The Horry herald. (Conway, S.C.) 1886-1923, November 16, 1905, Image 3
\s
GRUEL REVENGE
Oi a Mysterious Rival or a Desperate
Lunatic,
WHO IS MURDERING
The Little Children of a Mrs. Perkins
One by One. Only Four Now Sur%
vive of a Family of Nine.
The Murderer^Unknown.
* to Mrs. Perkins.
Id the stately, staid old city of
Richmond Virginia?laden with historic
memories?there Is to-day acted
a story of secret murder, of love and
jealousy, of plot and counter plot,
such as Z)la or Gaborlau would relish.
On the Hps of every man and wo
man In tue city to-day rises the one
question?what hidden hand poisoned
the children of Mrs. Emma Perkins?
And this question, agitating the population
of the whole city, remains unanswered.
One by one tivo of the nine
ftVlilHron i\t Mru -1""" 1 1
4uivu wi i ciiwiLin uxuupuu ttUU
uicd like llowers stricken by an iqy
wind. But It in' as to the deaths of
the last two children?Willie, a twoyear-old
baby, the only child of his
mother's second marriage, and Octavia
Biakey, who, until the afternoon
of Tuesday, October 14, had been the
youngest of Mrs. Perkins's iivesurvlv
lng children by her tirst marriage to
William Biakey?that the whole city
asks the questions which has dilven
every mother in Richmond, from tne
woman of society in her mansion to
the woman of the cottage, into a frenzy
of fear.
For woman, as she thinks of the
hapless innocents dying in the agonies
of phosphorous poisoning, instinctively
gathers her children around her as
If to protect them from the veiled assassin
whose hand even now may strike
at their lives.
From the moment of that Tuesday
afternoon, now nearly three weeks
1- ?? 1 *
aguic, uuftu uuwivia, bue pretty, goiaen
haired little girl wbum every one
around her home in North Sixth
street, Richmond, knew and loved,
staggered into the house to fall into
her mother's arms and die there, has
the whole detective force of the city
and the State been concentrated on
the work of solving the problem and
reaching the| author of a scheme of
murder which in nicety of detail, cold
calculation of chances and exactitude
of results is worthy of the best efforts
cf the Rorgias. Tne death or Octavia
it was mat opened the path to discovery
in the case of her little step-brother,
While, two years old, who on the
night of September 21 bad died in
tc^responding agonies, and with the
same hide,us s-ymptoms. And now
oo the friends of Mrs. Perkins, in the
clays wLeu she was Mrs Blakey, recall
the weird ohcanibtances surrounding
the death of each of three of the eignt
children of her iirst marriage. In these
deatns were urcsont the charRcteristle
smoke from the mouth, the odor of
garlic, the viea^iiiy falntuess, followed
by complete c; in.*, fuuud In the case
of Octavoa cki u the baby, Willie.
as though m hideous gibe at the
police, at the parents, at all those who
would drag the assassin to the light,
the fell hand again strlckes the Per*
kins home. And two of the four children
left to the mother by the destroyer
lie at the point of death, for again
in the same way, the poison has been
placed in their food.
Yet at the end of three weeks, with
the accusations of the mother on her
cath at the inquest that Mrs. Mamie
McDowell, the pretty, dark-haired,
smllllng little woman, with a soft voice
and subdued manner, who, under the
name of Mrs. Bryant, lived only a few
doors away from the Perkins home,
had brought about the death of her
children and tried to alienate her husband's
alfectlons, ringing through the
/city, the police and the Coroner alike
are hroughr to the end of their resources
in the following facts:
1?That both children clearly died
of phobpnorous poisoning, the stomach
of the boy, according to Dr. Taylor,
the Coroner, who made the post-mortern
examination, giving forth in darkness,
a lurid "llame"?the unmlstakcablo
evidence of phosphorus poisonInn
ill*.
2.?That from the days of her first
marriage Mrs. Perkins had been the
object of bitter enmity on the part of
a woman once her closest friend.
