said he was not, but the testimony of
the first was accepted. A colored woman who had said she gave breakfast to
a colored man clad in a blue flannel suit the morning of the murder, said
positively that she had never seen Miller before. The gold rings found in
his possession had no names in them, as had been asserted, and Mr. Ray
said they did not belong to his daughters. Meantime a funeral pyre for the
purpose of burning Miller to death had been erected in the center of the
village. While the crowd swayed by passion was clamoring that he be burnt,
Miller stepped forward and made the following statement: "My name is
C.J. Miller. I am from Springfield, Ill.; my wife lives at 716 N. 2d
Street. I am here among you today, looked upon as one of the most brutal
men before the people. I stand here surrounded by men who are excited, men
who are not willing to let the law take its course, and as far as the
crime is concerned, I have committed no crime, and certainly no crime
gross enough to deprive me of my life and liberty to walk upon the green
earth."

A telegram was sent to the chief of the police at Springfield, Ill.,
asking if one C.J. Miller lived there. An answer in the negative was
returned. A few hours after, it was ascertained that a man named Miller,
and his wife, did live at the number the prisoner gave in his speech, but
the information came to Bardwell too late to do the prisoner any good.
Miller was taken to jail, every stitch of clothing literally torn from his
body and examined again. On the lower left side of the bosom of his shirt
was found a dark reddish spot about the size of a dime. Miller said it was
paint which he had gotten on him at Jefferson Barracks. This spot was only
on the right side, and could not be seen from the under side at all, thus
showing it had not gone through the cloth as blood or any liquid substance
would do.

Chief-of-Police Mahaney, of Cairo, Ill., was with the prisoner, and he
took his knife and scraped at the spot, particles of which came off in his
hand. Miller told them to take his clothes to any expert, and if the spot
was shown to be blood, they might do anything they wished with him. They
took his clothes away and were gone some time. After a while they were
brought back and thrown into the cell without a word. It is needless to
say that if the spot had been found to be blood, that fact would have been
announced, and the shirt retained as evidence. Meanwhile numbers of rough,