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THE SUNNY SOUTH.
The Contrast.
Oh, rammer with your rare roses,
And lauuhing skies of blue,
Your sunshine and sweet poses,
I bid you now adieu 1
For prison walls of granite,
And artificial light—
For starving souls that hunger
For something good and bright.
For the gay and glittering city,
Away from rural sounds—
The home of wealth and fashion—
Tho’ poverty abounds!
Where pinched and squalid childhood,
mn. C M rc f ,ees light of heaven,
While fortune's favorites revel
In all that wealth has given!
Mary Wars.
FORGOTTEN HISTORY.
Brigte. and Breezu Things Remembered
When Recalled.
A CELEBRATED CRIME.
The Famous Goss-Ddderzook Tragedy Re
called—Ineffective Insurance Swindle.
Poe, with his wonderful invention and
morbid imagination, never conceived a story
more wild and tragic than the unadorned
record of what was known twenty-four years
ago as the Goss-Udderzook tragedy.
The Baltimore daily papers of Feb. 3,
1872, contained an account of the burning to
death of W. S. Goss, residing at 314 North
Utah street in that city. Goss was a German
by birth; but, coming to America when a
child, spoke the language like a native. He
was remarkably intelligent, a well-built man
of above the average height, and at the time
of his reported death, was thirty-eight years
of age. He was married, and his brother-in-
law, William Udderzook, a machinist, was
interested with him in the perfection of a
patent for the production of a material that
was to take the place of india-rubber for mat
ting and the rougher purposes.
As the materials used in experimenting
were inflammable and the odor offensive,
Goss rented a little frame house which stood
along on the outskirts of the city; and in this
he and his brother-in-law did their work.
On the evening of Feb. 2, 1872, Goss went
to this place, as was his custom, and when it
became dark, he lit a lamp, which went out
‘’"ddenly. He tried to light it again and
but without success. He then sent
his brother-in-law, Udderzook, to a neighbor
ing house to borrow a lamp. This house
was about one hundred yards away and was
owned by a German laborer. Udderzook
was asking for the lamp when he heard a dull
explosion, and looking in the direction of
the laboratory, he saw it illuminated and
flames bursting from the windows. It was
an old rattletrap of an affair, every stick in
it was dry as tinder, so that before Udderzook
could get back or give an alarm, the whole
structure was ablaze. •
The fire died out only when there was
nothing left to consume, and then a charred
body, answering in every way to that of Goss,
was found amid the hot ashes, the hair and
extremities burned off and the features de
stroyed beyond recognition.
A coroner’s inquest was held on the re
mains, and the verdict was that the body was
that of W. S. Goss, and that he had come to
his death ‘through the agency of divine
Providence and a fire caused by the explosion
of a lamp.’
Goss was a thrifty man, and so had made
provision for his wife in the event of his
death. His life was insured for $25,000 in
four of the best companies in the country.
The body was duly buried, the widow as
sumed the heaviest mourning, and being de
pendent upon her husband’s efforts for a
living she very properly applied to the life
insurance companies for the amount of the
policies. Goss’ character was good, except
that he was addicted to periodic sprees, dur
ing which, however, he injured nobody but
himself. He was a good husband and stood
well with his associates, yet the insurance
companies did not pay with the promptness
that was expected. Indeed they refused to pay
at all and insisted upon an investigation.
One thing that excited the suspicion of the
insurance people was the fact that A. C.
Goss, the brother of the dead man, under an
assumed name hired a horse at a livery stable
in Baltimore on the night of the fire, drove
into the country unaccompanied, and came
back in the same way about midnight. Act
ing upon the advice of her brother-in-law,
Udderzook, and her lawyers, Mrs. Goss sued
the insurance companies for the lull amount
of the policies. The companies joined issue
and employed the best lawyers in the Monu
ment City to defend their cause.
As an essential preliminary to the defense,
the charred body was exhumed and given
over to a committee of the foremost physi
cians, among them professors in the medical
college, for examination.
When the trial came on, Mrs. Goss, who
had been married for twelve years, and so
should know all her husband’s physical pecu
liarities, spoke of him as a strong, broad
breasted man, five feet, nine inches in height,
with brown hair, a mustache of a lighter
color and good teeth. The trial lasted for
several weeks, and was one of the most excit
ing that Baltimore had known up to that
time. Many witnesses corroborated Mrs.
Goss and Udderzook, and the case seemed
dead against the insurance companies when
the counsel for the plaintiff closed.
The defense summoned Drs. E. T. Miles,
R. Wysong, E. Lloyd Howard and F. I.
S. Gorgas. These learned men, one and all,
swore : “The teeth were defective, only two
of the whole set being sound and more than
one-half being missing. The remains were
those of a male. He was a white man, be
tween the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five.
He was of fair average height, of stout build
and of great muscular strength. It was im
possible to determine whether the burning
was the cause of death or was post mortem.”