3?That the symptoms displayed oy
three of the eight children of her first
marriage before their deaths corres
ponded witli those shown by the
children whose deaths are now under
investigation. The earlier deaths
were, however, oilloially stated to be
due to natural causes.
4.?That In May last Mr. and Mrs.
Perkins were jointly the recipients of
a series of letters throating death,
two being signed a friend of Mrs. Perkins,
wno, however, has denied ail
knowledge of these letters and baa
submitted specimens of her bandwrltting
for comparison with the handwrltting
In the anonymous communications,
Mrs. Mitchell has been fully
exonerated.
5?That, the poison was administered
by a woman.
6?ths^both children had been nur
sed by Mrs! Mamie McDowell Immediately
before their death.
Behind the curtain that shields the
murderess lies the story of a deep, unfathomable
well of passion running
through the dull lives of theae simple,
common place country people, whose
only hope In this world is to earr
bread, and work until they die; a story
of be tiled love turned to bate; of woman
transformed to a furry by the indifference
of the man Bhe sought, and
striking at the heart of the mother,
when she hated, through her innocent
children.
"Woman'B worst and coldest crimes
are oommitted for the sake of lovethose
of men for money," says Lornbroso.
And eloquent on its testimony of
the w rkin>< of a woman's heat under
the stress of passion is the tirst of the
line of letters dropping one by one into
the home. The tirst leter bore a border
of black, and is among those n )t
yet given out for publication.
"The border of black is for my tirst
love," said the writer, "You rcbb-d
me of the man.
1 wanted?he who is now in his
grave. And now I am determined to
strike at you. It is my purpose tirst
to break your heart by mrklng you
childless, and then to free > >ur husband.
That it is my purpose to do this
you mav know."
The mother hmllei and put the letter
aside. A week went by and there
came another letter.
"You have taken no heed of my
warnlug," sakl the writer. "1 tell you
I'll strike turough those you love
most."
And with each morning there lay on
the breakfast table, In sinister signilicance,
the letter with the handwriting
that they knew so well.
Heavier and heavier grew the hearts
of the parents with each of those let
ters.
But at last there came a morning
when the familiar step of the postman
passed by their door. A second and a
third morning came and went, with
still no letter.
And they cried for joy at the thought
that the shadow of death had been
lifted from them. The mere inoident
of the house dog dying In convulsions
was not Buthclent to attract attention.
Never was the thought of the unknown
avenger less present to their
minds than on that September afternoon
when the baby Willie toddled
out to the doorway and then a few
yards along the road.
Only half an hour had passed when
there appeared In the doorway a man
bearing the motionless tigure of the
child In his arms.
He had been found lying In the
roadway near his father's cottage.
No one at that time took any particular
notice of the odor of garllo on
the breath of the child.
All that the doctors could say was
that the svmntoms lndio.iLt.pH fch? nrM.
ence of some foreign substance In the
body. Within twelve hours the boy
was dead.
The heart of the mother was full of
a foreboding of that which was yet to
come.
With the ooming of Monday morning
there again lay the familiar envelope
on the table.
"There is reason in this warning,"
wrote the sender of the letter. "There
will be more reason before I am dune
with you."
And now the letters came with every
post, slander was now alternated with
commonplace verbiage, and these letters,
really telling little of the hideou
truth, are the only communications
made publio by the police at the
inquest.
Then once more came a cessation of
the letters, and the parents, tremb ling,
waited.
All through these weeks had Mrs.
Perkins, quietly watching, bent her
eyes on tne one woman who of all
others, by reason of old memories of
which she even now will not speak,
she believed hated her.
' There is a woman who is killing
my children and who may take my
husband, as she would have taken the
other." she said.
The world now knows the story of
| the October afternoon on which the
child Octavla was to meet her death
| by the hand of the prisoner.
She had risen from her mother's
side, and ran lightly to the house of
Mrs McDowell, and the next that was
seen of her was when she reappeared
In the doorway of the Perkins cottage,
and with a sigh and a moan fainted In
her mother's arms.
Again was t.he characteristic odor
of garlic; again the shivering convuls
ions and the sharp gasps and cries of
agony, ere eight hours later death released
the suit irer.
