Hero Or Suicide?

That is the question about Casbier J. W. Barron, of the Dexter (Me.) Savings Bank, whose discovery, gagged, strangling and dying, in the vault of that institution, nearly a year ago, made such a great seiisation. Everything indii cated that he had acted the part of the : herp, refuaing to divulge the combination that would unlook the tveasures of I the safe to burglars even at the risk of j his own life. His praises were sung throtighout the land, banks in different parts of the country contributed a fund of some thousands of dollars for the benefit of his family, and a memorial church was being erected in the little j town where he had lived. But now, al] most a year after the event, comes the ! startling story that Barron, so lar from being a hero, was only another defaulter, who ingeiiiously devised all the aecessories to a sensational death sceno, and then took poison- in the hope of i thus seouring the credit of a martyr and warding off the disgrace of exposure. Thus far the whole affair is involved in niystery. That suspicious cliaracters I were seen in pexter iust before the tragedy is admitted, and that some of i the blows and jpoubcU Barron's body bore must have been inflicted by other hands than his seemsalmost certain ; on ! the other hand, a defalcatkm did exist. j Yet, even if Barron liad appropriated the $3,G00 reported missing, his standing was so high and the bank so far secured by a $2,000 insurance policy on his life, that there appears little motive for suicide. Certainly everybody will hope that the dead cashier's memory ; may be saved from such a pitiful fall as now threatens it. -