The witnesses for the defense, although
not disproving the plaintiff, cast serious
doubts upon the death of Goss and created a
strong suspicion that another man had been
killed and the body burned there, or, that a
corpse had been procured and placed in the
building, which was fired by Goss himself
with the full knowledge of Udderzook,
after the latter had gone in search of a
lamp. The jury gave a verdict against the
insurance companies, but defendant’s counsel
gave notice of motion for a new tiial, pend
ing which the court adjourned.
The judge granted the motion and post
poned the next hearing until the November
term, eight months away, presumably to give
those interested in the defense a chance to
accumulate evidence.
William Udderzook was born near Jenner-
ville, in Chester county, Pa., about thirty
miles from Philadelphia. His mother still
lived near there, but he had not visited her
for years until the June following this trial.
On the 30th day of June, about 9 o’clock
in the evening, Udderzook put up at a tavern
in the village of Jennerville. He was accom
panied by a man whose physical description
corresponded in every way with that of Goss.
Udderzook felt that he was in a trap. From
the time of the trial he had been shadowed by
detectives. He knew that Goss was living
and in hiding, and liable at any time to make
his identity known through one of his
periodic sprees. The hope of gain was now
lost sight of in fear for his own safety, ard
he could not feel sure of that safety while
Goss was living and in the vicinity.
Udderzook claimed that his companion was
in ill health, and so he carried his food to
him in his room. On the night of the Fourth
of July Udderzook and his companion left the
hotel in a buggy. Just one week afterward a
farmer residing in the neighborhood had his
attention attracted by a number of buzzards
assembled in the woods about one hundred
yards from the road. An examination of the
spot led to the discovery of the body of a
man scarcely covered with leaves, dirt and
branches. The farmer notified the deputy
coroner, an inquest was held, and this verdict
was given: “That the man, name unknown,
came to his death on or about the night of
July 4, 1873, from wounds inflicted with a
dirk or other sharp instrument in the hands
of William Udderzook of Baltimore, Md.”
Already the intelligent farmers of Chester
county had learned through the papers of Ud-
derzook’s connection with the Goss trial in
Baltimore. When he lived in their midst,
he had worn a curious blood stone ring, and
this ring was found beside the body of the
murdered man, showing that some resistance
had been made.
Udderzook, who had attempted flight in
the direction of Baltimore, was overtaken
and brought back to the county seat. The
news of the tragedy spread through the
country, and representatives of the insurance
companies, were at once on the ground. The
body of the murdered man was exhumed. A.
C. Goss, a brother of the man supposed to have
been burned in Baltimore, was brought be
fore the corpse, as were others, and one and
all declared the murdered man to be Winfield
S. Goss.
Even the insurance companies were con
vinced that he was now dead sure enough.
But, though suspicion pointed strongly
against Udderzook as the murderer, the evi
dence was far from being conclusive. The
scene of the tragedy had changed from Mary
land to Pennsylvania.
On the 21 st of October, in the beautiful
town of Westchester, Chief-justice Butler
presiding, William Udderzook was arraigned
for the murder of Winfield S. Goss. A.
Wagner, Esq., was the commonwealth’s at
torney, and among the array of counsel whom
Udderzook’s mother and friends secured for
his defense was the brilliant Wayne Mac-
Veagh, son-in-law of Simon Cameron, and
subsequently attorney-general of the United
States, and in the year 1896, American min
ister to Italy.
On the trial it came out that the murder
was of the most atrocious kind. The victim’s
limbs were severed from the body and hidden
many yards away. Yet, with the strange
fatality that follows murderers who try to
conceal their work, the dead man’s face was
but little marred. An attempt was made to
show that the body was not that of W. S.
Goss, but without effect. Witnesses were
procured who proved where Goss had been
nearly every day from the time of his sup
posed cremation up to the night of his actual
murder.
Mrs. Goss was brought on from Baltimore
and denied emphatically that the man whom
Udderzook was charged with murdering was
her husband. The prosecution was inexora
ble, for it had a double purpose to perform—
first to show the conspiracy to defraud, and
next, to show a motive for the murder of
Goss.
Beyond*all doubt, the fact was established
that a man who called himself A. C. AVilson,
in Newark, where he had been hiding, and
the one who had been murdered in the Ches
ter county woods were one and the same
person, and with equal certainty it was proved
that this man was the W. S. Goss supposed
to have been burned to death in Baltimore.
The trial created the greatest interest, not
only in Southern Pennsylvania, but through
out the country. There had been nothing
like it before in the history of criminal pro
cedure.
After a trial lasting two weeks—this was
Sunday, Nov. 7, 1873—the jury brought in a
verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree.
A motion was made for a new trial, but it
was not granted. An appeal was made to the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, but without
success. Still the counsel for the defense
did not give up. There is a court of last
resort in Pennsylvania known as the Board of
pardons, which sits at Harrisburg on stated
occasions. The Board of Pardons refused to
interfere. Then an unsuccessful appeal was
made to the governor.
Throughout the whole trial, Udderzook
manifested the greatest nonchalance,and arro
gance and stubbornly protested his inno
cence. He heard the reading of the death
warrant with indifference and was hung,
without any sign of fear or repentance, on
the morning of Thursday, the 12th of Novem
ber, 1874.
