ROMANCE OF CRIME.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1234, 2 September 1884, Page 1

ROMANCE OF CRIME.

One Sabbath morning, in the summer oi 1883, the dead body of a. burglar was found at the bottom of the hatchway of Kilgour and Taylor, a prominent wholesale house in Cincinnati., .;The circumstances of the case seemed , to indicate that the movements of the burglar had awakened a clerk who, slept in , the store, and the former, in ■ endeavoring to make good his escape, to the lower story, had missed his hold upon the rope and fell to the bottom, dashing out .his brains by the fall. The features, were so disfigured as to be unrecognisable, and ah unceremonious funeral ended the matter, as was then thought. A day or two subsequently there were ominous whisperings of the disappearance of a certain wellknown citizen, and the putting together of the two circumstances * occasioned something in the way of a sensation. The remains, upon being exhumnd, proved to be those of the missing citizen, and a scene of excitement supervened such as has very rarely been witnessed in any community. This man was known by the name of ,c Driftwood Johnson,” a sobriquet which he had earned by watching for and saving the fuel that floated down the Ohio, this being ostensibly his only occupation. He had for a residence a large brick mansion'near the riyer bank in the heart of the business portion of the city. The structure was a remarkable one in several respects. It had two mpre storeys on the river sides than upon the street upon which it fronted, while in every storsy were found rooms , and recesses to which the .entrance could not be detected except by careful scrutiny. It is hardly necessary; to add that these secret receptacles were stocked with goods of almost interminable variety, flur many successive days the house was thronged hy countless ,visitors, sime in quest of their properly, and; still more from curiosity. Notwithstanding the nature of Johnson’s apparent occupation, his family moved- in very. rcspec*ahla circles, and not the least of the extraordinary phases of the affair, consisted of the fact that the clerk wfipse. watchfulness caused the death of the burglar was at. the time engaged to the daughter of the latter. , The engagement was ultimately cancelled.—Detroit Free Press.,