A Horse As Witness

The hovse has bftoa known to act in the capacity of a detective, according to the Boston He ral (i. Thus, in Shelby county, Tenn. , a shocking murder was coinmitted. and the trial of the muiderer ca:ne off in a district which was divided frorn one of another juriSdict'tón bv the highway on which the deed was coramitted. The body was found a few yards frorn the road, from which ït. had evidently been draged. aud the doubt arose as to whleh civil district the murder had hoen comraitted in, which gave rise to the probabiiity thaz the tnurderer waid eacje coqviction. Several months passeci away before the trial was coinmenced, when one of tho witnesses, mounted on the horse of the deceased, and accompanied by a nmnber of persons, was riding toward the court house. When the horse reached the vicinity of the scène of the murder he began to show Bymptoms of alarm, which conduot greatly surprised all who witnesscd it, for the other horses of the company betrayod no indications of fear. As the party proceeded onward the agitation of the horse increased, and when he reached a point in the road opposite where the body was found his excitement was so great that he became unmanageable altogether. The gentlemen present carne to a halt and looked on in perfect astonishment. His flesh quivered, his nostrils dilated, and, his eyes glancing into the woods near by, he stood snorting and neighing, a picture of the wildest excitement One of the gentlemen present, suspecting the cause of the horse's agitation, suggested that he should have a loóse rein, which being granted, the noble animal rushed into the thicket, and coming to a certain tree comtnenced at its roots. Then making his way farther into the forest, he circled round and returned to the same spot, where he stood trembling with agitation and pawing until he was violently forced awav, and whenever afterward he passed that same spot his conduct was invariably the same. No blood had ever been seen upon the road, and no appearance of any unusual struggle had ever been discovered. If the murder took place in the highway, the horse would have known nothing of the trees in the neighboring thicket; if it was committed where the body was found, men tne court had no jurisdiotion and the murderer would go scot free. Upon the trial this testimony of the dumb animal against the p-isoner proved most startling. His sagacity was proverbial in the neighborhood where he belonged, and hi9 attachment to his master was such that he followed him round like a dog. In unmistakable pantomime he enacted the committal of themurder.pictured the decoy into the wood, the assassin's demand Jor gold and the death struggle under the tree, and thua the doom of the prisoner was sealed.