Alfred R. Calhoun.
DOOM OF THE NOVEL.
'
Discerned iin the Window Where Bicycles are
Exhibited.
A delver into literature has this to say in
the New York Mercury, about the bicycle :
Speaking as a distinguished reviewer, I am
ungrateful to the bicycle. The more cycling
the less novel-reading, and, therefore, the
smaller income for the scribe who has to ex
plain the merits of novelists to an indolent
public.
This merely commercial point does not ex
cite any misgiving in my mind as to the
civilizing influence of the cycle manufacturer.
Windows in which bicycles are exhibited
for sale, have for me the fascination I used to
find at the bookseller’s. Staring in at a win
dow the other day, I was accosted by a friend,
who said:
“So you’re going to start cycling at last!
The very thing for a torpid liver !”
He descanted on my liver for some min
utes, and then urged me on no account to buy
the particular brand of bicycle I was gazing
at. It had secret vices; it was possessed with
a devil; whereas, he knew a bicycle which
might make angel’s wings molt with envy.
I explained that I had no desire to ride a
bicycle, and he said, with amazment:
“Then, why glue your nose to the win
dow ?”
“Because I rejoice to read there the doom
of the English novel.”
He shook his head and went off to spread
the rumor among my friend that I was suffer
ing from mental derangement.
Publishers are said to be complaining
about the effects of the cycling epidemic on
the book market. There is a sad decline of
novel-reading. Instead of buying books, the
young and middle-aged of both sexes spend
their money on bicycles.
Beauty does not languish a whole after
noon in a hammock with a romance; she
“scorches” amid the heat and dust of a high
way.
By his unsold copies, the publisher sits
down and weeps when he remembers the
copious editions of other years. Surely
there is a better plan than that. Why
doesn’t he become an expert cyclist, and lie
in wait on the high-road for novices who
have deserted his books? There is an"apt
story of Wesley, which Mr. Birrell told the
other day.
The evangelist was riding and overtook a
stranger, who was also mounted. They fell
to discussing religion, and when the stranger
learned that his mentor was Wesley he turned
to flee.
“I had the b,etter horse,” remarks Wesley
in his journal, “so I showed him his heart
all the way to Northampton.”
Why should not the publisher show the
beauties of his new novel to the less experi
enced bicyclist? Should his companion have
a bad accident, how delightful to thrust a
precious volume into the hand of the pros
trate man and ride away with the righteous
glow of a good Samaritan !
Children and Courtesy.
Conversation at meal-times is certainly to
be encouraged, but children should be told
not to interrupt their elders. If they are not
allowed to chatter, their thoughts become
too much concentrated on their food, and
greedy staring and vexed looks, if some other
person receives a nicer helping are the
natural results.
Perfect courtesy should be inculcated. Re
member that it is better to say “Thank you”
when not strictly necessary than not to say it
when the courteous recognition of service
done is required.
THOSE YELLS.
An Anti-Silver Fellow Thus Paraphrases
Poe’s Bells.
Hear the loud, unearthly yells,
Silver yells,
What a lot of recklessness their lunacy fore
tells !
How they’re yawping, yawping, yawping
In a frenzy of delight,
Never thinking, never stopping
To distinguish wrong from right.
Making noise, noise, noise,
Like a lot of crazy boys,
Simply opening their faces and emitting
frantic yells,
Silver yells, yells, yells, yells,
Yells, yells, yells,
From their leaking whiskers come these hor
rid yells.
Hear the anarchistic yells,
Reckless yells,
What a tale of uncurbed passion their turbu-
lency tells!
In the startled ear of night,
How they scream out their delight!
So befogged they can not speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous endeavor to give vent unto
their ire,
In a mad and reckless longing to set every
thing afire !
Getting higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire
And a resolute endeavor
Now to loot and burn or never,
Every one of them as crazy as a loon !
Oh, the yells, yells, yells,
What a tale their yelling tells !
How they swear!
How they froth around the mouths, how they
roar !
What a lot of ugly noises they outpour,
While they paw the dust and tear
Out their hair !
Yet the thinking person knows
By their jawing
And their clawing,
That they must be labor’s foes !
Every yell distinctly tells
Of a yawper who is shirking
Everything that looks like working—
They can only claw the zephyrs and give
vent unto their yells,
Frightful yells.
Each is trying to produce the loudest yells,
Yells, yells, yells, yells, yells—
Fom their lungs of leather come these awful
yells.
—Cleveland Leader.
DISEASES OF THE LIVER . . .
BILIOUSNESS,
DYSPEPSIA,
CONSTIPATION,
HEADACHE. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
These disorders can be conquered
at once by the use of Simmons
Liver Regulator
AN EFFICACIOUS REMEDY. . . .
“I can recommend as an efficacious remedy for
diseases of the Liver, Headache, Constipation
and Dyspepsia, Simmons Liver Regulator.”—
Lewis Gr.Wunder,Assistant Postmaster,Philad’a.