Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-22
DIDN'T CARE TO DIE.
A Lovesick Youth Fails to Find a
Vital Part for His Bullet.
ROMANCE OF TWO ENGAGEMENTS.
The Prosecuted Maiden Followed by One
Lover to McKeesport.
REFUSED TO THROW HER COUSIN OVER

A bright little romance. in which young
and beautiful Hebrew girl. with two engaged
lovers and an attempted suicide, turned up
in the Seventh ward yesterday.
The parties in the affair are Jo-
seph Keller. Joseph kaufman and
Miss Clara Kaufman, the latter a full
cousin to Joseph. Clara has been engaged
to marry her cousin for the past year or
more, but Keller has been making efforts to
beat the others time for three. or four
months, Miss Clara was employed in
Sampliner & Rich's cloak factory, No. 8l9
Liberty street, where Keller was also en-
ployed as a presser. When not engaged
pressing cloaks, he made the most of his
time pressing his suit with Clara, while the
iatter's other lover was toiling away in a
factory in McKeesport. He wanted her to
throw over her cousin, but the girl re-
fused until Keller brought the murder-and-
suicide argument to bear upon her.
Miss Clara boards at No. 122 Washington
street, and last Sunday afternoon Keller
called on her. He asked her to marry him
on September IA. He pleaded his suit with
such ardent devotion and the sight of
revolver that the girl said she was willing
II her sister would not object. Keller, she
claims, told her that unless she married him
he would kill her and. then kill himself
On Wednesday night Miss Kaufman
started for her sisters residence in McKees-
port. Keller called at her boarding house.
and learning of his adored ones where,
abouts, concluded to hasten matters by fol-
lowing her. He caught the "Owl" train on
the Baltimore and Ohio road and arrived at
the house about o'clock yesterday morn
ing. He awoke the people and succeeded in
getting Miss Clara to come to the window. A
scene from Romeo and Juliet" was then
given, without the accompaniments, with a
solitary policeman for an audience. The
latter got the worth OF his money, but
threatened to run Keller into the Lookup.
The lovesick youth demanded of his terri
ned juliet If she was going to marry him,
and the windows of the house ratified as she
gave very decided negative answer.
Keller came back to Pittsburg Yesterday,
broken-hearted. He proceeded to find
consolation in the flowing bowl, and
succeeded admirably. About o'clock
he visited the factory where he was en-
ployed, and told the people there he was
going to kill himself They thought it was
Occi suaS was uOiuR Tue Lalklng, ana paid
no attention to him. He then went to his
boarding house, No. 118 Elm street, and
flung himself on sofa in his room. The
woman of the house heard him sobbing, but
knowing what troubled him paid no atten-
tion to him. She heard him rummaging in
a trunk, and the next thing was a pistol
shot.
A friend of Keller's named Brown rushed
in and took the revolver out of his hand. The
"gun" was 32-csliber, and the bullet passed
through his left thumb. The blood was
flowing in steady stream from the hole,
and ran all over his hand Keller was
going through some kind of Indian war
dance, and with his bloody hand smeared
the gore all over his face and head. He was
taken to the Eleventh ward station, where
he began to beat the bars of his cell with
his head.
Miss Kaufman is about 10 years of age,
very petite, with deep, lustrous black eyes
and olive skin. Keller says he gave her
diamond rings, ETC., but she denies il.