Traces Of Crime

a gentleman who is now a Judge of the supreine court.in one of the Western state?, pot long since related to a friend tho following story, which shows how hurd it is i'or a murderer to destroy tbe traces of crirae : "Some few years ago, when I held the office of district attoruey in the interior of tbc state of New York, a man canic to my office ooe day and stated that he and his lirother were engaged in tho business of hawking or peddling jewelry, and that they had always been aecustoined to meet at certain points on their route, to compare notes and exehango goods. For the first time since they began to travel, his brother had failed to keep bis appointnient ; and, as he could find no trace of hiiu in their customary round, be had reason to iear tbat he was murdered. "After gathering all the information from him that I oould, I collected a larga posso of' eitizeng and procoedod to make a thorough searoh of the whole región. "In the course of two or tliree days we came to a retired spot, Jar from anyliuinan huhitation, where the appearances were such as to indícate that the ground had been recently disturbed ; and, on digging down a few f'eet, we found tho body of the missing peddler. llaising it to the surface I observed one or more small black bugs crawling about, which I knew to be such as are produced by animal deuomposition; but, as the dcad body before me had not begun to decay, I knew that they could not have originated hen-. There also feil from the pockets and crevic:s of the dead man's clothing a little sand, while the soil from wbich we had takeu the body was of a clayey nature, with no sand mixed witb it. I, tüerefore, camc at once to the conclusión that this was not the place where the body was originally deposited ; and we accordïngly renewed our explorations. "In prooess of time we lighted upon a sandy región, just on the outskirts of a little village, where again it was observed that the surface of the ground, although slightly frozen, had been, not long before, dug over. At the depth of a few feet, we came upon the decayed body of a borse, teeming with the same species of bug that I had before detected, which led me to believe that this was probably the spot where the poor peddler had been first buried. I was confirmed in this suspicion by the f'act tbat, in tho earth thrown out from the pit, we found a tallow oandle partly consumed. The presumption now was that the criminal lived in the adjaoent village ; and I thought it yery likely that the half'-burned oandle, of' which I took possession, niight furuish the clue to his deteotion. It was what is known as an oldfashioned dip, not much used in these days, and my first efforts were direoted to fiuding out in what families of tho villago such candles were burned. It was not long before I was able to identify the locality, and I ascertaincd that the family oocupying the house consistcd of an aged couple, feeblc and bed-ridden, and threo sons. I also learned that the youug wotnen of the village had reccived from these boys preseDts of jewolry, whieh npor. ....;.¦ tion, were iilr-ntiflcd as having been a part of the murdered man's stock. "I next proceeded to search the house and premises where the young men lived, and, aftcr tumbling the hay out of the barn; we found, concealed, the pack which had belonged to the peddler. It was very certain that one or more of these boys had committed the murder, and I submitted each of theui to a searching scrutiny in private. The result of this was such as to satisfy me that, while tho two younger had received a portion of the plunder from the eider brother, he alone was rcsponsible for the murder. He was accordingly arrested, tried, oonvicted and sentcneed to the gallows. On the morning of his execution he acknowledeed his guilt, adding, with an oath, that nc would die game." It would seem as though this criminal had at first efTeotually concealed the traces of his crime, but a farthing candle revealed his footstcps, and lighted the way to his death.