The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-06-17
DIED IN A PRISON.
Melancholy End Of . Nan Of
Brilliant Parts
4 POET VINO WAS 4 CRIMINAL.
~. r. Heseage. Oaes . seattle News
Yslssn. Cal. Penisentiary.

Dopor WffseS, 8o0e nto Days h
Yslss.. Cal. Pesiseatiary.
Word VAS received here yesterday from
Sacramento that Henry Brooks, . forger.
who Was serving forrteen-year term in
Folsom prison. died there Thursday. june
6. of heart disease. He WAS emp,oyeaihere
- prison librarian.
To only . few is it known that Brooks
true name VAS W. p. Heneage. and that
he was for q short time . resident Of Sc
attic, working for several months Is re-
porter on the Posr-IsIEILIsxxcER Sam
uei l. Crawford. who was then Of the
Posr-IxrElIlaEScER- Vas asked last night
said:
Early in the spring Of 1887 . young
man, apparently somewhere between 30
and s. years of age. came into the Office
Of the Posr-IxrEILleENcxR and applied to
the manager for employment. j, ~ that
time, had charge Of the entire local depart
mont, and he was sent to me. His general
appearance vas that Of . tramp. He wore
long boots and his toes we're sticking out
OF the holes in them His trousers were
ragged and were stuffed into the tops OF
the boots. He wore an old siouch hat
and his general appearance was that Of .
stowaway on . ship. Well, looked him
over and: asked him . few questions.
found in q very short time that he knew
nothing at all Of The town. The streets
were all unfamiliar to him and he knew no
one in the place / thought awhile. and
finally / gave him . detail OF the water
front; he looked more like . wharfrat
than anything else. 1t was not any special
assignment, he called it rowing commits
sion. told him to 60 down on the water
front and look around. and If he saw any
thing that seemed strange TO him, to write
it up. He was not much of success a. .
reporter. that is. in getting news. In the
whole time he was on the paper
he did not get . dozen items.
When he came in that evening he
did not have . thing. He had
not seen anything that was new to him,
he said. A few days, after this he brought
in 4 two column story on The Philosophy
of Pock ets.' and . few days after another
on The Philosophy Of UMBRELLA Well.
you see those were not the kind of articles
We were publishing in the Posr-ISrELI-
right for the SUNDAY Posr-ISrELLiGEScER
for local matter and stories; the rest was
the Geographic news and editorial.
''After he had made several attempts to
get something tit for publication, one
morning he brought me little poem Of
five stanzas on Seattle. looked it over
and came to the conclusion that it was
pretty good thing. told him to submit
it to Fred ]. Grant. who was then doing
the editorial work, and 1t came on. in the
paper the next Sunday.
1--WE got Heneage fitted out after ..
time in . new suit and . good hat
and boots. He got his hair cut
and really he was q nice look
ing fellow. But ne was . crank,
he must necessarily have been or he would
not have appeared in the shape he did.
often talked with him about his work.
and once advised him to go to larger city
where his peculiar kind of work would be
in demand. l suggested that he send
some of his articles to the San Francisco
papers. He did so and they were pub
lished ia the Chronicle, believe. but may
be it was the Examiner. They sent word
for him to come down there. and he left.
think it vas in April. or May perhaps.
well, the next thing We heard of him
was two or three months afterwards when
Mr.. Grant received . letter from him,
dated at the Folsom penitentiary, and
asking for certain numbers of the Posi-
INrELLIcENcER containing articles which
he had written. This letter was the first
we knew Of his being sent 10 the peniten-
~. 60 I'm tnp Of ~
sentenced under an assumed name. He
did not mention in. his letter the
nature Of the crime. but simply said Don't
imagine that am here for shedding hui
man blood
Nothing was known here OF his arrest
or trial. He took quite fancy to me and
although he talked very little to others he
would often talk to me for hours and was
always ready TO listen. He told me that
he was born and raised in London, En-
gland. and also educated there. see your
dispatch says in Dublin. but I am pretty
sure he said London.
"He was a ready talker and was fond OF
. general conversation. but although
often tried TO draw him out. never was
able to learn anything much Of his past
life. From certain hints he once let drop
I think he claimed to be some relstive
of Admiral Heneage. of the Eng
fish navy. He had done some
work on the London newspapers
and had been in Australia and
knew something about the papers
there. have always had the impression
that he came here from that country A
ship came to Port Blakeley from Mel
bourne or some other Australian city about
lifetime he came TO the Posr-ISrEiLIsEScER
office, and my opinion Is that he escaped
from prison there and came to Puget
sound as n siowaway on the lumber vessel.
He was rather mysterious n his converse
ton sometimes, and limited that We would
hear from him again in a new role.
His one weakness was a liking for
liquor, and /, IS probable that all his
trouble came from that. think that he
often wanted money to buy drink and in
stead of working and earning it would
forge checks or other papers to obtain IT.
He was very clever with pen, bu,
never knew of him doing ANYTHING