The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-12-03
UMMARYOFNEW
Eastern and Middle States.

Mrs. Matte Potts, who recently walked
from Philadelphia to New Orleans and return,
attempted to kill herself at Philadelphia by
placing her head upon the railroad track, but
was observed in time and her purpose trus-
trnted. Letters were tound upon her addressed
to several newspapers, stating that poverty
and failure to find employment led to the act.
The President has commuted the sentence
of Isaac jacobson from death by hanging to
imprisonment for eighteen years. The change
in the punishment was made on the recon-
mendation of Judges McKenna and Butler
and District Attorney Valentine, as they be-
lieved jacobson no more guilty than the other
sailors who, with jacobson, fatally assaulted
Brooks, mate of the Sea King, and when the
vessel arrived at Philadelphia were tried for
murder. jacobson was sentenced to be hung
and tho other members from six to ten years
Courtney and Hanlan, the oarsmen, with
their representatives, met in Rochester, and
alter o discussion which lasted several hours
articles OF agreement were signed to row a
race on the Potomac river at Washington, on
December 8, for q purse OF $4,000.
Charles Drews and Franklin Stichler were
hanged at Lebanon, Pa, for the murder OF
Joseph Raber ut Indiantown Gap on the 7th
OF December last. The mel hanged are two
OF the six tried and convicted of the murder
Of old Raber, upon whose lie they had taken
out heavy insurance policies. Zechman, one
OF the six, was acquitted on his second trial.
Wise, who confessed first, has never been
sentenced. Hummel and Brandt have their
cases before the supreme court, and Drews
and Stichler are the only one yet brought to
the scaffold. Religious services were con-
Quoted in their cell by seven %ciergymen OF the
United Brethren and German Reformed
churches. At ten minutes to eleven o'clock
the condemned men were led to the gallows,
which they assembled firmly. Drews, an old
man OF sixty years, appeared totally indifer.
ent to everything, but young Stchler clasped
his hands, upturned his pallid face to the rain
and moaned and muttered seemingly heartfelt
prayers. The religious services upon the
scaffold occupied almost twenty minutes.
there was a leading oil the Scriptures, then the
hymn, "There is a fountain filled with blood"
then there was O prayer in English, followed
and then the singing OF a German hymn, and
then another prayer in English, and then the
blessing. During all this Drews cast down
his eyes and seemed to take no interest in the
proceedings, but Stichler was ever praying
fervently. The men made no remarks except
to bid everybody s'Good-by." When the trap
was first sprung, through a mistake in not
removing the prop, it did not fall. The NUT
terings OF the men could be heard through
their white caps. At Ten minutes past eleven
however, the platform parted and the
moose did its work. Both men died only after
great struggling.
On the same day that Drews and Stichler
were hanged in Pennsylvania Myron A. Buell.
suffered q similar late at Cooperstown, NY,
for the murder of Catherine Richards, the
daughter Of a farmer in Plainfeld, Otsego
county, with whom Buell. lived. He assaulted
the girl, strangled her with q rope and left her
in the stable OF a tractious bull after turning
the animal loose, thus creating the impression
at first that the bull had allied her. The con-
demned man lett O confession Of his guilt in
the hands of his counsel. Buells father,
mother, sisters and friends left him about ten
O'Clock. The scene for the survivors WAS q
heartbreaking one. The condemned man
then spent the rest of his time in his cell in
prayer and receiving tho communion. The
death warrant was read III the jul, and the
final prayers were also made there. Buell.
appeared very calm. At Il quarter to eleven
the prisoner, clergyman and officers entered
the Jail yard and the condemned maj took his
place on the gallows. His arms were tied, his
feet strapped, the black cap was put on, the
sh"rif pulled the cord, and he was launched
nto eternity.
A terrible fire, resulting in the death OF five
persons, and serious injuries to two others,
took place in a New York tenement house q
few days ago The flames were discovered at
about three o'clock in the morning, when all
the unfortunate inmates Of the crowded tene-
ment were last asleep. Almost as soon US the
engines arrived John Buick, who lived on
the top floor, appeared ct the window, clad in
his night clothes, and screamed loudly Tor
help. He held up his child and called out that
the stairways were impossible to pass dow
because of smoke. Then, frantic With tear,
put down the child and sprang into the air
from the open window, out OF which the
smoke was then pouring. He fell to tho
street, forty feet below, and was taken up a
corpse. When the flames were fully under
control, less than forty minutes after the ar
rival of the engines, tho fremen entered and
removed the dead bodies they found there. On
the upper floor, in a little room in the front,
the body OF Mrs. Butzck was found. She Yves
crouched over the corpses OF her two children,
as though the last effort OF the expiring woman
had been dictated by maternal love. One
little boy, her son Frank, aged seven: had his
arm around her neck and his face pressed close
to her bosom, while her younger son, nged
three, had buried his lace in the folds OF his
mothers dress and died there. On the floor
below tho body OF Mary Gounder, u widow.
need seventy, was found. She Ind tried to
make her way through the smoke Of the STAIR
way, but had fallen helpless, and died almost
on threshold of an escape. Her daughter,
Mary Burbeschel, d widow, having dropped
her two children from q window into the arms
of a fireman, jumped on the ground herself,
breaking her leg. Patrick Lynch, a fireman,
was severely burned while trying to save life.
The fire is believed to have been OF incendiary
origin.
The building in New York occupied by the
Churchman, o religious newspaper, and other
business firms, was burned outa few days ago,
and damage donet the extent ofnbout $780,.
OOr. The i%anitor's wife was fatally injured
by leaping to the ground from the top story.
U. s. Heyman & Co., manufacturers OF
artificial flowers on Broadway, New York,
tailed with liabilities amounting % $l6O,O0O
A Buffalo dispatch says that the schooner
c.. G. Breedha toundered in Lake Erie. The
crew, consisting of the captain and seven
men, are supposed to have been lost, with the
execution OF Frank Davis, who was picked up
by the propeller Milwaukee, after being nearly
thirteen hours in the water.
The shore END of the new French ocean
cable has been successfully landed from the
steamer Faradny at North Eastman, on tho
Massachusetts coast. From North Eastman
the land lines Of the American Union Tele-
praph Company will afford shore transmission
TO NIL points in the United States and Canada.
The Ponyer- Quertier Cable Company ID COM
posed of French and American stockholders,
the former holding the balance OF power, and
has q paid lip capital OF about So, 1000, 900, soon
to be increased bv the additional amount OF
81, 600, OC0. The cable extends from Brcst,
France, to St. Pierre, Miquelon, and from st.
Pierre to North Eastman.
The fair given by the Seventh regiment o
New York, in aid OF the completion OF their
armory was opened in that structure by Presi-
dent Hayes. The exercises consisted OF On
address OF welcome by Mayor Cooper, follow
ed by an Grafton by George William Curtis,
after which the fair was formally declared
open by tho President.
A fieet of tugbosts, scows, dredges and
derricks was wrecked on Lake Ontario, of
Sackett's Harbor, N. y, during a storm, and
nineteen lives were reported lost.
The two sons OF Mira. II. =. Beard, aged
ten and twelve years, were burned to death in
their room at Andover, Mass.
Later reports of the disaster to a tow on
Lake Ontario, opposite Sackett's Harbor, n.
Y, state that twenty-five persons out of thir-
ty-one were saved.
Western and Southern States.
Governor Croswell, Of Michigan, has APP
pointed Fernando {. Beaman as United States
Senator to ill the %unexpired team OF the late
Senator Chandler. Mr.. Beaman is a native
of Vermont, and was in Congress from 1861