Suspicion had la the mind of Mrs.
Perkins Decerns cartainty. From that
moment the word "murder" took the
place of all others in the vocabulary
of tne lilchniond people. Mrs. Perkins
hpoke at last and cried out for vengenanco
on the woman who, she declares,
killed her children, and would have
robbed her of her husband.?New York
j American.
rmnncu.
At Valdosta, Ga., Clyde Jordan
and Peter Powell, well known white
men frorr near Polhara, were tried before
United States Commissioner. Powtllona
charge of white-capping a
wituess who was to appear In the fedral
court against distillers in that section.
The victim was a man named
W. P. Crosby, who claims that these
tv/o men and three others met him
on the roadside last Saturday, all of
them masked and gave him a flogging
and told him they would put an end
to him if he did not leave tne country
at once. lie says they oh&rged him
with furnishing evidence in "moonshine"
canes The bonds of Jordan
and Powell were tixed at t&00 each.
Deputy United States Marsnal God
win will try to oring the others to faot.
the court.
Some folks buy books to put money
in their heads; others buy olothes and
put money on their backs.
CRIES FRAUD.
The Courts Will Decide Between
Hearst and McClellan.
IN NEW YORK CITY.
McClellan ected on the Face of the
Returns, but Hearst Says He Was
Counted Out and Appeals to
the Counts for a Recount
of Votes
The election in the city of New
on Tuesday of last week was one of
the most exciting ever held in that
city. The candidates for mayor were
Geo. B. MoUlellan, Democrat, W. It.
Hearst, Muaiolpal OwnershipQLeague
and W. M. ivius, Republican. As
AAlinf.n/1 F RA IIAA-A ??* #--11
wuuuvu uiio vutD 31UJU A3 lUllUV^SI
MoClellaa 228 051
Hearst 225,106
Ivlns 137,049
This gives McOlellan 3,485 plurali
ty over Hearst and 111,002 over Ivlns,
but whether McClellan or Hearst will
be the next mayor of Greater New
York the courts must decide. Hearst
declared immediately after the vote
( was declared that he would take an
appeal to the supreme court, his managers
having stated that they had secured
evidence of illegal acts against
one thousand inspectors of election,
aud that thirty thousand Hearst men
who went to the polls to vote for
Hearst had found that their names
had already been voted.
Hearst's proposed action met with
warm approval In many quarters, even
among those who opposed his election,
and he received many assurances of
support. District Attorney Jerome
expressed himself in terms of strong
approval of Hearst's programme and
declared that he would immediately
institute a searching Investigation of
the alleged democratic frauds. He also
ordered the returns from the eighteen
th and sixth districts to be carefully
guarded. Ivlns, the defeated Rcpub
flcan candidate, assured Hearst of his
support* In his tight.
On Wednesday afternoon the executive
com mi tie of Tammony Hall Is
sued the following statement: "The
executive committee of the democratic
organization protests against the
outrageous published threat of the defeated
candidate of the Municipal
Ownership League to overthrow the
will of the people as expressed by the
vote oast on election day and directs
its law committee to exert its best
efforts and take such steps and insti
tute such proceedings as will safe
guard the election of George B. Mc
Ciellan as mayor of New York. We
also call on the commissioner of police
and the custodian of the ballot to
preserve the same intact from all interference
by any one from any unauthorized
source."
On Wednesday Hearst gave out the
following statement: "We have this
election. All Tammany's frauds, all
Tammany's corruption, all Tammany's
intimidation and violance, all Tammany's
false registration, illegal voting
and dishonest counting have not
been able to overcome a great popular
majority. The recount will show that
we have won the eleotlon by many
thousand of votes. I shall tight this
battle to the end in behalf of the people
who have cast their votes for me
and who shall not be disfranchised by
any effort of criminal bosses.
"William Randolph IIjcaust."
