News Writing Part 38

"We were together all Thursday afternoon and evening," said he.

"Shaw introduced me to another young man, who proposed the racing bets. I have forgotten his name. He placed a $1 bet for me and I won $5. He placed the $5 and brought back $15. It was easy.

"Shaw and I agreed to put up $2,500 apiece and let him bet it.

Shaw put up checks, but the young man didn't know me, so I had to go back to Walker, Ia., and draw my $2,500.

"On Sat.u.r.day we gave him the money and checks in a hallway at 830 North State Street.

"We all shook hands and agreed to meet at 3 o'clock at State Street and Chicago Avenue and divide the winnings. I waited more than an hour at the meeting place. I think I've been swindled."

The police think so, too.

_SAYS BABIES BOOST TAXES_

The Mills legislative committee which is studying taxation has discovered strange things in its two weeks' sojourn in New York City, but it brought forth a real surprise yesterday in the person of Prof. Joseph French Johnson of New York University, who disclosed himself as a disciple of the late Thomas Robert Malthus, proponent of the theory that there can never be a happy society because population tends to increase at a much faster rate than the old earth, working overtime, can provide food, raiment, and other things.

Discussing yesterday the income tax, Prof. Johnson, who appeared as chairman of the Merchant's a.s.sociation committee on taxation, said he wanted to nail the frequently expressed opinion that the exemption accorded to the married man should be greater than that which the bachelor enjoys.

"Since you are talking about exemptions," he said, "I might add this: I would not exempt the married man. I would not give any preference to the married man over the bachelor. I do not believe it is a good thing to encourage matrimony by lowering taxation. On the contrary, I would discourage matrimony by making the married man pay a higher tax. I think we should not do anything to encourage matrimony and child-bearing."

"Surely you are not serious, are you, Professor?" inquired Senator Boylan.

"I certainly am serious. I should have to give you quite a disquisition to explain my conclusions, and I doubt if it would be practicable for you to consider the subject now. And you would have to surrender to public opinion anyhow. If you do put in force a new system of taxation you'll have to treat the married man easily. I am still a confirmed disciple of Malthus, and I believe that the awful war in Europe is being fought out because the human race has deliberately refused to see the lessons of his doctrines, which were taught a hundred years ago."

Prof. Johnson, who in addition to being professor of economics at New York University is also dean of the school of finance, explained after he had left the stand that he is not opposed to matrimony as an inst.i.tution, nor as a refuge from loneliness for those who can afford it. He is himself a married man and has three children.

"I believe in the Malthusian theory," he said. "Just consider that man is the only animal whose natural increase is not regulated. We regulate the increase in the number of cats and dogs and other domestic animals, but we let human beings go on having children without any thought of the ability of society to take care of them. I think we should regulate marriage and especially child-bearing.

"In my opinion no married man ought to be allowed to have a child until he can convince some authority of his ability to provide properly for that child. We want all the increase we can get in the good elements of population, but we ought to keep down the 'riff-raff'--although you know as a matter of fact there is no human 'riff-raff'--yet we allow them to increase without any regulation. As for those who are able to take care of themselves, let them marry and have children. The more the merrier."

_B._ Selection (1) below is a bulletin received some hours after the news detailed in (2), which appeared in a morning paper. Combine the bulletin with the morning story.

1. After confessing that he was the cause of his sweetheart, Emily Benton's, death, Alfred Barker committed suicide at 6:00 A.M. to-day by throwing himself in front of a Burlington express train near the town of Ashworth. In his pocket was found the following note:

"Dear Folks: G.o.d forgive me for causing my sweetheart's death. I did not kill her. We walked out there and sat down. I tried to kiss her and she repulsed me. I asked her if she did not want to be my sweetheart any more. She wouldn't answer. I took a hold of her waist, pushed toward her, and tried to love her. She started to scream, and I went completely out of my head.

"She became quiet all of a sudden. I thought I had hurt her and she was breathing heavily but was senseless. I covered her up and don't remember what happened until I awoke to find myself lying along the road, near Naperville.

"My mind came back. I realized what I had done and I went over to the quarry and jumped in, but could not sink.

"Then I went to Aurora, bought some chloroform, and that night (Sunday) I came back and found my darling's body, and I realized that she was really dead. I laid down beside her and took chloroform, but about 2:30 A.M. I woke up and the bottle had tipped over.

