New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-12-04
FOUND DYING IN HER ROOM.
TWO KINDS OF POISON TAKEN AT A HOTEL

WOMAN REGrsTERED AS MRS. DUNBAR TAKEN
TO BELLEVUE IN A CRITICAL CONDITION.
Just about dark on Thursday a woman walked
slowly into the Grand Union Hotel, at Forty-second-
st. and Fourth-ave. She seemed to be traveller.
She wore dark hat of fashionable shape, with large
white feather standing upright and dark brown
dress and oseftting jacket of the same material
trimmed with sable fur. She was above the average
height. and stout and had clear complexion Her
skin was dark her features striking, and the partcu
lar thing that attracted the attention OF the ,e clerk
was an expression of sadness. Her clothing was
dusty. She leaned in tired upon the marble
counter at the hotel and said that she wanted roon
The registry book was handed to her and she wrote
in clear, business-hke hand. "Mrs. A. Dunbar,
Newark. N. j." She was assigned to room No. 80 on
the second floor Of the hotel. Her baggage consisted
OF two small handbags. one of VIII ch hung from
strap that ran her shoulders; the other she
carried. she went st TO her room and the attend
ant who showed her there heard deep sigh az the
door DOT closed and the stranger sapk ON the bed
The ~oman not around the hotel during
the evening. No one TO her and she did not
20 out There were noises OF any kind heard during
the NIGHT by the waichnan who patrols the corridor
As is usual in the of transient guests servant
went TO the sirsneers room about o'clock yester-
day morning to find out whether she intended to
remain during the day The door of the
found locked and boted. The key in the lock on
the inside. There sound within and no answer
TO repeated knocks No effort made at this time to
visit was ma to the at 3 o'clock. There had
been no change, and Emene A. Lane, the hotel house
keeper, called porter, who put his shoulder against
the door and burst it in. sad sight was revealed
resting upon the floor = Her clothing had been re:
moved. Her breath came in short quick gasps and
her dark face was covered with deathly palor In
one OF her hands was empty bottle and on the Door
near her feet was another. Both were marked
Folsom. Her clothing was scattered around the
room as if she bad been in pain and was walking up
and down while undressing. Miss Lane shook the
woman, but she gave no sign OF consciousness and
moaned feebly when disturbed.
Mr. GARRISON the hotel manager, was summoned.
and thinking that the woman might be brought out ot
her condition without making the matter public. ne
called In DR.. Anderson. OF No. 20 West FORTY
seventh-st ~The usual restorativcs gven after
stomach pnmp had beas used, with the result that
the wOmhns breathing ,ecame stronger. her eyes
would open occasionally and she would humble o few
unintellI9Ible words occasionally. After hours
work DR. Anderson decided that the wonans condition
was critical. and Sergeant Mcnamara, of the Grand
Central Station who lives at the hotel, was called to
the room, and in few moments summoned an ambu-
lance from the Bellevue Hospital. Awaiting the
arrival OF the ambulance Sergeant McNamara ques.
toned the woman to who she was and why sue had
taken poison. She did not seem TO comprehenh what
said and when not being shaken she would settle
into deap stupor. She mentioned several names and
places in a rambling way, but nothing was aennitey
learned as to her identity.
DR.. McMurdy, the ambulance surgeon, when he got
to the hotel found the woman sinking ana hastily got
her on the ambulance and drove swiftly to the hos.
ptal. There she put under heroic treatment and
stimuli ants administered hypodermcaly at short
intervals, and in about two hours she was got IN
condition where there was no immediate danger of
DEATH though she might have relapse at any time.
The Irregulauty and weakness Of the hearts action
corrected in by stimulation and she
became unconscious.
At first she would not say anything about herself,
and then when her critical condition was impressed
upon her. she said that her name was Catherine
Sullings, and that she lived at Winchester Mas.
She admitted that she took poison for he purpose OF
ending her lite and that she wanted to die Although
10 GbQ vaul NJ fhp
the of any OF her friends She said that she was
married. but when asked 1t sbe had any domestic
trouble she would not answer. She told Dr. Edgar
that she had taken six grains OF chora and that she
had saturated her handkerchief with six ounces OF
placed 1t face and lay down to die
'The bags that she carried were examined at The
hospital Besides rhe usual toilet articles time
tabie OF the Boston and Lowell Railroad $14 ana
some diamond jewelry. On OF the bags was
silver plato with the inscription Skngs." On
plain gold ring which she her left hand we're
the letters "W. +. $. to X. d., June 20 1870"
Sergeant Mcnamara found q small memorandum
book the floor OF the room which the woman occu-
pied in the hote in which was written iirs Nj. W.
Davis Hotel Dunbar, RoYbury, Mass" and he was OF
the belief that this was her pame as no other name
appearec in tho book Nothing was known OF the
wonans history at the Grand Union Hotel. She had
never seen there before and there quest
about admitting her as she appe red to be respect
able and traveller. She told Sergeant Mcnamara in
a lucid interval that shs wanted to be taken to
hotel in the city, the OF which he did not catch,
where she could die in peace and it tn ought from
this that she has friends here.
She got the poison on Thursday at two places she
first went to I. w. Schoonmakers drugstore, No. il
East Forty y-second-st. This about p III. She
told Charles H. Hornby the clerk that she suffer-
ing severely from ueuralgc headache aud wanted to
get some chloroform He sold her three ounces with
out a prescr ption she says she got six The bottle
a six-ounce hottie. Mr. Hornby asserts that he
has seen the woman before and sold ber medicine by
prescription. but could not tell where he saw her or
who the doctor who signed the prescription. The
woman pnt the choroiorm in her pocket and then
went to w. II. Wbitney's store in the Grand Union
Hotel There she told 4. Van Ness the clerk. that
she troubled greatly from insomnia and wanted to
get some choral and bromide OF potassium. The
woman appeared perfectly rational and seltpossessed
and he did not hesitate to pnt mp mixture contain
ing ten grains of chora and twenty grains of bromide
TO the teasposnfu She signed her name in the book,
which Mr.. Whitney requires when poison is sold, as
Mrs Dunbar. and gave her home at the hotel.
IL Is supposed that she took the bromide aud chlorai
in one dose and placed the handkerchief saturated
with choroforn over her face, and the only reason
why she was not dead when found is said be that
she was probably in the habit of using the drugs.