The murder of Nick Vedder.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2349, 17 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

The murder of Nick Vedder.

I was playing euchre-cut-throat . euchre—one night last September, in a certain house at Niagara h'alls, with two young ladies, when this story was narrated to us. Presently, to us discussing hackmen and their extortions, there was added a son of the house. A long.limbed pleasant-faced boy of seventeen, with ■ an accent more than a little touched by the infectious nasality of Yankee land, •and an affectation of Yankee slang. And he joined in the conversation, which presently absuracd the oharacter .. ofu'hionologua. ' Did you ever.' he began, ' hear the story of the murder of Nick Vedder! 1 Well now, that's a true story for sure. And it's all about those very hackmen voii'vo been talking of. My! ain't they i just the worst kind 1 And all alike, all | enough to ruin the morals of an arch j aneel. Not a pin to choose between the lot, only some bigger and somecunningcr. Jess Ootnolly is the biggest, I and p'raps SethMessiter is the mm- \ nineest. And I suppose that Dick the I guide, who's the politest, has done the j most murders. Not that the murder- j ing is anything like wlmi it was," and I they do say, now, that i stranger can j walk along the cliff of an evening and ' sometimes get back without being chucked oyer the edge and then rolled as used to happen regularly. But I" don't think I'd try, if I was a stianger. It illicit be safe; but for certain, therms a good many bodies do turn up every year in the poil, and not one over yet found with dollars in his ).rc\otß. Now how did ihwi'; pockets get cleared out! Ask the gong. And if I was you, mister, and' [ wanted to see the silver spray in tho moonlight and that, I'd go with a friend or two, unless Dick was drunk that uight. In fk the case p'raps yon'J bo safe, aud p'raps * you wouldn't. But the real merry time was five yeais ago when the new judge hadn't come here, and before they murdered Nick Vedder. Then they had it all their own way,robbingaround all day and highway plunuoring at nisht.

The most wonderful escape tho-gang ever had was in the murder of Is'ick Vedder. '.lt was five years ago, Nick was | a young fellow of twenty-one or so,! clerk to a dry goods store in Clifwiiville. i He was a good looking chap, and on j Sunday afternoons diessed himself up; like a Buffalo swell, wore an all round pot with a feather in it, and had a little moustache growing up like a pumpkin in a frame. When he came out o' church you could see by his eyes that, i he knew all the girls were in love with him, and was only anxious to eave one _i heart from being broken by iettin' on m in good time tbat her love was returned. He parted his hair beautifully right, in the middle, so as you might walk straight up if you liked, and finished at the parting with two sweet cnvls oi'fr his marble brow, so as you cou'.d. hang on if you slipped, ' It was oue Sunday evening in Fob. ruary, while the ice was har.ging about the Falls, and there had been tolioggfng all afternoon down by the ferry. Nick was there, and after it he went to church, just to cheer up the »al<, und after church he started to go home. Jfc was a black night, and somehow, through seeing Ilia last of the sweet things go out, Nick was behind all the vest. But he thought nothing of that, and just walked along ihe planks whistling to himself, till he felt all of a sudden the .grip of two arms round his neck and two hands on his lips 'Nick liked philandering bettor than fighting, and when he Mi thai two pair of foreign arms about him. \\<- just stood still where he was, ami nm- ™ eluded to let things slid". What inspiitd Nick with prt-y. rfl gratitude was that he hadn't any money in ins pocket, net a single dollar, in his pocket, not ut single dollar, note, nor the chink of one quarter again.it another. Dry goods store clejks don't have much money as a rule, 'They carried him without a word down the crossroid; and presently, tluycametoa house, and they took him in.

