The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-08-06
JUST A JOURNAL FAKE
The Tragic Disappearance
of the MCI1roys Peters
Out ANONYMOUSLY.
PICTURESQUE INCIDENTALS,
But No Cold, Damp, Unpleasant
Bodies-A Hackensack Grace
Darling.

The failure of Mr.. and Mrs. James Nc
Ilroy. of Brooklyn formerly of this city,,
to return a pleasure boat they hired of
| Mrs. Lewis, at the foot of Pollock ave-
nue., on the Newark Bay shore, Wednes-
day week last caused considerable spec
ulation as to what had become of the
couple. 1t was generally believed they
had been upset and drowned. but no
trace of the boat or bodies had been seen
after most diligent search along the bay
shore for over week.
LIKE LIZZIE HEXAM.
Mrs. Lewis, who hired the boat to the
Mc1lroy couple, is widow and lives with
grown son and daughter in a pictur-
esque Qnteriorly if not exteriorly) little
shanty on the canal not far from the bay
shore. She has about thirty boats to hire
out to pleasure parties. The Lewis folk
knew the Mcllroy compile well. Ida
Lewis, the daughter of the widow Lewis,
was a school mate of McIlroy. She is
sort of second edition of Grace Darling.
and has on numerous occasions refused
to receive the backing of well known
aquatic sports 20 enter rowing and
swimming contests. She has spent
whole days rowing along the Bay
Shore. and ventured as far up the
Hackensack as Snake Hill in quest of her
mothers boat or signs of some sort Of the
McIlroy couple. At the end of those in
tensely hot days of last week she re-
turned home in the evening, after an
| unsuccessful search for her friends and
| swooned upon the floor of the little
shanty. All the owners of lighthouses
along the bay shore had been notified
that the boat was missing and were asked
to watch out for it. but the Widow
Lewis received no tidings of the couple
or her boat. She sought out the i'm
| mediate relatives of Mcllroy in Atlantic
street, but was told McIlroy and his wife
had not been seen by them inside of
year. These same relatives told a re-
porter for The NEWS yesterday the same
story. Their story is true. II is simply
| \ family difference.
The picturesque little shanty of the
Widow Lewis was reached by the report
er of The NEWS, instructed to work the
story" OF the McIlroy couples disappear
| ance, about dusk last evening.
AN AQUATIC ELYsIUM.
The bay was scarcely rippled by the
evening breeze and looked almost as calm
as the surface of the canal. which ie, per-
haps, a hundred yards distant from the
bay shore, and the Widow Lewis's shanty
lying between the two. A husky voiced
brown pup left off barking at the mas
cnline countenance of ''fairLurna" whose
bay with gold, and turned its attention
to the intrusion of the reporter.
"You. Jackl Jack! come herel Yes. all
right, he's only pup"
A gray-haired old lady, with singular
iy round and motherly countenance em-
erged from the midst of group of boat
walks just outside the shanty.
As soon as the reporter explained his
mission the old lady grew excited.
There had been great comMotiou
among the three occupants of the shanty
since the disappearance of the McIlroy
couple. The McfIroys had been looked
upon as friends. One of the two said
poor McIlroy and his wife had been
drowned. Another said he's on his va
cation and wouldn't be surprised II he'd
sold the boat. And the other said. "l'n
find out"
FIRST A LETTER.
So the cid lady was just itching to talk
to somebody who could tell the outside
world the news but short while before
received in the little shanty.
Scarcely an hour before, Ida, the daugh-
| ter of the party had entered the little
shantY triumphantly waving an open
letter above her brown-haired head, and
sank at her aged mothers feet with the
exclamation 81 told you So" The widow
showed The NEWS reporter the letter.
1t was an ordinary business letter. Just
such one as man of business would
| Ilroy was awfully surprised to read in
| the morning papers an account of the
mysterious disappearance OF himself and
wife. 1t was plain that both had been
| drowned, said the reports. The truth
| was he had left the boat at a resort
| further down the bay. His wife had
been taken sick. He gave q small boy
half dollar to carry the boat back to
| Mrs. Lewis and entrusted the boy with a
dollar for Mrs. Lewis to pay for overtime.
Then he made as quickly as possible for
| his home In Brooklyn.
THEN THE MAN.
While THE NEWS reporter was scanning
| the letter near the window by the twi-
light, young man with red musLache,
attired in a blue suit and the regulation
wide brimmed white straw hat loomed
up on the railroad embankment between
the shanty and the innumerable chimney
stucks OF the great West Bergen steel
works.
He ambled down the side Of tae ena.
bankment. and strolled leisurely toward
Widow Lewis's shanty. A moment later
THE NEWS reporter was shaking hands
with the long lost Mr.. MoIlroy. The
widow was satisfied with Mr.. Mcilroy's
explanation, and Mr. McIlroy promised
to come over again today and go, after the
boat. Mr.. McIIroy and THE NEWS le-
porter left The little shanty, and missing
a train at the West Side avenue station,
pushed through the deep cut to the next
station. And all the way along Mr. Nc
Ilroy, though deprecating the widows
anxiety, appeared somewhat amused at
the peculiar incident.