FROM TIMES PAST. 
     
    
   
   
    
     MURDER 
     
     by Lawrence/W3 fihtson 
     
     (reprinted from the Prince Edward Island Magazine, 1901. Vol. 3(1), p. 1-5.) 
     
    
   
   
    
     Murder! Murder most foul! Murder with malice prepense! Murder, too - 
     
     that most awful crime — in the midst of this law—abiding community of ours! 
     
    

    
     And not one murder only, but thousands of murders, - crime upon crime, death 
     
     after death, gruesome assassination wholesale! 
     
    

    
     Think of it, reader, sickened by news of slaughter coming to you from 
     
     distant scenes where nations war with nations, and thank you a kindly Providence 
     
     that yours is surely a land of peace, where human life is deemed sacred, and 
     
     death at the hand of fellow man full happily a rarity! Can you credit it that 
     
     here, in fair Prince Edward Island, two wild bands, of many members each, 
     
     are murdering for their living day by day, - ruthlessly, cruelly murdering - 
     
     fearless of apprehension or punishment; daring, brutal and immune? But so it 
     
     is, and so has been for many decades past, and probably still shall be for many 
     
     centuries yet unborn. Vile enough in the crime-tainted dens of crowded cities, 
     
     but who would believe it of our quiet rural districts, where Nature reigns su- 
     
     preme and the psalm of life is sung on every side? Let us go to- 
     
     gether into yonder dreary swamp, where alders weave a heavy barri— 
     
     cade; where snakes glide in to feed, and pestilent insects suck 
     
    
   
   
    
     one's blood. "Fit place this," say you, "for murderous gangs, 
     
     if blood-stained criminals find a home in such a peaceful land_as 
     
     ours." But surely, they are deep within this tract, for, far as 
     
    
   
   
    
     eye can reach, as yet, the scene is peaceful and the prospect 
     
     pleases well; ' ' 
     
    

    
     Almost every bit of shrubbery hides a choir of warbling 
     
     songsters. High above us perch, in tree—top, robin and his band 
     
     of singers. Light of wing and flashing rainbow colours, gaudy Lflfof 
     
     butterflies flit and linger, resting here and there among the fiwnmcnm}numuux 
     
     blossoms, feeding on the nectar of the flowers, drinking in the “bm“"“m 
     
     sunshine and the balmy, balsam-perfumed air. 
     
    

    
     "You are surely fooling us with tale of murder. No place this for bloody 
     
     deed of carnage." "But," I answer, "murderers do not Choose to slauc.ter full 
     
     in view of gazing mortals. Still they are here, all around us, hidden deep 
     
     within recesses dark, of Nature's building. See those horn-shaped pitchers, 
     
     clustering around the footstalks of yon tall, strange flowers, - strangest 
     
     floral structures yet examined by us. Flowers truly strange indeed, but leaves 
     
     by far more curious, for here we have the murderers we are seeking, and if we 
     
     look more closely, we shall see them at their work. 
     
    

    
     This is the Purple Pitcher Plant, the Sarracenia purpurea 
     
     of botanists. Pluck off a pitcher-leaf with care, remembering 
     
     that it may be partly filled with liquid, and so we find it. 
     
    

    
     And what a sight is here! The pitcher contents are a mass of 
     
     insects rotting in the pent up store of water - gift of rain- 
     
     cloud. Now, is this chance; or is it murder? Let me prove it 
     
     the latter. The edges of the leaf are grown together to form 
     
     the horn-shaped pitcher dungeon; a wing-like projection extends 
     
     all along the side of the pitcher nearest the parent plant. The 
     
     green or reddish-tinted leaves are more or less brilliantly 
     
     streaked with a purplish reticulation, or network, rendering 
     
     them conspicuous objects, attractive to insects. 
     
    
   
   
    
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