'Just then Nick Veddor fainted. P'raps it was thu beat .of tho stove, and praps it was the skear, but anyhow, he went off, and when he came to himself he was lying on his back upon the fjcor. They'd set a chair across his legs, and one citizen was sitting in it, a pistol i:i his hand,ready cocked, pointed straight at Nick Vedder's face. Ho felt, without being told, that if that pistol went off, he'd, losn considerable of his biiiinty fir the balance of his days; so he hoped it wouldn't. But that wasn't all. At his right side there A sat another gentleman, with a razor in F his hand, and this he was playfully drawm'across \ick Vedder's throat; and at his left there was a third citizen, who held a pair of scissors open, like conip;isseß, across his eheeks. '" Nick Vedder," said the on' in tl e chair, and ho knew it was Chris Dal, mage, " Nick Vedder, what the devil do you mi an by it}" ' "Mean by it, Sir i" he asks, as meek as he knew. '" We see a gentleman goiiv,' along, on a dark night, easy and quiet over the planks; we stop ihar. gentleman, and he turns out to be Nick Vedder, cleric in a <ky goods store, without a cent. And, we've waited our time. An example must be made, Kick Vedd.ir." 'Then Nick saw that hjs time was

come unless he made an effort, so, lie (muse he didn't dura to move,on account

of ilio scissors and tliß razor, to Bay nothing of the pistol, he prayed on his hack, that they would have pity on a poor dry goods store clerk, who had always, from his humble station, envied the glorious freedom of the hackmen. Ho had, he said, watohed them when tho helpless tourist crossed the Suspension Bridge or emerged from the Clifton Hotel, He drew a poetic picture of that tourist, confident as the Gallic cock at startin», and returning like that bii'd plucked and trussed ready for roasting. Warming with his subject, because Nick was a real clever fellow once put to it, he compared to the advantage of each in turn, the hold privateering of Abb Thomas, by whom the tourist, surrounded on all sides, was fairly captured and driven whither lie did not wish to go; the suicidal alternative of .Dan Moriarty, | which presented death or thy buggy to Ithtvterrified stranger; the craft of Mr

Scth Jlessiter, and the admirable politeness of that other excellent Citizen, Dick thd guide. I think he would have gone on all night, hut Abb Thomas told him they didn't want any more chin music, and that his time was up.

' Nick was mighty frightened. When they tied a napkin round his neck he began to cry ; when they sharpened the razor he began to say his prayers; and when Tom Hudson advanced with the weapon in his hand he began to shriek. But he needn't have been so skeared, because, after all, they weren't going to cut his, throat, They only made the beautiful centre-parting in his hair a little wider, and shaven him an inch broad from his forehead lo his poll. Then Nick Vedder looked like a clown.

■'lt was A lib Thomas—he was nlw.iys rough in his play—who said Nick was a pretty boy, ami would look well in earrinys if be only had his ears pierced. So be took the scissors and did the job for him. A f tor that they let Nick go, and when he got dome he felt real ugly-more uglv 1)6 felt, and smaller too, in the morning., His mother, when he showed ap at breakfast, carried on 60 shameful, that ho was forced to go straight to Mr Hill and lodge his cdmnlaint.

•They soon- caught the men, and though they said it was only a joke, .Mr Hill bound them over, all" but one, against whom there was no evidence, to appear the following week. No one in the town knew whether it was burglary, or highway robbery, or plain assault. If it was highway robbery, the town was likely to ha deprived of its most prominent citizens for a good long spell.

1 The next Sunday night, the night before, the remand, Nick did not go to church: he couldn't, because his hair hadn't grown over the bald place yet. His mother, who was a Primitive Methodist, and strict, did. When she was out of the hous« and the bells bad done ringing, these four citizens, out on bail, dropped in in a friendly way, and paid an evening call on poor Nick They didn't ask him ifhe'd like a walk that cold night, hut they took it for granted; clapped a gag in his mouth, wrapped him iip in his warm great-coat tied n comforter round his neck, and took him alnn? of themselves. " Because," said A lib Thomas, "if you so much as wink, to show that you are not going of your own tree will, when anyone we'll split yom skull." ' Nick went very quiet, but he was more frightened this journey than the last. They walked up the road from Uliftou, along the rapids, whero it's datk all the year round, moon or no moon, with the woods one side and the roaring river, three hundred feet uelow, on the other, and they crossed over the suspension bridge, nobody saving a woid, Then they turned to the right, past Prospect Park till they iv-iched goat Island Bridge, and they cros ed ove; the bridge to that lonely and picture; qua location. 'lt's a very different thing being on Goat Island in the daytime, when you can S'O as well as hear the rapids above yon and the falls beneath, and you know where you're standing, to being there ou a oold, dark, Sabbath night in winter, in the company of four virtuous hackmen, uncertain how long you're going to be with them, the icy spray blowing into your eyes, the leafless branches dropping their icicles ou your head, your feet crunching deep in the falling snow, and. all the time the cam act and rapids about you, roaring like all the wild creatures of all the Zoological Gardens in tho wide, wide world. 'Nick Vedder was very sorry just then that he wasn't in church [although his head was'shaved for an inch all up his precious scalp: better to be laughed at by the girls, than be dragged along to be murdered by the hackmen,' 1 guess bis heart was about down to the heels of his boots as be went along.