Although McCieilau on the face of
the complete, returns was elected by
a plurality of 3,485, tho democrat.*
lost heavily. The election of William
T. Jerome, independent, as district
attorney, is a severe blow to the Tammany
organization, which exerted all
the force at its command to defeat
him. FTifl vlftt.orv 1u romarlrohlo ?hon I
? J ?u a vuiMt nuuiu nugu
ills considered that he was the candidate
of no party and made his appeal
for votes solely on his record in cilice
for the last four your years and tnat
every man who voted for him voted a
split ticket.
In his demand for a recount Hearst
Is supported by District Attorney Wililam
T. Jerome, himself victorious in
his singlebanded tight against the
trreat Tammany machine. He says:
"I shall immediately Institute an in
vestigation of the frauds perpetrated
by Tammany at the polls Wednesday.
If the facts warrant I shall begin an
immediate prosecution against those
guilty of crime."
Bird S. Coler, elected president of
the borough of Brooklyn on the Municipal
Ownership League ticket, also
supports Hearst's contention that he
was rightfully elconed (Y?lr?r walri
"Mr. Hearst has been elected by 10,000
votes. He has been cheated by
the tremendous frauds of Tammany
Hall. Tnere Is no doubt whatever of
bis election. 1 shall work night an
day to see that justloe is done. Ti ?
people of New York have elected him
mayor, and It has only been by the
most outrageous, brazen and rotten
fraud that Tammany is trying to keep
thfkt office away from him."
Election day came to a close with a
dramatlo scene at the Hoffman house,
where Heart gathered his friends and
advisors around him to begin the preparation
of his legal contest of the returns,
whloh Indicated the suocess of
lis democratic opponent, George B.
McOlellan. As tho late vote came In
nowlng MoOlellan only a few thousand
ahead, and as It was notloed that
I
2I X fj
figures fro 'll1mfV< ie dls
trlota were t*d Nearly two said
he believed he fted out
of a hard fought aW'?u >fclv won
victory, and announced hit* intention
to make a contest In the courts.
He sent out a call at once for the '
members of the law committee of the
municipal ownership league, and soon
they began to arrive, many of them in
evening clothes, they having been
found social gatherings of the theaters.
At the hotel waiting for the lawyers ,
were scores of Hearst voters with
stories of violence and outrage at pollplaces
where they had gone to oast
their ballots. Men were coming into
the hotel constantly with bruiseo and
bloody faces. One man had his arm
broken and another's tit an was out k
badly that Mr. Hearst lied him iu'
bed In the hotel. Peports were br< ught
In telling of one man having his eye
gouged out aud of a Hearst, man who?c
linger had been chewed o(T In a poll
leg place.
The board of aldermen, is lost to
Tammany, they getting twenty tlvc
members against thirty right rei.u >
llcan and nine municipal ow nr hip
members. Rird S. Color, municipal
ownership, and Joseph 13. Orme), re
public in and municipal ownership,
reelected, resp< ctively, president of
the HrooklyD and the Q leens b >rou
ghs, have membership on toe city's
board of estimate and af p rtloniLont,
which controls all i xponcilture of mon
ey.
This is of great importance, giving
the municipal ownetship league a voice
in the city's flaanolal atTalrs and also
in t Ra ,* ?.n ? ? V ? -- m ? *
.u vim kiauuuk ui irauoni er, wnico
power also is lodged in cue board. In 1
addition to losing the board of aldermen,
Tammany lost twelve members
of the slate assembly from New York
county, and the assembly, wh'eu It
meets In Albany on .J inuary 1, next,
will be republican by more then 3 to
1.
Tammany claim their candidates
for comptroller, president of the board
of alderman, president of Manhattan
borough, president of Bronx borough,
sheriff, clerk and register of New York
county, and all the coroners in Man
h&ttan and the Bronx. The following
supreme court justices were eleoted in
New York county: Henry W. Cilder
sleeve, democrat; George L. Ingram,
demoor&t and repub lean, and C larles
E. Newberger, dem< crat and republi
can, in Brooklyn; J seph A Burr, re
publican and Municipal Ownership
L ague, was elected supreme court
justloe.
