, 1891-11-17
SELF SLAIN.


strong as ever, that ID a measure ne re
covered from the first shock. But at the
same time he realized that the affairs Of
the bank had now become public prop.
erty. As in a mans life, so 10 his busi,
ness, there are things which he shrinks
from exposing to the worlds gaze. He
knew hat the examination must disclose
the fact that the bank carried a quantity
of ~rediscounted California bank paper
circumstance not suspected by the depos,
itors. The deeds OF trust for his own
and Collins property would be the first
public intimatlon, and he feared before
the investigation ended be might be
shaken from his high place In the public
estimation. In The matter OF his private
he r and his INTEGRITY as a bus. esq man
he as supersensitive. He could lot stand
anv thing that might bring his good nam
even into question. He maguiied the
conditions that confronted him. Naturally
a man to keep his own coun
sci, not one of his intimate
friends suspected the pitch to
which he had wrought himself until it
was too late to save the poor fellow.
There is no doubt that in the companion
ship Of his friends at the club Sunday
evening. the warmth of their greeting and
their evident concern over his misfortune,
that he was exhilerated and raised out of
his deep dependency. He went home
ohcered and sustained by it. In his own
chamber that night, however, when 81
lence and darkness added a p~reternatural
keenness to his mind he must have been
tortured by the thsayht Of the morrow.
AT ~lastLurdst be exposed the circumstance
relation to the California bank which
could no longer be co~ncealed-and then
what to him was life or fortune if bis
honor was smirched.
Rev. DR.. Rafter's bedroom adjoins that
of Mr.. Beard. 1t extends from the main
hallway to the Seventeenth street front,
occupying about the same space as the
two rooms which Mr.. Beard occupied.
A door leads from Mr.. Boards sitting
room to DR.. Rafter's bedroom, but Of
course this was closed. Beyond the doc
tors bedroom is his reception room which
faces both Ferguson and Seventeenth
streets, occupying the second floor front
of Kent's bank building. 1t was in this
latter room that DR.. Rafter sat at 10
o'clock Sunday night when Beard came.
The door leading from the doctors bed
room was open, therefore he could hear
Mr.. Beard not only when he came along
the main hallway but when he entered
the passage way off Of which his sitting
room door opened. He heard Mr.. Beard
moving about his room, but not for long.
All sounds ceased there and when the
doctor retired about midnight everything
was quiet and peaceful about the adjoin-
ing apartment.
TowAR MORNING.
1t is probably true that Mr.. Beard
went to sleep soon after retiring to bed.
He had had little il any sleep for the
three preceding nights and had expressed
at the club a determination to get a good
nights rest as his mind was easy. What
time in the night or toward morning the
fatal deed was committed 1t is not pos
sible to more than indicate. DR.. Rafter
retired at midnight. Some time later,
but how long he cant say, he turned over
In bed half asleep and half awake and
heard a click as though a bed spring had
cracked. Ralph NJ. Friend from his rear
rooms above Myers store distinctly heard
a pistol shot at 4 o'clock and DR.. Rafter
Is inclined to believe that this is the hour
at which the deed was committed. Janitor
Wheeler while at work in the building
between 6 and I o'clock heard a strange
report which he believed was attributable
to a burst steam pipe and hunted through
all the Offices to find it but didn't. DR..
Rafter was up at the latter hour and
heard nothing so that it seems probable
that the fatal shot was fired at an earlier
hour.
When Beard arose from his bed some
time toward morning it was undoubtedly
with the fixed purpose of taking his own
life. He put on nothing but his slippers
and possibly a light telt hat. The revolver
was kept in a scabbard in his room. 1t
had been long In his possession and was
probably originally bought as a pre-
cautionary measure. Brooding over his
affairs in the stiffness of the night, in
which everything with relation to the
bank was acutely exaggerated, his system
wrought up to n terrible tension by the
excitement Of the past four days and his
loss of sleep, with a supersensitive dread
OF the days developments, which in a
caln,er frame of mind he would have
faced and conquered. the vague and
recurring thoughts of suicide suddenly
crystalllzed into a fixed determination to
end his lite and with it the black troubles
which seemed to be lowering upon him
and thus be at rest forever.
Poor Beard! No one may ever know
the agonies of suffering which he endured
during that fatal night IN his lonely cham
Der, standing friendless and helpless on
the awful brink which separates time