, 1890-11-30
THE ABSORBING TOPIC.
Judge Bergman's Case Still Under
Discussion Yesterday.
Arrival Of the Judge's Daughter
From Her home In Omaha.
The Day is Passed Without Great
Suffering.

The Bergman shooting was still the
absorbing topic of conversation and specu-
lation yesterday. There was scarcely any
new facts DEVELOPED which threw any ad-
ditional light on the causes which led to
tic attempted self destruction. Those
who have been closely associated with
Judge Bergman are unanimous in the
statement that he has lately been laboring
under the Intenscst state of excitement.
II is now known that he didn't cat a
morsel of food on Thanksgiving day or
the following day and not a morsel has
passed his lips eyer mp to this writing.
Very few OF his most intimate friends at
first realized how heavily the prosecution
weighed upon him, but as time went on
and his mind remained concentrated on
this one subject to-the exclusion OF every
thing else a few began to realize how
deeply he had taken the matter to heart.
Lately he has scarcely at all conversed
upon any other subject. He has mixed
up but very little with other people and
any good natured pleasantly upon the
subject Of his constructive arrest be re-
ceived very soberly, if not with positive
i'll grace. All Wednesday night be labored
at his books. He had an immense
number Of warrants, covering some
i've months, to countersign and
this task he completed on Wednesday
night and during Thursday forenoon.
Thanksgiving night he never slept a wink.
He paced the floor at his house through
out the live-long night. He was at times
greatly excited and wrung his hands while
he muttered disjointedly. Mrs. Bergman
vainly endeavored te learn the cause of
his trouble. When she asked il it was
anything in relation to his Office accounts
he replied in the negative and said that
everything was as correct as she had al
ways known his business dealings to be.
Then what is your trouble2' she per
sisted, sit Is nothing in which you can
aid me-" was the response and the Iucsss-
ant march up aud down was renewed.
At I O'Clock on Friday morning a gen
tlemsn living on Eighteenth street met
Judge Bergman on his way down town.
Their conversation was upon Indifferent
subjects and beyond a certain restraint
nothing was noticeable 10 his demeanor.
The more the subject is dwelt upon and
the more freely it is discussed the more
generally is the opinion entertained that
the probate judgeship prosecution had a
decidedly greater influence upon the mind
of Bergman than anybody at first be-
lieved. 1t is now recalled how he brooded
upon the subject, how changed his de-
meanor had become and how fierce was
his denuncistion of tho conspiracy whrch
he believed was on foot to destroy him.
During all of yesterday the patient
rested without much pain. He was
unable to take food Of any kind and his
principal discomfort seemed to arise from
the weakness OF his stomach. When
ever he became very restless be was
soothed with a hypodemic injection Of
morphine. His mind rarely wandered
and he spoke nationally if very briefly at
frequent intervals. DR.. Barkwell thor
oughly cleaned his disigured face and
found that the lett eye was completely
destroyed, all Of the vitreous humor hav-
ing flowed out OF the eye ball. All the
surroundings of the right eye present a
mangled appearance but there is Just the
~iaintest shadow of 4 hope that the eye
itself may be saved. The hope, it must
be confessed is not a very tangible one.
DR.. Barkwell says it rests entirely upon
the possibility that the ball In
passing across the eye penetrated
above the sight. After his ex-
examination the doctor did not feel iusti-
fed in going farther than to say that
there was q fsint-a very ~faint-hope
that the sight might be saved. but ninety
chances in a hundred were probably
against it.
Mrs. Kemp, Judge Bergman's only
daughter, arrived from Omaha yesterday.
The train was delayed and did not reach
here until after noon. She was accom-
panied by her husband, who had gone
east to meet her. The lady was pros.
trated with grief. Rev. DR.. Raffer met
the husband aud wife at the depot
and accompanied them to the Berg
man residence. Mrs. Kemp was i'm
mediately taken upstairs. where
the meeting between the mother and
daughter was heartrending. Such con-
ISOLATION as could be was admin.
istered BY FRIENDS who finally exercised