Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-14
DRANK HIMsELF TO DEATH.
A story From Life-A Bet and Its Re-

On sth street southeast just below NJ
street, where ashes and refuse matter
from stores and dwellings are deposited,
and where rag pickers spend hours each
day, there lives an elderly colored woman
named Shorter. Her home is in a dilapi-
dated frame shanty overlooking the dump
and low marshy ground adjoining the navy
yard property. Part of the house has been
torn away, as though the flood had paid
an unwelcome visit to the modest little
home, where there are not so many indi-
cations of poverty and suffering. Although
the outward appearances are unfayorable,
and the inside fixtures and odor uninviting,
there is a marked degree OF happiness in
the three rooms, which are occupied by the
widow and her large family. When a Star
reporter called at the house last evening
the rear door leading to the kitchen vas
wide open, and near the stove, in which
there was a red hot fire, was a bed. On
this downy couch rested child of the
widow. This child was suffering from an
attack of pneumonia, and the mother was
doing all in her power to save the sick one
from an early grave, although an older son
whisky. The front door of the house was
sc..-rely fastened against the possible in
vasiGn by the successor of the late Mr..
Jackson, otherwise called the Ghost Rob
ber.''
George Shorter was the name of Mrs
ShorterS Oldest SON. He was born just
thirty years ago. and had lived at home
with his poor old mother until month be-
fore last. when he deserted her humble
little home and went to live in house in
Loudon place, not many squares away.
Three or four times week he visited
his mother, and 1t was to her house that
he was carried when he made his last mis-
step That was Friday evening last, when
he put a bottle to his mouth and kept IL
tnere until quart OF whisky gurgled down
his throat. He had made a bet that he
could drink two pints of good Ticker -
Wanting that particular kind of intoxicant
he went to a grocery store in the vicinity
OF the place where he lived and gave so
cents or his hard-earned cash for a whole
quart few minutes later ne was asleep
on the sidewalk, and fearing he would
get arrested, one of his friends dragged
him into a hay shed and there he was
left to die. But the man who had sold
him that with which he ended his life took
pity on him and had him taken to his
mothers home. He was speechless and
unconscious, and physician called to
his bedside was unable to revive him. His
mother was powerless to help him. She
had one sick child on her hands, and the
excitement caused by Georges being
brought home In so serious a condition
had operated against the sick child's
chances for recovery. And so George had
to be taken to the hospital. His mother
did not have wealth enough to pay for his
entrance into one of the city hospitals and
SO he had to go to the Washington Asylum
Hospital, where the INDECENT sick are re-
ceived and cared for. To that institution
he was taken in one of Sanitary Officer
for nearly twenty-four hours, and no one
Is able to tell the exact minute that he
breathed his last
Yesterday morning the mother called at
the asylum and was told that her son
would be buried in the afternoon. and when
during that part Of the day friend called
to witness the interment. he was told that
the body had been placed in the vault