The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-06-17

Poison HorselT-Five Dead Bodies and
Some quaint, Pathetic Notes Tell the
sad and Terrible story.
The Oh ego papers ufi the nth give the fol.
lowing part cllars of the recent terrible trug,s
dy in that city:
The family lived on the second floor of n,
house on F nnel street. n 1ar Wentworth ave
nue. occupy ng two small rooms The front
one was tue kitchen AMI dining room and that
IN the rear the sleeping apartment. In the,
latter wern twl beds aud cradle. On the bed
i'm one corner was the body OF ag rl--thc eldest
child; IN tn, other, which was on the opp lsite
side of the room, were the remains OF the
mother and boy ared seven while in the era.
die, in tn" center of the room, were two girls
-onc three and half years aud the other
three IN, nths old. The children were ready to
bc pl cod in collins having been washed. and
had clean uudcrclothing put on them. Their
hands were crossed ON their breasts Tho
baby bad an artificial flower in one hand
while wreath lay beside the oldest girl
Pieces Of rod ribbon wcrs affixed to the gar
ments OF all
| how long the three young st children had
/ been dcadn one knows. When their futhcr,
Casper Sey bold, returned home the muth.rand
/ eldest daughter w re alive He is tourney.
man bt.rr, and works for James b. Campbell
/ His hou of duty are from three u. m. to four
a. M. and he usually LEI; home ut two in the
| afternoon and got back about five in the
| morn ny. When h. knocked On the door at
/ the customary hour Yesterday 1t was opened
/ by his wife, who hld on now ohemisc
trimmed with lace and blue ribbon. She throw
her arms around his neck and said: Look
what have done. am sorry for it. but j.
| too late now. forgive me. The children are
] all dead, and am going to die. teo' Scybod,
| completely horr. fled, staggered into the bod
room where he saw the corpscs of the three
! little ones-Toney. Annie Gnd Agnes. His
| wife again asked him to forgive her He said
| he would not; that, if there was God in
! Heaven. He wouldn't becalfse she was so
wicked as to poison the children. Scybold
| noticed that the Oldest datIgifter was still
alive, and as his wife lay down on the bed and
| began to groan, he ran out for a physician.
/ Seeing grOcCry-keepcr NAMED louis Martin,
/ VINO Was standing in front of his store on the
| opposite side of the street he shouted to him:
| 'For Gods sake, 90 to the house, she has
| poisoned the whole family" Martin buried
! over, and going 10 the bedroom found Mrs.
| Seybold conscious, but in great agony. She
! said she thought the poison would put her to
sleep, but it gave her the cramps, and she was
! suffering so that she asked him to get an AK
! and kill her She and the oldest girl and boy
| were in one bed, and Martin took the girl out
| and put her into the other bed. She was in
| great pain and couldn't speak In few mo-
ments Or. Moe arrived. A glance at the bodies
told him that strychnine had been admins
/ tered and an examination of the mother and
girl satisfied him that they could not live.
Presently Drs. Moore and Lackner came in,
and they, too, said death was inevitable. The
! girl expired first, and the mother breathed
until after eight O'Clock.
The confession OF Mrs. Seybold explained the
cause of DEATH but the motive which prompted
her to murder the children and commit suicide
! is not clearly understood. She had been sick
since the birth of her last child, and rs is not
! at all uncommon, her mind may have been af-
fected by her illness. Her husband is a steady
man, seldom drinking heavily, and their do
mosdc life was not marked by many quGrrels.
| They had had disputes, and, according to one
neighbor, he had slapped her face. Wednes-
day Mrs Seybold was washing, and dinner
wasn'tready when Seybold wanted it, This pro-
voked him, and he "jawed' her some, and she
threw II discluth at him. Neither spoke TO the
! other afterwards until yesterday morning. He
left home ut two o'clock Friday afternoon.
His wife started out an hour or so later and
went to a drug store to procure some strych-
| nine. Having gotten the drug she went home,
and, Judging from some notes written by the
/ oldest daughter must have taken this
child into her confidence. How she adj
millistered the poison can only be
conjectured She may have put it
J llllO lOOu OF WtlcT. Inc luItt youngest Cnlll-
rem, of course, soon died. The eldest, how
ever, spent some me in writing to her papa
and playmutcs and exhibited surprising rcsig-
nation Her name was Matilda and her age
! twelve. She attended the Moselcy School and
/ stood very high in her class. The longest note,
which is addressed to Mary Murphy, II little
playmate who lives on the first floor of No. 81
Fnn6ll street, was as follows
| " l will tell you the story of our trouble. My
! mother always sick. kn md
| thought of dying often, and thought, if she
was dead, how we would be treated, and so
| thought 1t best for all of US To die at once and
first, Anna second. 1oney third, after, and
then my mother. We do suffer much, and
now we are all out of trouble. No pain nor
| sorrow must we bear. Remember me to the
family. Good-by. Please tell Rosie Morris
take back that book I've brought home from
school. 1t is not mine. 1t is the history of the
| United States. Take IT Room to George Gu
pmni. II is ON the lower shelf of the closet"
Two other notes read as follows;
This is for Mary and Nell.t Murphy. my
dear playmates. lwsh you n better and far
happ er time than have b d. GOod-by."
larry MURPHY: Please tell Lizzie Murphy,
Minnie Orion and Lizzie Reynolds that have
forgotten their dispute and forgive them 1
"TuIiE sEYBoLD."
The following were for her father:
DEAR PAPA: Forgive us w viii have to
I part from you. NJ NINA said Il was the best
that could lie done. We are going inro a bet
ter lund, whore we will all live in peace to-
gether. Farewell. Thy daughter.
MATILDA"
+ DEAR PAPA: Buy Tonoy flower and An
ma one also from this money. lSome in box.
II is what have saved the knife in the box
is yours
"DEAR PAPA: Please let MS be buried decent
Y in Wunicrs buryiuggrOund, that we
shall all be- together That is all we wish of
you"
SeybOld didn't see these notes unit they We're
found by Lieutenant shay and II Tribune re-
porter while search ng for Pois II Three
Were in English ana three in German. When
q he ir1 read I a nd bo