London, July 23.
The London police at last feel that they have secured a slight clew to the identity of the author of the many mysterious murders in Whitechapel. At least they have found a young man who declares that he saw the murderer just after the latter's attempt to butcher Dark Sarah, who escaped with a cut throat, but was unable to identify her assailant. The assault on Dark Sarah was made on Nov. 21 and was the first botched job of the murderer. He met the woman in a public house and assaulted her while on the way to her room. The woman was very strong and succeeded in breaking loose from her assailant, but strangely enough she has not been seen by the London police since a day or two after the assault. The only other known witness of the murderous assault was Francis Russell, the driver of a greengrocer's wagon. Russell was driving a wagon delivering coke to lodging houses on the morning of the attempted murder. He was standing near the sidewalk at No 19 George street early in the morning when he saw a man about 30 years old walking rapidly toward him. The stranger was semi respectable in appearance, looking neither like a working man nor a gentleman. He wore a black diagonal suit and round black felt hat, and had a light mustache cut square off at the ends. He was about five feet six or seven inches tall, neither very slight nor very heavy. He had a straight Grecian nose, but not very large, and had blue eyes. After he passed Russell he began to run. Then Russell heard the cry of the woman in No 19. She came out and he noticed that the front of her dress was covered with blood. She told Russell to stop the man and he started after him, but by the time Russell had reached the corner the man was out of sight. Russell ran as far as Brick lane where he met two policemen who said they had seen nobody. Russell thinks he would know the man if he could see him again.