In Kings county the Municipal
Ownership League eh cted its candi
dates for shetiif, county olerk, regis
t.?r irl Anrnnai X>n l-"
wv. vvyiVUUft. UJf lUTIUU, It'pllUll r
cans elected the district attorney of *
Queens county. Mayor M Clellan's 1
plurality of 3,485 is the smallest by '
which any mayor of New York has I
ever beeu elected, I
The new city government, exclusive <
of the board of alderman will be con
stltuted as follows:
Mayor?George B. McClellan, Dem '
ocrat.
Oomptroller?Herman A. Mel/.,
Democrat.
President of the board of alderman
?Patrick F. McGowau, Democrat.
Borough president?Manhattan, 1
John F. Ahearu, Democrat.
Broux?L ?uis F. Ilairen, Democrat
Brooklyn?Bird S. Coler, Munlcip \
al Ownership.
Queens?Joseph M Burns, Munici :
pal Ownership and Demrtorat.
Richmond?George M. Oromwell, 1
Republican.
BIO COTTON FIRE. 1
???? (
Several Hundred Hales Burned at
St. Matthews.
A dispatch from St. Matthews to
the Slate says about three o'clock
Thursday morning the cotton platform
at the Southern depot was dis
covered on tire. Tnis platform is a
spacious one, containing more than
2.000 square feet, and was covered by
cotton belonging to various cotton
buyers of St. Matthews.
Mr. John D. Antley, the public
weiifher. was seen and bo
_ ^ t - MUV* * ?\J V^JUllUU uun
the number of bales on the platform
to have been 650 of which 186 were
saved by the heroic efforts of those
who reached the fire first, leaving a
oaiance ot 375 Dales, wnioh were totally
destroyed by fire. The burned
cotton is fully covered by insurance
The depot which is Comparatively
new, was saved by the strenons efforts
of the agent, Mr. J. IT. 1 trek haw,
who gave $50 of his own money to bystanders
to work while exposed to the
fearful heat of the burning cotton
Young Jack Bnckham and Emmott
Smoke, assistants to the agent, stood
manfully by the Interest of the railway
company.
Conspiclous among the many worked
valiantly to save the depot from destruction
was old ''Mmim" Ann Kobison,
who called to several of her color
who stood aurl on indifferently to
come while she led on the and dragged
heavy pieces of timber from the plat
form. Such acts of heroism should
never go unrewarded. Mr. Beckman
stated to your correspondent Thursday
morning that the loss to the ra'l
load company was insignificant.
This is largely due to the indofatiga
ble efforts of Mr. Beckham.
_________________ I
Bai ne(l to Death.
At Elizabeth, N. J., Thomas Gallagher
was burled under live coals and ,
ourncd to death- He crawled into an
ash pit under the railroad tracks of ,
the Pv,rt Ewuding y^iu ?tuU rte.liu osj 1 |
Bleep there. An engine baoked down ,
to this 4 pit early Wednesday and <
stop pi ng*dl recti y over ir.he spot where ,
Gallaghetr lay asleep, dumped burning j
coals and ted hot ashes upon him in ,
such quantities that the sleeping man :
was completely covered.
f
A MANJATER.
A Man's Head and Two Sailors
Hats Found in
A SHABK'S STOMACH.
How the Horrible Evidence Shocked the
Crew and Passengers of an Ocean
Liner When the Shark that
Followed the Ship Was
Captured.
Do sharks thirst for human blood
lud thus deserve the name of "man
waters," All who know the sea, irom
}0( lea or from experience, are famllar
vith this Indictment against the
n"8t savage and rapacious of the
icean's creatures?that when he has
ii cj tasted human IIohIi nn ot.hor
food satl: ties him, and that he will
fo low ship- day after day, growing
ina" In the coase, with his little gray
ayes glued on the moving figures on
t?hrlr decks.
Lately there has been the most
{tiastly demonstration of the truth of
his charge that can be conceived.
Phe man eating siark which gave
i/tits horriole testimony against himlelf
suffered capital punishment for
run crimes, while giving the crew and
passengers of the P. and O. liner
Syria such a shock that they went
lb ut pale and trembling for hours
if tor ward.
