THE MIRACULOUS ORGANS OF MURDERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 386, 16 July 1856, Page 8

THE MIRACULOUS ORGANS OF MURDERS.

(From the " London Examiner. >') It is curious to observe how the idlest feelings and actions may chance to serve the interests of society. A murder has been committed. The body is found lying under a tree. Some boys cut twigs from the tree, in order to have it to say that they have a. stick from the wood where the murder was committed. One, idler than the rest,

amuses himself with switching th n i , leaves, and in doing so strikes up Rom thing that glitters ; he picks it up • it J*. 6" glass button. The bu-ton is handed to tl * police. It is much scratched, and the'shanf is bent by some violence, " ' v

Two men fall under suspicion of th murder. One is discharged for want of an^ evidence, and the other, named Rayne V^ manded rather upon the chance of obtaining evidence than with any prospect of it. Ther° was, indeed, not a clue to the o-uilt A man of bad repute was near the spot when the murder was committed, in broad day light. No more was known.

In this state of things an illicit still '- discovered, and a smuggler connected with it named Cayne, is apprehended. His lodging is searched, and amongst his clothes is found a waistcoat with three id a «^ buttons, the fourth button—the bottonfone —being wanting. Cayne acknowledges that fhe waistcoat is his. He denies that he was ever at the spot where the murder was committed.

The glass button found by the boy i s compared with the buttons of the waistcoat and found to match. The two upper buttons of the waistcoat are a little scratched, the third more scratched ; the button found, and supposed to be the fourth is more scratched than the third, as it naturally would be in the place where there would be most wear.

Other evidences now fall into the train of the button. A farmer, who has passed the spot where the murder was committed a few minutes previously, observed two suspicious-looking men, one of whom he is almost certain was the prisoner first apprehended, and the other the owner of the waistcoat with the missing button.

The murdered man was robbed of a silver watch. Such a watch was offered for sale at a pawnbroker's shop by a mm who was ready to take anything he could get for it. Tlie owner of the waistcoat is recognised in this man. Rayne was his constant companion, and at his house the night of the murder.

Such are the circumstances of suspicion against Riyne and Cayne in the inquest at Gateshead on the murder of Mr. R. Sterling, the surgeon assassinated in broad day. The main clue in this remarkable case would have been wanting, if some foolish boys had not thought it a fine thing to boast of sticks cut from a vvcod where the murder was committed, aud if one, more vacant than the rest, had not occupied his time in thrashing the dead leaves. Who can say what is useless either in our artificial or natural world ? The reflection may be carried a step farther. Cayne probably chose the glass buttons b~ cause he had a taste for the gaudy. No less conspicuous button among the dead leaves would have struck the eye; and if the crime be Cayne's, how curiously it is;tracked outfthrough a most trivial object of his predilections. How little could'the man have imagined that when he vp choosing a waistcoat with glittering buttons he was preparing a witness against, himself