporters, and
Offitt was a saint, a miscreant, a disguised prince, and an escaped
convict, according to the state of the reporter's imagination or his
digestion; while the stories told of Sleeny varied from cannibalism to
feats of herculean goodness. They all agreed reasonably well, however,
as to the personal appearance of the two men, and from this fact it
came about that, in the course of the morning, evidence was brought
forward, from a totally unexpected quarter, which settled the question
as to the burglary at Farnham's.
Mrs. Belding had been so busy the day before, in her constant
attendance upon Farnham, that she had paid no attention to the story of
the arrest. She had heard that the man had been caught and his crime
clearly established, and that he had been sent to jail for trial. Her
first thought was, "I am glad I was not called upon to give evidence.
It would have been very disagreeable to get up before a court-room full
of men and say I looked with an opera-glass out of my daughter's window
into a young man's house. I should have to mention Alice's name, too,--
and a young girl's name cannot be mentioned too seldom in the
newspapers. In fact, twice in a life-time is often enough, and one of
them should be a funeral notice."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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