Tokio, April 12.
Reynard, the fox, has just been credited by the Japanese police of Kobe with being the decisive fac-itor in the discovery of a murder, more than*ordinarily brutal in jis nature. In Japan the fox is an object of mingled fear, veneration and respect. The. goodwill of Reynard is assiduously cultivated and the numerous shrines erected in honour of deified foxes, with constant streams, of worshippers visiting them to pray for favours lor to propitiate them, aftest eloquently to the hold Reynard has on the emotions and the natures of the average Japanese.
Some time in August last year, the police of Kobe discovered that an entire family had been brutally clubbed to death. The victims in the deplorable affair included a young girl, a babe in arms. The only evidence, or clue, that the Police could then—get hold of was a blood-stained: crowbar in the worn-off dents of which human hair was found. The police immediately proclaimed a ban on all publication of the crime and set to work to unravel the mystery. Month succeeded month, and the crime which was the sensation of the country for many a day was forgotten by the people, when suddenly the Police announced that the culprit had been discovered.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.