118 THE MICROSCOPE. 



they were the hairs of a squirrel. This was a 

 damning fact for the wretched mother ; for a 

 tippet hung around her poor child's neck on 

 the day of the murder ; over that tippet the 

 weapon which did the cruel deed must have 

 passed ; and that tippet was of squirrel's hair ! 

 On the trial the jury deemed this one fact, in 

 connexion with the circumstantial evidence, so 

 conclusive, as to warrant them in finding the 

 accused guilty ; and, before the day of execution, 

 the mother-murderess fully confessed her crime. 



" The times have been 



That when the brains were out the man would die, 

 And there an end : but now they rise again 

 With twenty mortal murthers on their crowns, 

 And push us from our stools : This is more strange 

 Than such a murther is." 



(4.) In the summer of 1855, a large sum of 

 gold belonging to the Prussian Government was 

 forwarded, packed in a box, along one of the 

 lines of railway in Prussia. On the arrival of 

 the box at its destination, it was found that 

 the gold had been abstracted, arid a quantity 

 of sand substituted in its room. The national 

 police detectives were immediately set to work, 

 but all their efforts, backed by all the appliances 

 of the wealth and power of the Government, 



