The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-06-26
Supposed Suicide Of Stewart
MaCauley the Piano Tuner.
While He is Dying His Wife Sits AloOf
and Says He is Not in the House.

At 10 minutes to II o'clock noon
on Sunday three pistol shots we're
heard in the cottage next door makai
of the British Club on Alakea street.
They were heard and discussed by
Justice Bickerton and Mr.. Jos.
Marsden from the club, by Mrs. T.
G. Porter and her brother, Mr..
William Savidge, from Mr.. Porter's
house next door on the other side,
and by Mrs. Bickerton and Mrs. F.
l.. Winter from the Hotel cottages
across the street. The cottage
whence the reports issued belongs
to the Holt estate, and has for some
time been occupied by Stewart Ma
cauley, piano tuner, and his wife.
MIR. Savidge saw smoke issuing
from window in the cottage after
the shots. Fearing something was
wrong he went out and meeting Mr..
George Mcleod, who was passing
down the street, he told him what
he had heard and seen. Both men
went to one of the doors aud for
pretext asked Mrs. Macauley if
gentleman who had lodged there
was in. The woman replying in the
negative was next asked if Mr.. Mac
auley was at home. She said he was
out. Asked then about the shots,
she only said she had heard them.
Savidge and Mcleod then with
drew, the former hurrying to the
Police Station to report the circum-
stances. Captain Robert Parker i'm
mediately went to the house with
another officer. He asked for Mr..
Macauley, when the wife again said
he was out. Parker told her that
shooting had been reported in the
house and he was going to make an
investigation. Mrs. Macauley said
something about her husbands be-
ing in the bathroom, and Captain
Parker pushed past her and entered
the place indicated. The inside door
was open. The officer found Mac
auley lying in recumbent posture,
bent at the middle of his body, his
head and shoulders resting against
the closed door leading into the
yard. There was a wound on the
right side of his head, from which
blood was oozing into clothed
mass, dropping to the floor. The
door foot from his head was spat-
tered with the life fluid, as if from a
spirit as the man fell.
Parker found Smith g. Wessou
3S calibre revolver lying at the bot
tom of the bath tub, with three
empty and two loaded shells in it,
which he put in his pocket As
Macauley was breathing strongly
the officer hurried out for surgical
assistance. He met DIR. Peterson
and called DR.. Cooper, the Station
physician, from Mr.. Porter's tele-
phone. Both doctors were quickly
by the side of the unfortunate man.
They washed off the wound and
probed it without finding the bullet.
1t was determined to have Macauley
sent to the Queens Hospital, and
the two doctors had DR.. Wood, sur
geon to the hospital, notified while
they sent to the Station for a
stretcher. In the meantime Mrs.
Macauley had sent the Chinese cook
for DR.. Wood. and he was present
before the stretcher arrived. 1t was
two hours after the shooting before
the man was removed to the hospi-
tai. As he was laid out on the
stretcher it was evident that the end
was near. He died at 2:1O o'clock,
twenty minutes after entering the
hospital.
Mrs. Macauley acted in manner
that was utterl y inexplicable except
on the theory that she was dement,
ed before the event or else complete
~ dazed by the tragedy. When the
BULLETIN reporter arrived at the
house close after Capt. Parker, near
ly an hour after the shooting, the
woman was calmly engaged in ar
ranging clothes on bed, paying no
attention to her dying husband in
the bathroom adjoining the room
whore she was. She was fearless
and betrayed no agitation, as she
bid Mr.. Savidge and the reporter
go inside. To inquiries of several
persons who entered she said her
husband had been cleaning a pistol
and when the reports were heard by
her she paid no attention to them,
as it had been Macauley's practice
to thus try the weapon after clean
ing it, She asked different ones if
they thought he would live, and
when they replied there was not a
chance she cried, saying, "Oh, what
dreadful end he has come to.'
While the doctors were engaged
over the PROSTATE man, Capt. Parker
followed the course of two bullet
holes through the walls of the bath
room. They were at nearly right
angles to each other, and the shots
could have been fired from the inner
door without the shooter changing
position. One hole was through the
makai end, the other through the
side towards Union street. 1t look
ed for a case of suicide as if the
man had fired two shots simply to
try if the weapon was in good work
ing order before turning its muzzle
on himself. Capt. Parker found the
bullet from the end hanging to the
inside Of board in the wall Of "A
workshop about yard from the
cottage. 1t had gone through two
inch-boards. There was bullet
hole as clean rs if bored with an
auger through board fence on the
Union street side, but il was not in
line vii Ia ln 1irnnt inn ,f tho IuIl,t