The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1889-09-08
MURDERER AND VICTIM.
The Closing Scene in Union Hlll's
DeplOrable Tragedy.

The sun shone brightly and the birds
sang In the clumps of trees in front of No.
43 Humboldt street, Union Hill, yester-
day afternoon, but no ray of light pene-
trated the quiet room where Jacob
Schlapfer, the victim of his brothers in
sane hate, lay calm and still.
The low moaning of his father and the
sobS of his widow alone broke the still
ness, while his little golden haired daugh-
ter looked wonderingly from one to the
other, and, being unnoticed, returned for
solace to her doll.
1t was just two o'clock when the Rev.
Mr.. Meyers of the Humboldt Street Bap-
list Church, of which the deceased was
prominent member, and the Rev. Mr..
Gowan of the Grove Church took their
stand at the head of the casket and COM
menced the solemn burial services.
The silence grew oppressive as the deep
tones of the minister broke the stiffness.
and as he recounted many well-known
trait of manly generosity in the dead
mans life, tears moistened many an eye.
After the address of the Rev. Mr.. Meyers
the pail bearers raised the casket on their
shoulders and bore it to the hearse.
They were Frank Chipchase, the sup
erinteDdent of the Weehawken Granite
Works; Otto Ottel, principal of the Union
Hill Public School; John Gardner, Ed
ward Fox, H. c. Steinhoff, John Scher-
merhorn and John Holstein, of Gland
Assembly No. 2O3 of the Royal Society of
Good Fellows, and A. G. Bode, of the
Building and Loan Association. =
AT THE CHURCH.
After the hearse came seventy men,
bers of the Grand Assembly, the EN-
ployees of the Weehawken Granite
Works, and the children of the Sunday
school.
AT the church the Rev. Messrs. Gowan
and Meyers repeated their kind words of
Mr.. Schlapfer's character, and then the
funeral cortege started for Weehawken
Cemetery, where, after another short
service, the remains were inferred.
The floral tributes were numerous and
beautiful. A piece, Coates Ajar," was
sent by the employees of the Granite
Works. The Grand Assembly of the
Royal Society of Good Fellows sent
broken column and star and anchor,
entwlned into one piece with the initials
of the lodge.
Frank Steueke was the marshal of the
procession, and Albert DeBevoise, the
Grand Ruler of the Assembly, assisted
him.
THE BURIAL OF THE MURDERER.
A few hours earlier a much different
scene was enacted at Undertaken Beyer's
morgue, where the body of John Schlap-
fer the murderer, lay neglected.
A number of his old friends had raised
q fund and that with the money found in
his possession saved him from a pauper's
grave.
Mayor Schlemm, of Union Hill. and
Chris Wooster We're mainly instrumental
in raising the fund, and they, with a
| number of others, accompanied the body
to Flower Hill Cemetery The relatives
demanded the body from Undertaken
Boyer yesterday morning, but he re-
fused to give 1t up.
THE FATHERS WILD GRIEF.
Old Mr.. Schlapfer attended the funeral
of John in the morning, and after it
seemed to be seized with sudden mania
to make trouble. He became violent and
threatened to kill anyone who interfered
with him. The family, to quiet him, were
obliged to call in Policeman Feeney for
protection.
1t now appears that John was re-
ligious monomaniac, but there was some
thing else besides that. Rumors that
Jacob was under pecuniary obligations
to John, instead of the boot being on the
other leg, as has all along been supposed,
are becoming more common, and 1t is
SAID that it was Jacobs refusal to settle
up that turned Johns weak brain and
made him murderer and suicide.