THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1928
VERNONIA EAGLE, VERNONIA, OREGON
BROTHER KILLS
SISTER; SAYS HE
FEARED SPIRITS
LEANING
§ ON FRIENDLY I
| SHOULDERS f
Beloved New York School
Teacher Is Beaten and
Stabbed to Death.
New York.—Miss Emma A. Leach,
fifty, one of the best-known school
teachers in the borough, was found
murdered recently on the third floor
of the Tiotne she shared with her
brother, Thorn: is, forty-live. Her skull
wus crushed and she bad been stubbed
many times.
Alleged to have confessed the kill
lug "to save her front being annoye I
by spirits," the victim's brother was
held on u charge of homicide.
Miss Leach, who assisted anothei
sister in the support of Thomas, sick
ly for years and released only three
months ago from a Long Island said
tarium, was killed soon utter she re
tired for the night.
The crime was discovered by police
who visited the three story and base
meat home of the Leaches in response
to many telephone calls from neigh
bors. They had heard Miss Leach’s
pet dog, Brownie, barking throughout
the night and because the bottles of
milk and newspapers remained at the
door, sensed something was wrong.
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<® by l>. J. Walsh.)
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Brother Meets Policemen.
When the police rang the basement
doorbell Leach, wearing only nn un­
dershirt, trousers and carpet sllppvrs,
opened the door. “What Is your I
pleasure, gentlemen?” was Ills greet­
ing. The officer explained his mission. I
"Till glad you came,” said Leach.
“Maybe you can help me wake mv
sister, Emma. I’ve been trying to do
that all day. Better come along to the
third door with me.”
The policemen followed and then
discovered the murder, which they
I Got a Knife and Stabbed Emma.
later described ns most brutal. The
body, clad In a nightgown, lay across
the bed. On a chair near by was a
long section of lead pipe and a stained
carving knife.
Then, as calmly ns If lie were dis­
cussing the weather, Leach told of
events leading up to the killing. Ac­
cording to police, Leach made Hie fol
lowing statement:
“Emma came home at six o'clock
the other night. I got supper and
then she sat In her room and read
until ten o'clock. I went to bed, but
couldn’t sleep. The spirits were
bothering me. They were tickling me
all over my body with feathers. 1
didn't want them to bother Emma, so
I went to the cellar and got a piece
of lend pipe and hit her on the head
“She cried, ‘For God's sake, Tom,
what are you doing?’ I said, 'I’m sav­
ing you from the spirits.' Then I Idt
her again and went back to bed, but
the spirits kept annoying me. I got
a knife in the kitchen and stabbed
Emma.
“Then I prayed for her some time
and then got her some food, but she
wouldn’t speak to me. I've been try­
ing to wake her all day.”
Mrs. Josephine Ford of Brooklyn,
slater of the dead woman, when told
of the death of her sister, said to
Captain Walling at the Grand avenue
station: “Tom must have been crazy
to do a thing like tlmt. Why. lie fair­
ly worshiped the ground Emma
walked on.”
IDNEY RUSHTON felt very much
out of place and therefore very
much annoyed. Nothing more
disagreeable could have hap­
pened, she thought than that she
should liuve missed the express at
lliiverleigh and been obliged to take
the tedious old local with its jolting
bumpers, uncomfortable seats and
dingy lights. But there was no other
train before midnight and she was
anxious to reach Imine as quickly as
possible. Even n few hours might
make a great change In her father’s
condition.
In Hie smudgy panel mirror beside
her seat she saw herself slender, fash­
ionable,
haughtily
self-conscious
sitting erect lest she soil her expensive
coat by contact with the worn plush.
The little mirror framed the one pleas­
ant thing there was for her to see,
because It was already too dark for
any appearance outside the window.
And the swaying, creaking old coach
held barely a dozen people, stupid
looking people In whom Sidney could
take no interest.
Twenty years before Sidney Marsh
had married Scott Bushton and
«lipped out of the old environment us
she believed forever. But one thing
prevented her doing so—her futlier in­
sisted on staying in Hillville. Even
though Sidney was aide to keep him
with her for weeks at a time he al­
ways went back to the old place. Lat­
terly lie had stayed there more than
ever, and now he lmd fallen sick there.
For the first time Sidney was com­
pelled to go back to the old home
town for which she had developed a
strong distas.e as her husband's for­
tunes lifted her Into an important
new sphere.
She was resolved now to renew no
acquaintances, connect no broken
threads. If her father died she would
be done with Hillville anyway, and
if he grew better she meant to take
ldm home with her and not allow
him to escape again back to Ids old
haunt. It was ridiculous the way he
hung to the old place with Its coarse
stupidity and behind-handness. Cer­
tainly, there was nothing in it for
her;
At this point in her reflections she
was conscious of a step beside her,
of a hand ‘laid on the back of her
seat, and she looked up into a plain,
kindly face that recalled old memo­
ries.
“I’ve been trying to make out it was
you ever since we left Haverlelgh,”
the woman said, holding out her hand
in a gray cotton glove. “How do you
do Sidney? I'm glad to see you are
going home to look after your father.
He certainly needs you.”
Sidney with a flush had accepted
the cotton-gloved hand, trying to
murmur something inconsequential
but appropriate. She was further an­
noyed when the woman slipped into
tile sent beside her.
