Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-05-22

Theg Told Hkm He was Too lid - Work.
and he Never Thought ~ BeEainw-lits
Last Pennics spent Ter Peiaen ior Tso..
IFrnn ~ - 90 snn. ]

From the New York Sun.
Charles Leman. sturdy, white haired
German Of - years, supported his IL
year-old wife, Elizabeth, for two months
ct the cheap double tenement at Sl5
East 6eventy-fifth street By the wages
be earned as night watchman over . row
Ok new buildings. When the buildings
were completed last January he could
get no more work. They told him he
vas too old. The couple were allowed
to live in their small apartments Tor four
months without paying any rent, but on
May the landlord dispoasessed them.
They had no relatives 10 appeal to for
aid, and their battered furniture re-
manned in the street In front Of the
house for five days.
Mrs. Miller, the German housekeeper,
who had often pleaded for the old couple
with the landlord, and got him 20 con-
sent to let them remain so long with the
rent unpaid, gave them food from her
own table and kept them from starving.
There were two vacant front rooms on
the second Hoor, and on Wednesday she
told her husband that she could not
stand seeing the poor people living on
the street any longer, and would put
them in the vacant apartments and pay
the rent herself if new tenants offered to
take the rooms. On Wednesday she
asked another tenant to carry the furni-
ture in from the street and to RIG up
stove She gave him fifty cents for
the service, and told the old watchman
he could have the use of the stove as
long as he wanted it. The old watch
man kissed Mrs. MiIler's hand In graf
itude.
''Oh, You have done something for
me that didn't expect" he said with
deep emotion, s'and You shall not suffer.
| have just got another job, and will
pay you next Monday"
On Friday the old Waterman told his
wife that he was not so sure about the
job. He had found out that he was
likely to miss the job after all, because
he was so old. He was very Respondent
and his wife became so depressed that
she couldn't eat cheap steak she had
cooked. She gave the whole of il to q
woman who lived in the rear of the tene-
ment who had three children dependent
upon her. When the old Waterman had
been earning good wages, and even after
be lost his employment, she had been
IN the habit Of sharing whatever food
they got with this tenant, because the
latter was even poorer than she.
The old watchman came home grief
stricken on Friday night. He had been
told finally that he was too old to do the
work he bad counted upon. He had q
package of Paris green in his pocket.
He had bought it at a paint shop for
few pennies on the plea that he wanted
to kill some rats. He mixed enough in
q battered china cup to kill about half
dozen people. When his wife had re
tired he gave her some as she lay in bed
aud then draihed the cup himself. They
were seized with violent commissions, but
nobody went to their aid. The other
tenants thought the old mn had been
drinking heavily to drown his grief, and
attributed the noise in the rooms to his
intoxication.
On Sunday afternoon, after whole
day had passed and no one had stirred in
the locked rooms, Mrs. Miller called
Policeman Smith, who broke open the
door. The chairs were upset and the
old watchman's dead body lay among
them on the floor. His head WAS against
q barrel, in which an old broken lamp.
battered tins and old clothes were indis-
criminately heaped. His wife lay dead
in the old bed in the inner room. A
crust of brown bread was on the table
beside q cup encrusted with stains OF
Paris green. Near by was a little time
worn leather purse, with nothing in il.
Some old books, including q German
Bible, were in the drawers OF q cheap
bureau that stood against the wall.
Coroner Kennedy came in the afternoon
and ordered the bodies 20 be buried in
Potteris Field.