' It's a quarter of a mile, I s'pose, across Goat Island, unless you make it longer by taking in i una Isle, and this would have been a waste of time for Nick's enemies, because they were bound straight for Terrapin I'ower. Yon know Terrapin Tower, mister, They've taken the towei* down long ago to prevent its tumbling down, but the shaky wooden footway to it is there S'.iil, and then you can walk clear out to where it stood right over the aide of the fall, so that a man standing at the wlgo.nf that ramshackle piov has got his fo >t within a few inches of the great flood which rolls over the edge klow him, It is a ekeary place on a

sunshiny day in summer. Think what it would he on a moonless night in I February, with the black waters rolling' and roaring beneath; above, the clear sky, and on the rocks around the snow and ice making with their whitens a littto light, just to show how horrible it would be to go over. 'Three of the men dtagged poor Niok to the end of the planks. Then they lifted him up—Nick by this time was long past the power of praying, or even askingfor mercy-and held him right out over the fall, '"Nick Vedder," said Abb Thomas, as solemn as a judge, "Air you preposin' to give evidence against us tomorrow]" ' There was no answer, because Niok was too paralysed with terror to say anything, '"One," said Abb. "Itlnj'Orei before any answer comes -over you go, And the Lord have mercy on what's left of you, when you get to the bottom," ' There was no answet "•Two!"

' Next day all the men, leaving their buggies outside, appeared in the court at ten o'clock looking cheerful, But when the oase was called there was no Nick Vedder.

'The charge was dismissed, but the Judge cautioned the prisoners. He said he had no doubt there was au evasion of justice somehow, and that a serious outrage had been condoned. Let it be a lesson to them, for it was the last time—and so on.

, Later on, old Mrs Vedder came into court Mreamin' and oryin' that her son must be murdered, that he hadn't come home all night, and that he was certainly made away with by the blood thirsty gang of Abb Thomas and his friends, But, there was no proof.

'That was Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday passed, and Nick never came home. Everybody thought that he really must have been made away with. A reward was offered for him. People began to look mora shy of the mon ou the bank than ever. Abb Thomas was hooted by the women, Chris Dalmage bad a quarrel with his own wife, who threatened to live no longer ffith a miuderin' out-throat. And even old Mrs Fuller, who ought, to have known bettor, through her Knglish high connections, put on all .her six frocks at once, went down to the bank and joined in the general scream, it was an anxious time. And it was more anxious stiil, when, on Friday morning it was spread h broad that a body was in the whirlpool.

/ ' We all made for the whirlpool. Some walked, soma drove: but we all got there. In the pool, goto' round and round, was a body, and no mistake. It went round and round the whole day, while we stood on the bank under the cliff and tried to make out if it was Nick Vedder. But the features were smashed beyond recognition. ' So many people crowded down that all the buggies were hired, and it was noticed afterwards, as a mos? remarkable thing, that the visitors that day were actually enabled to see the Falls without being robbed, No hackmen on the bank, no photographers, and no dealers in Fndian curiosities. The tourists thought it was Sunday, or a keeping of Dominion Day at the wrong time,

'ln the night-the body left the whirlpool, and was found on the bank in tho morning, caught by the trees. They brought it up, an held the inquest,

' Although the fact and features were quite smashed and broken, there wore two things by which they identithe remains. Old Mrs Vedder swore to a (dipper which was on the foot as belonging to her son; and Dick the guide, who had reason of his own for wanting to see Abb Thomas in trouble, swore to a tattoo mark on the arm. Said he did it himself one Sabbath afternoon when Niok Tedder and him was alone, And a ooloured girl swore that she saw Nick Vedder- on Sunday evening with four men, Abb Thomas being one.aud going over thesuspensiou bridge. 'The verdict was "wilful murder" ngainst the four who had been bound over to appear for the first charge. They were immediately arreted and locked up. They took the matter quits cheerfully, and were, as the Drumuiondville Gazette 6aid, apparently quite regardless of their awful position.

