The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-09
From New York World.
A NEW YORK TRAGEDY.
A Mystery hitherto Unnoticed by the Police
q. Authorities.

In the daily papers of a week ago there
appeared four-lne paragraph announcing
that the Coroner held an inquest on the
body of a woman who had died suddenly
while visiting her friends up town. The
name and residence and probable cause of
her death were given. 1t was one of those
paragraphs which, at this time of year es
pecially, are of too frequent occurrence to
excite much in the casual reader. They
mean sudden death, and they are usually,
as in this case, dismissed with ready ref
erence to heart disease. Seldom does the
investigating reporter venture to pass into
the domain of mystery barred and officially
sealed by the Coroner unelss that func-
tionary gives the signal. Sudden death is
the common incident of aggregated life.
1t will not do to spend much time over 1t
in community whose tendency is strongly
towards cardiac trouble. Occasionally,
however, some collateral paragraph or in
cident attracts ones attention, and then he
steps aside from the external illusion of
the life we lead, and finds himself sud
denly in the shadows and impenetrable
glooms which have been lying across his
pathway unsupported all the time.
Here was a prosaic and commonplace
statement. A woman-let us, for the pur-
poses of this article, which does not seek
to solve only to reproduce a mystery, call
her Mrs. Aides suddenly while away
from her home for the afternoon. 1t was
probably heart disease SAYS the official par
agraph. That is all the world knows. If
anybody thinks of it at all, it is to say,
''Poor woman, how sudden. / wonder if
she had family" to picture in a flash her
friends hurrying after her, the confusion
and distress and the final wellunderstood
ceremonial. Such, indeed, is the repor-
ter's vague understanding as he mounts
the steps of the house No. ---street
and carelessly pulls the bell 1t is gen.
teel house let out in three floors. On the
first lives Mr.. B., the lessee; on the
second lives Mr. A., the widower on
the third lives Mr.. c. all reputable,
Industrious people belonging to what we
are accustomed to call the middle class of
society. Thousands of such houses in the
city. Now, what is the story picked up
with much questioning and more listening
Simply this:
Mrs. A., the mother of six children,
herself forty years of age and her eldest
son nineteen, dressed herself IN walking
costume with extrao' binary care on Thurs
day afternoon, wea'i ing new bonnet and
silk dress and cons .derable jewelry, and an
the afternoon, left the house in what to all
its inmates appeared to be the best of health
and in certainly the best of spirits.
The afternoon wears away. Mr.. A,
master artizan, comes home. So does
the eldest boy. Their supper is mother
less, but they are not worried. So, too,
the evening wears away. One by one the
younger members of the family drop asleep,
waiting, and are at list put to bed later
than usual. Then Mr.. A, who is a
little nervous, goes out and walks up and
down in front of the house. lie is not so
much worried as annoyed. The indiscre-
ton Of it is what piques him. The injus-
tice of it is what emboldens him to frame
number of severe complaints as he walks
there, which somehow soothe him because
they have the flavor of reprmands. Eleven
o'clock; The lights up the street arc not
so bright. Some Of the shops are shutting
up. The night policeman comes along. 1t
is just possible that she intends to stay out
all night. The watcher tries to think of
somebody who is likely to be sick, and
will need her care. Twelve o'clock. Wo-
men are scarce now, and few are out un-
attended. 1t is a cruel thing to keep him
up, because he rises early and works hard.
Still he is not a bit sleepy. He looks up
at his windows. There is light in the
girls room, q dim, reassuring light that
belongs to the regular order of events.
That is on one side of him. On the other
is the black night closing in, with an I'M
usual chilliness in it, as if-as if it were
blowing some new possibilities upon him.
Pshaw! he will go in. 1t is ! O'Clock.
Mary is asleep in a chair. She yawns and
grumbles at the delay. Jane aad Edith
have been abed two hours. 1t is really
ha1 ~ I'LL -.
the man stops walking and listens for the
door-bell to ring. Suddenly there is a rat
tie of wheels. A vehicle has stopped at
the door. He gives a sigh of relief The
door-bell rings violently. Somebody is
with her. A man only could ring bell in
that manner. He hurries down. The
bolts are pulled. The door is thrown open.
A large man stands there. He speaks at
once, hurriedly and yet falteringly.
''Mr. A 49,, have bad news for YOU"
sSomethng has happened to my wife"
gasps the husband.
eyes. Mrs. Ais dead !"
"Dead!" repeats the other, beginning to
grope with his hands. dead! o, no."
and he steps back into the hall as if to get
away from the awful reality which he feels
has come to him there at the door. Then
there is a loud scream behind him which
startles the inmates of the house, and
white face stares at the man in the door.
Somebody runs down the steps in white
dress and looks in at the coach door. Then
they bring her in feet foremost and carry
her up the narrow stairs, amid much con-
fusion and dismay and incoherency, and
so, bonnetless, her black hair streaming
down over her palld face, her attire wad-
ded and rumpled, she is laid upon the car
pet with pillow under her head, and
there, the light pouring its CHASTITY lustre
down upon the frightened group, is the first
tableau OF horror in this tragedy.
Unlike the tableaux of art, this, however,
is eager, impatient and inconsiderate. 1t
palptates with human nature. While they
are pulling the poor dead woman about
with the license of affection, he that brought
her attempts to explain, with many breaks
and contradictions, and with some little Of
ficious help from the doctor, who has come
with him. 81 met her." save this man, in
reply to three or four simultaneous ques-
tons, "about G o'clock, on Broadway.
She complained of exhaustion. advised
her to eat something. We went to sa-
loon. She ate mutton chop an ice and
some other trne. We then strolled into
- Park, and sat down upon bench,
when she complained of her head and be-
ing ill., took her to the nearest house and
rang the bell. A woman answered it. |
said lady had been taken suddenly ill
had fainted-- and asked permission to fetch
her in. They said / could take her up
stairs, which did, and some of them sent
Tor doctor. We got her on bed; they
loosened her clothes and applied rcstora.
tives. This was about $50. When the
doctor came he said she was dead. 1t was
probably heart disease"
The narrator of this turns out to be ga
friend of the family" They all know him,
but they cross-question him rather sharply.
If Mrs. A. died at $50, where had she
been till 100 on Friday morning? If he
met her at G, where had she gone early in
the afternoon? Where was the house that