Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-28
DRIVEN TO SUICIDE.
EX-Sergeant at Arms Canaday
of the Senate Puts an
End to His Life.
HIS STORY OF A BURGLARY
Disbelieyed by His Partner, Who
Calls in the Police.
THEY FIND HIM LYING DEAD.
Fear of Humiliation Thought to Have
Caused the Deed.
HIS STORY OF A BURGLARY
THE END OF A PROMINENT s0UTHERNER


decade of wild speculations of hazardous
kind in the hope always delusive that each
successive scheme would bring large wealth,
came some time between $50 and 1880
o'clock this morning in the suicide of Will
lam P. Canadsy. of North Carolina, former
ly Sergeant at Arms of the United States
Senate and known to politicians through
out the country for years as one of the lead
ing Republicans in the South.
The suicide was as full of sensational pre-
liminaries as any story alleged as the basis
of fact for dime novel There was about
it just enough of the element of uncertainty
to suggest theory, quickly dIspelled on
examination, of the commission of the deed
by some other person than the dead man,
or another theory that disbelief in his story
of having been robbed had driven him to-
kill himself.
Prior to the suicide, there was a scene
about daylight, with the dead man, bound
BY slight cord fastenings to a door, which
fastenings he told the gentlemen, who had
been alarmed by his outcries, had been
bound on him by burglars, who, at the
point of a knife, had forced him to open a
safe and had then distracted therefrom most
of the contents
His Tale Was Too Fishy.
Following this scene was another in
which j. Q. A. Houghton, a captain on
Hancock's staff during the war and a part
ner of Colonel Canaday, told his partner
that he did not believe the story and would
have it investigated by the police. Captain
Houghton accused Canaday of an attempt to
defraud him. Subsequently, to a reporter,
Captain Houghton said that yesterday even
ing he had put g, 600 in bills in the safe
the combination to which was known only
to himself and Colonel Canaday.
The third scene was that which was yisi-
BILE almost an hour later, when CAPTAIN
Houghtop returned with Policeman Gil
bert, Who broke open a window, the doors
having been locked by Colonel Canaday in
side, and found the former Sergeant at
Arms of the Senate lying in bath of blood,
dead from the effects of a pistol wound
through the head, extending from ear to ear.
The house in which the suicide occurred
is one of three brick houses. The two
houses had been thrown into one, and being
downtown near the Government depart
ments and other offices, the lower floor was
used for Office rooms and the floors above
were rented out for lodgings, and across the
way is the First Congregational Church,
known to almost all visitors to Washington.
Loaned Money at High Rates.
Colonel Canaday had the entire first floor
of both houses and used it for Office rooms.
He also had cot in one of the rooms on
which he slept at night A sign in the win
dow read: claw Office, W. P. Canaday"
Temporary Office q. S. Patent Guaranty
Co." was another sign, and in the window
heavy loan sign.
Captain j. Q. A. Houghton said that he
was partner of Colonel Canaday in the
business conducted, but his name does not
appear on the signs visible from the out
side. He seems to have been the man who
furnished last year the money for enter
prises OF which Colonel Canaday was pro-
moter. The business carried on, besides
that of launching various enterprises, was
that of general pension and claim agency,
the loan of money probably at high rates
of interest on securities of character such
as banks do not readily take as assets; and
the issuance of patents. In this last, un-
der the title of Patent Guaranty
Company, Captain Houghton was
known to the people of the house
as associated with Colonel Canaday.
Yesterday evening the two men were to-
gether for short time about o'clock, and
went out together. Before leaving, Captain
Houghton says he deposited $1,000 in the
safe. The money he says was in notes of
the denomination of So, $40 and $40. The
safe was in the rear or second room from
the front of the house. In this and the front
room most of the general business was con.
Quoted.
Clumsily Bound and Gagged.
After Colonel Canaday and his partner
separated on the street the dead man spent
about half hour with Miss Moore, fairly
good looking young woman of about 81
years of age About 5:15 o'clock this morn
ing Charles b. Stevenson, an employe in
the Fish Commission, who roomed on the
second floor just above Colonel Canaday's
rear Office room, came down stairs, having
been alarmed by outcries He found Colonel
Csnadsy bound to closet door in the room
in which the safe stood and across the hall
way from his sleeping quarters The safe
was open.
Strewed over the floor was a great litter
Of papers of one kind or another and in the
fireplace was a charred mass of burnt pa
pers. Colonel Canaday was bound to the
door with his hands behind him. The
twine with which he was bound was of very
ordinary stuff, such as is used to bind large
parcels, so that a man of ordinary strength
ought to have been able to break il with
ease. In his mouth was a gag made out of
q torn piece of his night shirt. 1t had been
loosened so that he was able to make an
outcry.
His story was that three burglars had
forced an entrance through the rear window
of the rear room, in which he was found
bound, and, going into the room in which
him at the point of knife held over his
heart, and had then forced him to go across
the hallway to the safe and open il. They
had distracted great part of the contents.
had burned some papers and had departed
after binding him.
Afraid or an Investigation
Captain Houghton was sent for. and to
him Mr.. Canaday related the story which
his partner refused to believe. An exam-
ination of the papers showed that a consid-
cradle number of negotiable notes made nv
Mr.. Canaday had been burned, and that eyery
book containing records of indebtedness
against him had been destroyed Affirming
his disbelief in the story, Captain Houghe
ton said he would go for the police and
have the story investigated Officers Hodges
and Gilbert accompanied him on his return
to the house The servant girl told them
that she fhouphI ColonaI Canadav bad -.