Morning journal and courier., 1884-06-27
The BurnhaIn Suicide.

| Ills Early Life in COnnecticut-inctde ats in His Career.
 MT. J. Warren Burnham, the New York l broker who committed suicide at Yonkers, | N. J., on Tuesday, was brought up in Hart 1 ford, Conn, and passed the days of his early
 manhood there. When 8 youth he worked | for Hunt Holbrook, shoe m snufecturers, and the first sewing machine in Hartford was operated by young Burnham in their estaE- lishment. He was exceedingly bright, and very soon invented and patented a sewing machine that had many advantages over the
 old one. Burnham lived with his stepfather,
 a MT. Pomerog, who was severely injured by
 being blown up in the old car factory.
 The Courant gives the following sketch of
 his life: Burnham went from Hartford to
 ern Union Telegraph company in 1856
 After serving in the capacity of operator he
 was promoted to the position of chief of
 the office in the Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1859.
 He retained the position until 1874, when he
 resigned to go into the brokerage business.
 During his career in the Fifth Avenue Hotel
 he was also engaged in business ss 8 dealer
 in railroad tickets, in which he is said to
 have amassed about $50, 900. He put this
 sum in as capital aad began business as a
 broker in a small and conservative way, be- ginning clerk for Hotchkiss, who had also been operator in the telegraph company. The firm was very energetic and was the first to establish the now common uptown agen-
 cies, having braA n office for long time in the Fifth Avepus A-otel, which was subse- quently removed to the Windsor when the L,ol la k1o1 1okk cEahIS Ahai-
 nightly headquarters. Everything prospered with the partners and they quickly established
 reputation for intelligence and plain deal
 ing second to none on the street. In 1881 they first appeared prominently before the public in the Metropolitan elevated railway
 suits, taking the same position subsequently adopted by MT. s. H. KneeIand in the case recently decided by Judge Van Brunt. Their office was the headquarters of Mir. Kneeland and others opposed to the domina- | tion of Mir. Gould, and the operations in the elevated stocks in consequence of the war
 fare waged by the contending parties, were carried on exclusively by the firm. The suc-
 cess they experienced drew to them very | large business, and ex-Governor Cornell, who | had long been speculator in the street, made them the active agents in 1881 of the
 celebrated blind pool in American District Telegraph company stocks which caused so
 much loss to the leading politicians
 and wire-pullers throughout the State. The firm prospered throughout, and in | the beginning of the present year was considered to be one of the
 most successful of the young es- 1 tablishnlents doing business in the street. doing business at the Cotton and MiningE = | changes, well at the Stock Exchange l During the telegraphers' strike last summer | MT. Burnham was outspoken in his advocacy | of the position taken by the Western Union
 company, and at the beginning of the | troubles went to ths main office of the com- pany and volunteered his services as an op- | orator during the troublous times. His offer l was accepted, and for two weeks he served | night and day, without compensation, as an | operator. Up to the panic of May last the
 firm enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity, and was deemed beyond the reach of or-
 dinary troubles. As the difficulties grow ing out of the panic extended, they finally ! reached the young firm, which, called upon 1 suddenly on May IA for the payment of 8 l loan of $500, ,O0O, was obliged to succumb | Since that time both Hotchkiss and Burnham | have made the most untiring efforts to re-
 sume without success. Both partners have been at the office daily, and on Monday MT.
 Burnhan was engaged all day in arranging matters looking to resumption. He was not altogether successful, and on his return to the office late in the afternoon it was mo- ticed that he was moody and seemed very much broken. Sitting at his desk, he took from a drawer the picture of his wife and
 child, and gazed at them long and fondly.
 On being interrupted, he hurriedly placed
 them in a drawer of his desk, and then
 went to his home at Yonkers. The
 news of his suicide aroused everywhere
 the deepest sympathy. Among the brokers
 on Wednesday the feeling was one of un- feigned regret. One of them said yesterday: "Poor Joel He was one of the best follows