The Borden Mystery.

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A Strange Story That is Partly

Confirmed by an Old Sea Captain.

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A Victim of Revenge?

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Mutiny Aboard the Schooner Jefferson Borden

and Punishment of the Criminals

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The Stranger that was seen skulking around the Borden premises on the Morning of the Tragedy--The Crime Still Seems to be as Far From Solution as Ever.

Here is another story about the Borden Murder Mystery. James A. Seymour, now in Brooklyn, but formerly an employee of the Fall River Steamboat line, said the other day:

"I think I can solve the Borden murder mystery. After the acquittal of Lizzie Borden I was I Fall River, and met an old friend of her father, who had known him from boyhood. From this gentleman I learned in conversation certain events in Borden's early life which if properly investigated, might prove a solution of the whole mystery."

Later Seymour explained that this "old friend" was Captain George W. Pickens, an old Fall River sea captain, who had retired from active duty and for several years was a pilot on the Fall River Line.

Seymour said that Pickens had confidentially informed him that he knew all about the inside facts in the Borden Murder case; that the crime was the result of a feud against Andrew J. Borden; that early in life Borden had been interested in the sea, had made trips and bought interests in certain schooners and other vessels doing a profitable business in carrying freight to distant ports; that he had at one time when a young man incurred the enmity of some sailors who through his influence had been imprisoned, and they swore to be revenged if it took a lifetime and they had to swing for it.

Adrew J. Borden, the murdered man, owned a part interest in one of the first schooner rigged vessels built in Maine for Fall River owners. It was so much of a success as to pay for itself within four or five years.

Another schooner followed her. It was known as the Jefferson Borden and afterward became famous in history by reason of the mutiny of part of her crew on April 20, 1875. The trial was held in Boston, resulting in the conviction and sentence of two of the seamen, George Miller an Williams, for murdering the mate. John Clew, the third person of the original three accused, escaped, but was afterward convicted on another charge in connection with the crime and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. The life prisoners are now serving out their sentences at Thomaston, Me. Clew served his time, but was possible grudge could he have had against Andrew Borden?

After the Jefferson Borden had made several voyages she was wrecked high and dry on the sands at Jupiter inlet, Fla., during a storm.

Later she was sold for $80 to a man well known in New England, named Captain William M. Patterson, and some Key West shipping men, but as it cost them several thousand dollars to put the vessel in seagoing shape it required some capital to make her a paying investment.

It was the schooner Jefferson Borden had been sailing under her new owners that the historic mutiny occurred.

This mutiny and the fact that Andrew Borden had been a ship owner caused many stories to be set afloat, but it is a fact that at the beginning of the Border murder trial in Fall River, In 1892, it was rumored that some one had been seen skulking around the town who wanted to get revenge on an alleged injury done him by Andrew J. Borden.

One or two witnesses declared that on the morning of the tragedy they had seen a strange man, his face white with an indescribable pallor, acting suspiciously in the Borden yard near the house where the crime was committed.

The following account of this incident appeared in a published volume of the Fall River tragedy, written by Edwin H. Porter. It is thus narrated:

"But there was a clew which caused no end of comment, both personal and in the press. Information reached the police that Policeman Joseph Hyde had seen a suspicious-looking stranger in the vicinity of Second street on that morning. On the following Tuesday Dr. B. J. Handy, one of the best physicians in the city, made public the fact that he also saw a very strange appearing man on Second street on the morning of the murder, between twenty-five minutes past ten a quarter to eleven o'clock.

"The doctor took some notice of this man, and in the afternoon while in conversation with his wife he became more and more impressed with the idea that the stranger had some awful connection with the awful crime.

"This theory became a matter of much importance, and Dr. Handy did not at this time know that Policeman Hyde was reported to have seen a similar person.

"Dr. Handy's statement was that at some time within fifteen minutes of half past ten o'clock that morning he was driving down Second Street. When he was passing the residence of Dr. Kelly, which is the next house south of the Borden premises, his attention was drawn to a pedestrian walking slowly along the sidewalk near the Borden House.

"Ordinarily the face of a stranger would not excite much interest in the mind of Dr. Handy, inasmuch as he was continually passing the streets of the city on his professional calls.

"In this case, however, he looked twice at the passer-by, and even turned in his carriage to inspect him more closely. Just what caused him to do this the doctor did not definitely explain.

"There was a peculiarity about the man which he could not exactly describe. The individual was about thirty years old, five fee, five inches in height, and weighs, perhaps, about one hundred and twenty-five or one hundred and thirty pounds.

His clothes were of light gray., (said to be the gray given to prisoner's on their release), "of just what cut and texture the doctor could not positively state, nor could he tell whether the man's hat was of felt or straw.

"He was pale, almost white, not with the ghastly pailor of a sick man, but rather the whitish appearance of a man whose face had not been touched by the sun's rays, who might have been in confinement, or whose

work was of as such a nature as to keep him constantly in a cellar.

"There was something beyond this paleness which aroused the doctor particularly to observe him, and was that he appeared to be in a state of intense nervousness. "So much for the stranger seen in Borden's yard on the morning of the murder.

It has been declared that in spite of the records to the contrary, Andrew Borden held a silent interest in the ship whose crew muntinied, and that his money played a certain part in bringing the mutineers to justice, but there is not a line of written proof to this effect. Nothing appears anywhere to show that any of those men harbored a grudge against Andrew Borden.

Attorney Jennings now Assistant District Attorney of Fall River, the accomplished lawyer who was Lizzie Borden's counsel in the trial, said that he had heard of the story in regard to the seamen of the Jefferson Borden, but he found nothing on record to connect Andrew Borden with that ship or its crew. He was neither an owner nor a passenger at the time.

If Mr. Borden had had any misunderstanding with the crews of other ships in which he was owner, knowledge on that point has not appeared.

And the old sea captain who, Mr. Seymour says, told him the strange story of Matla and a band of desperate sworn to revenge by taking his life is unable to discuss the matter. Each day he seems to gain no strength, and if he has any secret of the cause of the tragic death of Andrew Borden it is not likely to reach the public in this world.

Did sailors of any other ship in which Mr. Borden held an interest have cause for revenge? This is among the questions yet to be answered.