“You haven't changed much in
twenty years, Sidney," she went on
coolly. “But you've grown to look more
like your father as you get older. He
Is a splendid man. We are all going
to miss ldm if anything happens to
him. But Mrs. Cotton has been won­
derful to him.”
Sidney bit her lip. She didn’t re­
act favorably to this frank familiar­
ity. Why in the world was it that
she could not have entered Hillville
without running acrosj Mary Andrews?
“I suppose you are still teaching?”
she commented.
“Yes.” Mary laughed at little. "Yes,
I’ve been teaching all these twenty
years you have been away and mar­
ried. And I like it yet, I’m in the
Ilaverleigli high school, have been for
four years. I go home Friday night
—I call Mrs. Cotton's home. I teach
civics and mathematics and chemistry.
I suppose they sound stupid, but they
nre lively enough subjects, I can tell
you, when they are mixed up with hu­
man nature.”
So she lived at Mrs. Cotton’s. There
was no getting away from her, then
Sidney became silent.
“Your children must be about the
age of my high school boys and girls?”
pursued Mary.
“Roland Is nineteen and in Harvard.
Julia, who is seventeen, is at a finish­
ing school on the Hudson.”
They were going down the grade
Into Hillville now, and the rattling and
the lamm inr mnd£ coaversaUon. al­
most impossible. Presently the train
stopped with a bump before the dim
little station.
“There won’t be anybody to meet
this train,” Mary Andrews said. “And
it is a good ways to walk. I’m afraid
It is going to be icy, too, with this
sleet falling.”
It was icy and Sidney, on her high
heels, with only sandals to protect
Iter feet, slid about terrifically. Mary
however, strode along confidently.
There had been n slight embarrass­
ment when they first started out by
Mary's insisting on helping Sidney
carry her bag, but Sidney was de­
termined in tills as In everything else
to be Independent.
When presently her feet began to
go out from under her she was saved
from a fall by Mary’s steadying hand.
“Better take my arm.” Mary said
dryly, “Lucy Mack broke her arm here
Inst week.”
Lucy Mack ! Another fatnilinr name.
Sidney sighed and grasped Mary’s firm,
muscular arm.
“Now,” Mary said, compel I Ingly,
“We'll change bags for a while. Mine
Is light. Hand over, Sidney.”
Somehow Sidney obeyed. As they
labored along through the dark streets
she realized that Mary had become the
woman she had started out to be
twenty years before—strong sensible,
self-reliant. As a girl she had depended
a good deal on Mary’s hard-headed
common sense, and now seemed to be
doing it again in spite of herself. In
deed, site felt a grateful sense of lean
Ing upon a dependable shoulder, and it
came to her that she hud never been
able so to lean since she discarded
Mary along with Iter other Hillville
associations. Scott wa» a good bus
band, but when he had given her a
home, a sufficient allowance and a
good position in the world he was
through. She could stand or fall by
lierself. She had stood, and because
she had she found it amazingly rest­
ful now to be upheld by some one
safe and sure as the woman beside
Iter.
It was a long troublesome walk,
and Sidney was extremely tired by
the time they hail reached Mrs. Cot­
ton’s. Mrs. Cotton met them in the
hall; it was she who lmd sent the
telegram to Sidney.
"Dad’s just the same,” she said. She
called him dad as if he belonged to
her.
Mary gave a look at Sidney's face.
"I’m going up with you,” site said.
“Say, Henrietta, make us a pot of tea,
will you—orange pekoe? Good and
stiff. We’ll want it when we come
down.” She winked significantly over
Sidney’s head.
In the difficult half hour that fol­
lowed Sidney was very glad of Mary’s
calm, unemotional leadership. As they
came down stairs Mary said:
“Hope you've come prepared to stay
a couple of weeks, Sidney.”
“That long?” Sidney gasped.
Mary nodded.
“Or longer. He's comfortable, you
know, but he’ll have to wear out. It
is all the same to him anyway, he is
so old. But it is going to be hard
on you, my dear. Still, I’m here, re­
member that, Sid.”
Sidney choked.
Suddenly she
realized that out of all the world Mary
was the only one there to whom she
could look for understanding and sym­
pathy. Her husband I He was intent
on big money. Her son? Training for
her week-end at a chum's home. Her
father? Slipping like a wafted thistle­
dawn out a£ tha world. No. there was
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THREE
nobody but Mary, sturdy, kind, gener­
ous Mary whom she had once made use
of, then lmd left when she n< <*ded her
no longer. Tears filled her tlTd eyes.
She put her arm about the comfortable
figure and leaned upon it slightly.
Mary’s plain face flushed a little
and in surprise her eyes sought Sid­
ney’s. But she added merely:
"Iatan on me all you want to, Sid
—lean hard.”
“I shall—but, oh, I don’t deserve
that you should let me,” Sidney
whispered contritely.
Delving Into Effect
of College Athletics
The question, “How doea participa­
tion in college athletics affect the
longevity of the student?” is at last
to be decided. Through co-operation
with some forty colleges and univer­
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9,000 “letter men” who were members
of the class of 1905 and prior years.
Statisticians who will work ou this
material expect to produce a study
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Washington Star.
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"Do you admire a good horse?"
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