Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-12-16

Of every one acquainted WIN rTuukun
b. Gowen, upon hearing the press news
that he had committed suicide, that he
was the last man in the world of whom
they would have imagined such an end.
Mr.. Gowen was of a heroic mould and
was so known to be by all men. No man
of greater courage ever lived and his
mental strength was as conspicuous as
his moral fibre. To the eyes of men
he bore sound and brilliant
mind in sound and always
respected body. He had no habits
that would sap his strength he gave
no sign anywhere of any weakness that
would lead him to seek death to avoid
trouble and he had no trouble that the
public has cognizance of. He was
happy in his family, affluent in fortune
and successful in business. 1t Is said
that he was troubled because the ma
jority of the Interstate commissioners
had refused to require the counsel of the
PENNSYLVANIA railroad to produce before
it the agreement made by that road with
the Standard Oil company; as Mr..
Gowen had understood the commission,
when in session at Titusville last sum-
mer, to order the counsel Of the road to
do at the hearing in Washington. This
Is the only reason given for Mr.. Gowen's
mental disturbance; but Mr.. Rice, who
was his client and who was one of
the last TO see him, reports that
he found Mr.. Gowen in his customary
cheerful condition of mind. 1t was q
condition which was characteristic Of
Mr.. .Gowen, who was too brim full Of self
esteem to be worried by the rebuffs Of
fortune; man who stood upon the
ruins of Reading, calm and confident, is
not the one to suspect Of despair under
any circumstances or conditions.
And this Is the man that the news
reports declare with great unanimity to
have committed suicide. If he did, his
mind apparently had fallen from its high
estate and as quickly as thoroughly
for at sundown of the day before his dead
body was found he had demonstrated
his sanity in cheerful conversation with
friend. Everything is possible, and it
is possible that Mr.. Gowen became
speedily Insane but it is not a
theory that is to be accepted without
evidence, of which there appears TO
be little, save that he was shot !; and
nobody else is known to have
been with him to whom the deed may
b, laid. 1t is said that his door was
locked and his windows were fastened
down. 1t is also said that an elderly
man bought pistol of the kind found
near his body, at seven or eight o'clock
on Friday evening, Mt a store situated
about mile from his hotel If this last
statement should be substantiated, and
IL 1t should appear that Mr.. Gowen was
the purchaser of the pistol found lying
by his side, it would afford very strong
evid ,nce that he had slain himself
either by design, which might signify
insanity, or by accident, which would
show folly well akin to insanity and
as far from Mr.. Gowens normal condi
ton.
To the fact that the doors and windows
were fastened, we do not see that any
Importance can be attached, as it was
quite possible, and even easy for anyone
TO have escaped from the room, leaving
the doors and windows in this condition
Probably there was a transom over the
door aud If not, it takes little of the
OaA oAAsA ShiAh w ioIh anu uAlOCh uOOI
with nippers when the key is on the
other side. The apartment is shown to
( have been In place that was not subject
70 constant 0bservation, by the fact that
the pistol shot was not heard. Surely
when a man may he slain by pistol in
his room at hotel without the sound
being heard, 1t is permissible to us tc
suspect that there may have been q
murder, and the murderer may have
escaped unobserved, leaving locked ur
room behind him.
So this ground for suspicion that Mr.
Gowen may have been murdered must
be added the strange fact that no one OF
his friends was permitted to see his body
as 1t was when found; nor was the cor.
oner called to take cognizance of the
deed; but we are told that the hotel pro-
prietor sent for policeman, who hustled
the body to the morgue at the demand
OF the man who sent for him, and who
doubtless literally paid him for his extra
ordinary and lawless proceeding. This
hotel proprietor is, we believe, negro,
and may have been thus disposed to be
hasty and unceremonious because of his
fear that the presence of the bod,
would hurt his business. But there
is enough that is strange in these pro
ceedings TO invite close Investigation and
to cause question whether the testimony
as to the condition of the body and the
room, which all comes from the hirelings
OF the house and an evidently pur
chased policeman, is true.
Convincing proof that Mr.. Gowen did
not die by his own hand would be found
in the condition of the wound, which
would show evident marks Of the
powder If held within the range tc
which O suicidal arm would be con
lined. One report states there wers
no such marks and this, De
tective Charles +. Miller tells a re
porter of the Philadelphia Press, would
conclusiyely show that the deed was 6
murder. He has tested this fact by ex,
pertinent, and shown that q man firina
pistol into his own head behind th,
ear must hold 1t SO close as to scorch tn,
hair and fill the skin with powder
There does not appear to have been an,
official observation as to this critica
fact upon the part of the Washington
authorities and in truth the friend
Of Mr.. Gowen seem to have beer
deprived Of their senses by the sudden
ness of the calamity and to have had bu
the one aim Of hurrying his body to il
rest. Even Pinkerton detective, VIII,
went To Washinptnu i'm nres sad xrith IA tl