'Timewas required to get up the case for the proseoution, and it was a fortnight when the real trial came on It was a solemn sight to see the judge, the'counsel, the jury, and the citizens, all got together to hang.four hack drivers. Everybody was there, and among them was old Mis' Fuller, in the front row, nodding her head at all friends, and every now and then wiping her eyes whan she thought of poor dear Nick.

'First the prosecutor opened the case. A man had disappeared; for no reason whatever he vanished from his home: when last seen he was in com. puny with four men j these men stood before-the court ip the dock; with them he crossed over the bridge to Goat Island ; the gate-keeper, it would be proved, could not remember whether' he came buck with them. They had an interest in getting him out of the j way; a body was found in the whirlpool below the falls; in height it ; corresponded to the deceased, Nicholas. Vedder; on the foot was a slipper to

which the murdera) raunV, mother would swear; on the arm wag a tottoo mark which a well-known citizen of Clifton remembered to have himself punctured on the arm of this unfortunate young man so foully mada away with,

'He kept pilin' it up. about foul play and the murdered man till the folk were .ready to lynch the lot if the prisoners had been free. ■ Then he called the evidence. First the coloured girl gave here, The counsel for the prisoners, to everybody's astonishment, aaid he had no questions to ask her. Was the man going to fool away the oase? ' Diok the guide swore to the tattoo mark, When asked it h« remembered the date of the tattooing he burst into tears and said it was when Nick and he were boys together. That was curious, because Kck was forty and Niok twenty.

But the counsel for the defence said he had no questions to 86k of hira neither. And then we began to feel as if the rops was round all four neoks. '' When his turn to speak came, how. ever, ho rose to his feet, and said that he only had one witness to cahy He would call-rand here he hesitated and looked scornfully at his brothers in the law; he would call—and here he with a smile in the faces of the citizens: he would call—and here he looked full in the eyes of the jury, as if he was going to let them have a facer: he would call-rNiOK Vedde'r ■ himself; and as he spoke the words, the door opened, and in came Nick, His hair was growing again very nicely. But he looked meek and small. There's no dmiying that the Court was a good deal taken aback: dignity shook-out of it, somehow. Mis' Fuller gave a fearful shriek because she thought it was a ghost, and went off into hysterics. It took a few mimitjs to get rid oi her, The people jumped to their feet and began to shout. The jury looked as if they had been done out of something good. And as for tho- prisoners, they just stepped over the dock into the Court and sat down, Abb Thomas the first, without being invited to. ' We got a little quiet after awhile, and the case went on, ' First the counsel told the Court the story about. Niok's disappearance. It was this: Chris Dalmage, the only one of the five who wasn't bound over, after they'd frightened Nick at Terrapin Tower, till be was as meek as any two year-old, kept him on the othnr side, looked up with a friend or two to take care of him. After the iuqii63t, what with the general excitement, and and impulse to the hack trade, because folk came from Hamilton and Toronto and London to see the place where Nick Yedder's body was found, and what with the pleasure of seeing his friends all locked up together, a thing whioh no hackmen could resist, Chris could not bring himself to produce his prisoner till the day ot the trial. 1 The counsel only asked two questions.

'" Is that your slipper f '"No," said Nick. "Inever had a slipper in my life, and if I had my foot isn't as big as a boat. And who'd go out in slippers in suoh weather as this!"

' His mother who'd been clinging to him and wiping her eyes, let go of his hand, and looked as if she'd like to bos his ears there and then. "'Oh! you nngralefDlboy," she oried.

'" Then," said the counsel, " show tile Court your left arm. Turn up the sleeve; where is the tattoo f '" There is no tattoo," said Niok. "Why should I be tattooed!" 'Dick the guide stepped out of court. He said it was a curious and disappointing world—and who would have guessed that the boy would round on him in such an ungrateful manner as that after all he'd said and sworn to tor his Bake! And catch him ever taking ony interest in a murder again. And that night there was some of them at the Tails had a real high time: perhaps as high a time as ever was had. But Dick the guide wasn't invited.'