This man eater had followed the
Svra hundred of miles In the Indian
Joean, Into the Red Sea and to Suez,
where he was recognized as an old
ffei der. When a shark is see ' following
& ship tirelessly day after day,
t?hls, as all sailors know, means that
l i has acquired a taste for human
1 sh, which Is to enslave him throug)ut
the remainder of his career?he
s a "man eater." All other food
palls on his palate.
While the ship was anchored at
3u? z the man-eater prowled about
ter constantly, his sharp fin cutting
ihe 'surface of the harbor and his
lead lifted now and then for a sight
A the prey he so coveted. i
Seafaring men about the docks ,
were sure they recognized him as the
lame shark that had followed many
mother vessel from the Indian Oaean
ihrough the Red Sea. They oharged 1
1 n t n hlnn mnro th?n Ana -
? r .w uiiuii uuo nauiu ou*p "
ped from rudder chains, or, having
fallen overboard, seized before a boat
X)uld reach him.
Memb? ss of the crew of the Syria 1
ihared this belief. The passengers
neard the stories and shuddered a?
they watched the man eater circling
hungrily about the ship. They re
membered how he had not let the
?hlp out of his sight for many days
N >w they were eager for his capture
md just punishment.
S) the otllcers gave the crew permission
to bait a hook for the monster.
They were not enthusiastic
about the result, for man-eating
sharks are nearly always scornful of
other than the living food they most
Brave. But the passengers were eag
er for the attempt.
So a group of sailors prepared a
strong line armed with a hook nearly
a foot t cross from barbed point to
shank, baited it temptingly with a
whole leg of fresh pork and heaved
the morse! cut in front of the maneaters
nose as lie rose to again Inspect
the prey he coveted.
Possible the sav3ge monster imag
lued that one of the sailors handling
the line had fallen overboard and
made that splash. At any rate he
turned in a flash, showing his yellowwhite
belly, and with a snap that
could be heard on deck, c osed his
jaws on the baited hook.
With a prompt heave on the lino,
the sailors pulled the sharp point of
the nook through the creature's under
jaw?and then rare sport began. The
surprised and angered man eater lash
ed himself about frantically, but with
a bight of the line about a stout
Vlt.Q nnhlnn 1-* a Arinf/?*n J
u vmuv 11 * \ /u uio ^apuuio uauicu (IWtty
until the crcature'8 nose bumped
against the ship's Hide and then raised
its head enough to euaoie a boat's
crew to slip the noose of a cable over
its head and tighten it just back of
the front Una.
By this .meaDS, while the passengers
crowded up to tue rail, the man-eater
with ail the light choked out of him,
was raised up to tho level of the main
deck in this position he was photographed
from tho deck of a neighboring
ship. At
its greatest girth the man-eater
had the circumference ef a large
horse. Its stomach seemed much
distended -a fact that had not been
noticed wnile it swam about the ship.
Tiie sailors whispered among themselves,
shaking their heads ominously;
but tbe passengers thought of nothing
but the pleasure of witnessing the
cc^an assassin's excoutlon, They did
not know of the sailors's suspicions
that tho man-eater had not gone hungry
during all the days that he had
been following the Syria, that no food
taken merely to stay the pangs of
hunger would have so distended Its
itomach.
But sailors are not squeamish, even
when harboring such grewsome suspicions
as these. First they killed
the monster by smashing his skull.
Then they lowered the carcasi to the
clock, fehile the passeugers huddled
baok In fright, and oneof them, with
% long, sharp knife, ripped the white
belly open (or a distance of six or sav
en feet. Hardly bad tiie knife done
lta work when one of tne ahlp'a officers
standing near Hung himself In
front of the women passengers, who
fortunately, were In a group by themselves.
and fairly drove them from
the deck into the oabln. They were
not allowed to return to the deck till
the last trace of the man eater had
been removed.
No more horrible sight oould have
been possible. From out of the long
slli In the shark's belly stared a human
countenance. To identify in the
man-eater's stomach a man's head,
with the features still discernible,
needed no second glance. Few of
the passengers could bring themselves
to take a second glance. Most of
them turned away, to go to their
staterooms?anywhere, away from
the awful spectacle out on the main
deck, from whleh the women could
congratulate themselves that they
had been barred.
