The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-08-12
ATTEMPTED MURDER and Suicide
A Young Man Tries TO Kill His Employer and
Then 10 Kill Himself
HOW THE DOUBLE DEED WAS DONE,
Ball in the Employers Head and Another in
the Would-Be Murderer's side-A Tragic
Scene in a. Cigar Manutactory-AFa Fam
lily Secret-The Wounded Men as
They Lie in Hogpital-The
Coroner at the Bedsides.


They Lie in Hospital-The
Coroner at the Bedsides.
Yesterday morning. about a quarter TO eight
O'Clock, Ephralm Steinhardt twenty-one years OF
age, residing at 800 West Twenty second street,
shot Samuel SchOnlank, a man about 1orty-fOur
years OF age, who resides at 362 East Fifty-siXth
street. wounding him badly in the head, and then
shot himself in the left breast, INJECTING wound
that will probably prove iatai. the attempted
murder and suicide occurring on the third floor OF
So vesey street, occupied by George and Benjamin
Steinbardt brothers, and Samuel Sch0nlank, the
victim OF Ephram, rs cigar mandatory.
THE wOULD-BE MURDERER,
Ephraim Steinhardt was not member of the f1rm
but was employed as one of the hands, his brothers
being partners with SchOnlank. Ephraim had been
only about two months at work here, he hay
ing been previously engaged in business In the
South. When he became an employe OF the firm he
knew nothing about cigar making, and Mr.. SchOn-
ank undertook to teach him. Ills proficiency at
the trade was rapid, and on last Friday this was
acknowledged by Mr.. schonlank telling his part
ners that Ephraim was now entitled to full wages,
the same as the other employees were getting. On
Friday last also some little quarrel occurred be-
tween Ephram and SchOnlank about some peculiar
between the two had not much of angry slgni1-
cance and it was alter this conversation that Schon
lank recommended his partners to advance the
wages. Since Friday afternoon Ephraim had not
turned up at work until yesterday morning, when
1t was noticed that he appeared in the workshop
nearly an hour earlier than had been his custom.
The firm employ number OF hands and some
thirty or forty workmen were in the shop yester-
day morning before eight O'Clock, with two Of the
work girls Catherine Sweeny and Mary Ann Arm
strong. Mr.. Schonlank had also been settling into
work and was arranging some pieces to give out
to the workmen, and the two other partners had
just come TO the Office, which is on one OF the
floors underneath.
PREPARATORY TO THE CRIME.
When Ephraim entered, it was noticed by the
girls that something appeared to be wrong with
him, and one of them made the remark that he
looked as If he had been drinking the night before.
He sat down and soon stood up again, then walked
around the rOom and for some minutes re-
peated this sitting down and standing up again,
until his singular behavior attracted the continued
attention OF the girls. While walking up and down
the room he w0uld put his hand to his head, as If
he were in some trouble of mind, and in general
way conducted himself as If there was something
of serious moment disturbing him. All this
the girls and some OF the wOrkmen noticed, but OF
course none OF them ever anticipated such dire
result to this mental agitation that which
speedily followed. One OF the girls thinks she once
overheard him say, while walking about the room,
that he "would have satisfaction" but with whom,
or when. or how he did not say. so far as the girl
heard. Nor did he show towards Mr.. Schonank
any particular attention du ing these wandering
movements, nor had he done so on entering
the room at FIRST for he saluted Schou-
lamb in tho md fha caIn
ton was returned. Once he went over
to the lcecooer, for what purpose nobody knows,
as such proceeding was altogether unusual with
him, and this also atrac especially as
very soon afterwards he was seen to swallow some.
thing from bottle which he had taken from his
pocket This dose having been disposed of he then
drew from his pocket pistol which the girls who
were looking at him thought was hammer,
and, stepping over to Mr. Schonank, near
the front windows and the stairs,
little behind him, on the left side,
he discharged the pistol at his head,
the ball entering close behind the lett car.
He then Immediately turned round, facing the
girls and moving toward them, and Henry Jackson,
who was in the room at the time, fearing
that he was about to harm the women, was in
in the act Of rushing toward him when the young
man snapped the trigger again, with the pistol at
his own breast, and would have fallen at the in
slant On his back to the floor only that Jackson
caught him in his arms
sCHONLANK AFTER HE WAS SHOT.
When Schonlank had found that he was shot,
which he learned, he says, not from the report of
the pistol, but from pricking sensation behind his
lett ear and from the streams Of blood that were
squirting from the wound down his neck and
shoulder, he at once ran down the stairs crying
out that ne was shot, and when he had got down
q FIGHT he heard the reDOrt of the Second
shot, which, In his stunned state made him
almost wild with alarm for thoughts crowded
upon his mind OF o thousand possibilities. man
who has wife and seven children is not likely to
remain cool with bullet in his head, and it is lit
along the street, his face now covered with blood
and his eyes dlstended with alarm and excitement,
attracted the attention Of all passersby; A less
make pedestrians on q sidewalk stand aside and
cape, with horror In their countenances, and to
Mr.. Schonlank accompanied by Onicer Propst,
who had just arrived on the scene, ran as fast as
he could up Broadway to the ONCE OF Dr. Swan, at
the kstor House, the people whom he met standing
aside to let him pass, but failing to find that gen.
tleman he crossed over to Hudnut's drug store,
s BY IN
and addressed the sufferer as father, but this ap
pears to be the only circumstance that brings this
young man into the case. chair having been
placed on truck, Schonlank was now helped up to
It and driven to the Park Hospital, where Or.
Fleurer and his assistants at once came TO Ills
relief
THE SECOND HALF OF THE TRAGEDY.
Meanwhile the scene In the WORKSHOP IN vesey
street was most startling to behold. When Steen-
hardt had shot himself and fell back into the arms
OF Jackson the widest CONSERVATION seized the
workpeople In the shop. The space OF time be-
tween the first and second shot was not half a
minute; but the first shot had scarcely fully con-
and when they saw Steenhardt apparently
corpse in the hands OF jackson and saw his
body being slowly lowered to the floor, the women
began screaming and Yelling, and the men, most Of
whom were Germans, Rrunted out some expires.
sions OF their terror and all started for the stairs
down which they went In headlong rush, the
women tumbling to the floor in the rush and the
men having their wits scared out Of them. The
crowd reached the street In safety and quickly dis
road In ot az oil faa