The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-07-03

MllllSlef Sought 10 lilu MS grave Ill CON-
pany with an eyewitness of his burial
who still survives. it was found impossi-
BILE to identify it. Not few who distinctly
remember Senior Oregon are now living
in Washington. The lady on whom he
fixed his affections was the daughter of 4
Massachusetts member of Congress, was
at an earlier date Secretary of the Navy
His daughters We're bellies at the national
capital, of whose successful reigns many
interesting stories are told.
These young ladies and their father
lived opposite to Oregon, who Gas his
next-door neighbor, who is still living
on the lot on which he was born seventy
two years ago, avers) used to sit at his
window watching the object of his affec-
tons as she came and went.
The same gentleman who gave the above
information and who is in such excellent
mental and physical health as still to at
tend daily to business as notary. speaks
of having seen Obregon's body immedi-
ately after the tragedy occurred. He
was found hanging by the neck by q rope
attached to hook in the ceiling. from
which a lamp had swung.
The house in which the tragedy occur
red was standing until 1876, when it
was torn down to make room for the
Corcoran Building. 1t was near the cor
her of Fifteenth and f streets. 1t had
of course. the reputation of being haunt
ed, and more than one reliable man who
lived there at different times insisted
that there was a genuine ghost, whose
shutting footsteps ascending the stairs
at night We're unmistakable. lie always
went up but never was heard descending.
The old chamber used by the House of
Representatives-now the Hall of Statu-
ary-has also romance, of which a sui
eide is the hero, connected with its adorn-
ments. Signor Nalaperti, a young Italian
was the sculptor of an American eagle,
which cut in stone from a study from ma
ture, appears in the frieze of an entabla-
ture in this hall. He, tradition asserts.
and no one seems to have ever contra
dicted it, loved his landlady's daughter
who preferred another sutton to himself.
The sculptor having received the order
for the eagle, rested his hopes of winning
the girl upon the briliancy of the sue
- I, Al, Al.
SEPARATION squirting him on. His rival.
however, was a cruel newspaper cores
pondent, who welded that piercing
weapon known as 'facile pen;'' and as
soon as the eagle was completed and
placed in position he turned his sharp
edged instrument upon both bird and az
fist, declaring the eagle resembled "a
buZZard affixed to Il barn door" Worse
than ALL the hard hearted young lady
laughed ut the wit of one lover at the ex-
pense of the other. This overwhelmed
him, and he disappeared mysteriously.
His body was found in the river, but no
further explanation than that implied
above has been given of his death.
\ suicide which occurred April !. 1884
created much excitement at the national
capital at the time. The victim was
James Blair, a Representative from South
Carolina, who served in the Seventeenth
Congress few months, and resigned in
May, 1922. He was reelected to the
Twenty first, Twenty-second and Twenty
third Congresses, serving from December
1929 to April, 1854. During the first
session of the Twenty-third Congress he
on one occasion became displeased with
the actors at Washington theatre, and
fired a loaded pistol at them. He was of
course, arrested, but was released on the
testimony of his physician, who said he
was under the influence of brandy and
opium. taken to relieve severe pain occa-
stoned by chronic rheumatism. lie was
fined five dollars. Three weeks later, on
April /, 1884, at Ills boarding house on
Capitol Hill, he blew his brains out. The
continuous pain and use OF powerful
remedies had without doubt made him
desperate.