The sailors, however, made a
thorough inspection of the dead maneater's
stomach. Besides the man's
head they found three hats, two of
which could be identified as having
been blown from the heads of passengers
on the Syria; two fouls, with
their feathers still intact; a mass of
broken bones and remnants of a sailor's
wearing apparel.
Only a minute was required In
which to mako this Inventory. None
of these grewsome relics were removed
from the maw that had engulfed
them. Kven the sailors who made
the capture and administered capital
punishment upon the criminal were
so alTected by what they saw that,
with a oommon impulse, they seized
the carcus and heaved it overboard,
weighted with the duke of an old anohor
so that it would speedily sink
out of sight.
During the remainder of the voyage
the capture of the man-eater with
the evidence of his guilt upon him
wm the one topic of conversation
among the passengers. Upon landing
a montn ago it was the tlrst news
they had to relate; and the photographs
they brought with them gave
ample corroboration of the truth of
the narrative.
KILLED BY BLOW.
MidHfilunimn Brunch la l?lllo(l In.
Flitht With Another Midshipman.
A dispatch from Annapolis, Md.(
Bays midshipman James U. Branch,
son of James It. Branch, of the Hanover
bank, of New York city and secretary
of the American Bankers' association,
who was seriously Injured
In a tint tight with another midshipman,
died Wednesday. The midshipman
was operated on at the Johns
Hopkins hospital, his skull being opened
and a clot of blood removed, and
there was hope of his recovery, but he
suddenly grew worse and expired.
Midshipman Branch died from injuries
ne had received In a tight with
Midshipman Minor Merrlwether, Jr.,
of Lafayette, 111. The tight took place
by arrangement on Sunday night and
was a regular pitched battle with a
ring and seonds. It lasted 23 rounds
and ended when Branch was knocked
down and struck the right side of his
head against the floor.
It was not considered that the ln<..
_ i ^ -i
jutten vreitJ vtiry Uiingerous, DUti next
morning Branch's condition wan such
that it became necessary to let bis
condition become known to the authorities.
Young Brand was taken
to the hospital and an operation was
determined upon.
It was performed by Surgeons Finney,
of Baltimore, and Kerr, of Washington,
assisted by the academy medical
statT. It was thought to be successful
but a turn for the worse took
place and the patient died, not having
regained consciousness B3th bis fath
er aud mother were with him at Ills
death.
Meriwether is also in the hospital as
a result of the injuries he reoeived in
the tight and for this reason the authorities
have not put him under arreftt.
The question of his accountability
to the olvil authorities on the
charge of manslughter lias also been
discussed. lie is suffering with a
sprained wrist and a bruised face.
Branch was a second class man and
Meriwether a third, but the latter is
slightly older, being 19 years of age,
last January while Branch was not 19
until August. Both have some reputation
as athletes. Branch as a wrestler
and Meriwether as a fiXJthall player.
It is understood that the tight
took place because Brand had in his
line of duty reprimanded Meriwether
for a breach of discipline.
(J row Too Kititf.
A victim of his rapid growth Johnnv
Whitley, of Antrim N. II. died
Thursday. From a child Whitley
was tall and raMier sickly, but it was
not until he ^as sixteen years old
that it became apparent, that he was
iroinff to be an/ unusually tall man.
About a year on his twentieth
birthday, he had attained the height
of six feet and was still rowing. In
spite of the efforts of physicians he
contracted consumption, which caused
his death. During the last year
Whltleys growth continued at such a
rate that at the time of his death he
was seven feet tall. In the last year
oi ma nio ne averaged nearly an inch
a month.
To Alii Holenoo.
Gen. Isaac J. Wistar, founder and
v\f\*Yor> f.f tv-ft v<p<ar Ingtitniip of
Anatomy and Biology at the Untversl5
ty of Pennsylvania, who receutly died
not only leaves the greater part Of
bis estate of 92 000,000 to that institution,
hut also bequeaths to it his
right arm and his brain to aid the
cause of anatomical research.