"Then I went to Belmont and got a freight and rode to Aurora, where I got more chloroform. I came back to Dawson Grove and went into the woods and saturated my handkerchief with chloroform, thinking I would surely die. But it failed to work also.

"I could not live and know that my sweetheart Emily was dead, so I have resolved in a desperate way to end my life.

"The girl died of heart failure or fright, as I surely could not kill the one I thought the most of in the whole world.

"I loved her more than words can tell and I would die for her and I will die for her.

"I have been partly insane for the last two days.

"Forgive me and I pray to meet my sweetheart in heaven.

"Alfred."

This morning at 10 o'clock a jury impaneled by W. V. Hopf, Ellis County coroner, will a.s.semble in Dawson Grove for an inquest into the two deaths. At the same hour the funeral of the girl will be held from the house of the widowed mother she supported.

The funeral of Barker will be at two o'clock to-morrow.

_GIRL DEAD IN MYSTERY CASE_

2. Miss Emily Benton was found dead late yesterday in a patch of bushes on the outskirts of the village of Dawson Grove. She had disappeared Sat.u.r.day evening in company with Alfred Barker, a young man who had been paying her attention since childhood.

Searching parties in the field since early Sunday morning were joined last night by a sheriff's posse in the quest for Barker.

Barker is described as an athletic young man with a "Johnny Evers" jaw. Barker was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and a blond.

Barker and the girl were "pals" in the words of their relatives, who only half guessed at times that perhaps the long friends.h.i.+p would become a "match." Together the girl and Barker often through the springtime took long walks at night--occasionally a matter of many miles--to the villages of Hinman and Nashville. For several years the couple rode to Chicago together to work every day on the same commuters' train and often returned home together at night.

While an alarm was sent out through all the surrounding towns for the apprehension of Barker, no charges have been made against him. An autopsy held in secret by Coroner Hopf of Ellis county was expected to reveal the cause of the girl's death.

Alfred Barker, returning from his work at the general offices of the Burlington Railroad in Chicago, dropped off a train at the station in Dawson Grove on Sat.u.r.day afternoon at 5:15 o'clock.

He lingered about the station platform until the 6:30 train came in and met Miss Benton, home from her day's work at the Parisian Fas.h.i.+on Company in Chicago. Together they walked to the girl's home and stood talking on the doorstep of the Benton residence, just as they had most every afternoon in the last seven years.

The mother says she overheard this conversation:

Alfred.--"Let's take in a show to-night."

Emily.--"No, but I'll be over to-night. I want to see Pauline."

The girl abruptly entered the house and greeted her mother a trifle impatiently.

"I'm getting awful tired of Al," she said.

That evening the girl went to the home of her sister, Mrs. Henry Wallis, where Barker and his aunt, Mrs. Fannie Willis, mother-in-law of Mrs. Wallis, also live. At 8 o'clock the girl and Barker left together.

"They said they might go to a show, and that's the last I saw of them," Mrs. Wallis said.

Late at night the two households became alarmed when neither of the young people returned. The families suggested to each other that Barker and the girl had eloped, but still there were doubts and misgivings.

Martin Whittier, the town marshal, was called and the alarm was sent to the Chicago police. Sunday morning came and there was no word of either of the missing.

A group of high school boys volunteered to look for the couple, and soon they were joined by the whole school. No trace of the trail was found.

Yesterday morning the disappearance had grown into a village sensation. The schools were closed for the day and all the pupils turned out to beat over the fields and woods.

Carl Selig, a grocery delivery man, was driving in Orchard Street on the south side of the village, about 5 o'clock, when something behind a bunch of bushes and tanglewood at Lyman Street caught his eye. He climbed off the wagon and pushed through the brush to investigate. In a small open place half concealed by the bushes Selig came upon a girl's body. The face was covered with her coat and her hands were folded across her breast. He gingerly pulled off the coat and recognized the girl as Emily Benton. Selig gave the alarm and the body was removed to Davis's undertaking rooms in the village.

The ground near the death spot was closely examined without discovery of any trace of a struggle. Ten feet away from the body a boy picked up an empty two-ounce bottle. It showed no trace of its contents and it bore no label.

At the undertaking rooms a preliminary examination of the body disclosed a bruised splotch on the girl's neck, another on the right temple, and a third on the chin. The inside of her mouth was discolored and seared, as though she might have taken carbolic acid. There was no odor to indicate any chemical.