Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-23
EDITORIAL DAY.

The knights of The Quill Figure in the
Criminal Record--A Hot Springs Editor
Shot and Killed--AnOther Arkansas Quill
Driver Knocked Down by Preacher
A DastardIy Wife Murder at ManitOwoc,
Wis.--Fatal ARRAYS.
AN EDITOR KILLED.
Hot SPRINGS, Ark, Sept. 22.-This
morning, Charley Matthews, editor of the
Hornet was shot four times and killed in
an ARRAY with Col. S. W. Fordyce, vice
president of the st. Louis & Texas narrow
gauge railroad, and Col. Rugg, one of the
proprietors of the Arlington hotel. 1t is
not known whether Fordyce or Rugg fired
the fatal shot. The trouble grew out of a
bitter newspaper controversy over local af-
Tuesday evening after a trip along the line
OF the railroad.
The following are the particulars of this
mornings tragedy. At IL 80 this forenoon
the trouble which had been brewing be-
tween Chas. Mathews, editor of the Hornet,
and the proprietor of the Arlington house,
eliminated in bloody tragedy, resulting
in the death outright of Mathews, and the
seriously wounding of D. c. Rugg. About
the hour mentioned Col. S. W. Fordyce and
Rugg were going up the street and met
Mathews at a news stand opposite the
Palace bath house. Fordyce accosted Ma
thews and asked why. in addition to pur-
suing him for years, he reflected on his
family during his absence, having refer
ence to an article in which Mathews spoke
of the Arlington gang having gone to the
Mammoth cave to hatch some scheme,
the persons going being Mrs.
Fordyce, Col. and Mrs. Rugg and families.
To this inquiry of Fordyce no reply was
made by Mathews. except by drawing a
pistol and shooting at him without effect.
Fordyce then struck Mathews several
times with stick. The latter retaliated
by firing his pistol. ball of which struck
Rugg, who was just behind Fordyce, taking
effect in the thigh and passing up in the
secretion. Rugg then drew his pistol and
commenced firing at Mathews, who re-
treated into the street, receiving a ball in
the left temple, one through the heart and
another in the left wrist. He fell dead in
the mud of the street, bleeding profusely
Great CONSERVATION and excitement pre-
vail in the entire city.
The killing Of Mathews was not unex-
pected Mathews for some time past has
waged a bitter fight through his paper on
the Arlington hotel, of which Riggs and
FOrdyce are part owners. His charges
were outspoken, and contained among
other things declaration that ex-senator
Dorsey was bribed by them to secure
lease of the government ground on which
the building stands through misrepresenta-
ton. He resorted to every expedient, and
daily harrassed them, going SO far as to
speak of the departure of one of them, and
their family to Kentucky as the going out
of the Arlington gang to hatch up new
scheme, reference being made to this
when the parties met as stated. Both Rugg
and Fordyce are under arrest. Also Frank
Flynn, a prominent character here, who
was present, and said by some persons to
have fired shot at Mathews during the
fight in return for one fired at him
by the deceased. Flynn's
friends, however, claim his innocence of
any participation in the affair. The his
tory of Mathews, deceased, was an eventful
one. He came from Texas here, and his
record while there was one of many des-
perate encounters with Texans, and his
body bears numerous scars. In one of
these escapades at Austin, he received
pistol shot wound through the mouth by
the noted Ben Thompson, deceased.
He came to Hot Springs in
1875 and engaged in running a
newspaper. Some time after, provoking
by his writings street encounter with ex-
mayor T. F. Lindee, in which he also re-
ceived serious wounds. On August 1, Mat
thews was also shot Intellectually by Col. D.
G. Rugg. Matthews leaves wife and child.
He married in Buffalo, N. Y, and was origin
ally from the north, but native of Eng-
land. Col. Rugg and Fordyce are also
from the north.
ANOTHER EDITORIAL ENCOUNTER.
LITTLE Rock. Sept. 22.-The Gazette
special says: There was great excitement
at Searey, Ark, this afternoon, caused by
a personal encounter, between Capt Nc
Cauley, editor of the Record, and Rev. J.
n. Dye, presiding elder of the district. An
article in to-day's Record angered Dyes land,
meeting McCauley, he Knocked him down,
and was pulled off by bystanders. The
trouble was due to prohibition, Dye being
laborer in the movement, and McCauley
bitterly opposed to it.
BRUTAL WIFE MURDER.
Special to the Globe.
MANITowoC, Wis, Sept. 22.-As brutal a
murder as ever occurred in the state of
Wisconsin, took place here last evening.
George Rathsack, Pole, living in the
Fourth ward, split his wife's head open
with an axe without the least provocation,
and then fed. The story of The crime, as
related to the GLOBE correspondent by a
brother of the murderer, is in substance as
follows: Rathsack, who is worthless,
drunken vagabond, was sitting in his home
with his mother, wife and three
little children between and o'clock
last evening engaged in whetting an axe.
When asked by his wife what he was sharp
ening it for, he replied that it was for her.
She became frightened and tried to rush
past him for the door, but before she
reached it he felled her with blow from
the axe, sinking the blade in the crown of
her head nearly to the eye. He then gave
her another blow after she was down, cut
| ting cash nearly as deep as the first, at
| right angles with it. Seeing that his work
was complete, he then rifed her