Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-05-18
Il HAD A o v
said r. Have Been Engaged to . Girl
Nlile in the shadow of Death.

said e. Rave Been Engaged to . Girl
While in the shadow of Death.
The New York Herald prints the
following: Cai,yle w. Harris was the
hero ola romance while he raj await
ing death in the Tombs prison. A
girl who met him by chance n Sum
day iii one OF the gloomy corridors,
fell in love with him, visited him
daily and fondly awaited the moment
Of mis- release, when she expected that
he would marry her. Her devotion
To him was as great as his mothers,
and She is believed to be sthe young
oma dressed in deep mourning"
who accompanied Carlyle Harris
cousin E. Nj. Hill, alias Edward Nor
rill, from New York to Albany and
attended the funeral OF the executed
criminal At the tombs the girl
called Eerself "Carrie Jones'" That
was net her real name.
Nina Van Zandt's mad marriage to
August Spies, who was one OF the con-
denmod Chicago anarchists, was not
nearlvas peculiar as Carrie Jones"
infatuation for the convicted murder
or. Miss Van Zandt was not prom
Used il marriage to any mar when she
fascinated the anarchist leader and
married him in his cell beneath the
vers shadow OF the gallows. Yet the
girl who offered herself in marriage
10 Harris deliberately broke an en-
gagement of marriage with a worthy
and estimable young man in order TO
become the afianced bride of a man
who lad been indicted for stealthily
administering poison to his school
girl wife, so that she died. Her only
excuse was that in him she had found
her affinity.
As nearly as any n about the
Tombs can remember, the gruesome
love affair logan early in December,
1891. Carrie Jones had visited the
gloomy old prison with a band of
young women and a few young men,
who had volunteered TO cheer the in
mates by singing songs to the accom-
paniment OF a small organ. Miss
Jones was apparently fascinated by
the handsome, plausible soft-voiced
young prisoner. She fingered longer
than any of her companions, and Har-
ris' ~protestat. Ions OF innocence aroused
her TO enthusiasm in his behalf. She
returned TO the Tombs with the band
OF hymn singers on the following Sun
day. Somehow, with the help of that
diplomacy which only ome under
stand, she managed to enjoy 10 min
utes CT conversation with Harris
alone.
Shrewd and clever as he was, il did
nottake him long to discover that she
was infatuated with him. When she
asked whether he would see her If she
called some time before the next Sun
day, he answered that he would be
charmed to receive her as best he
could amid his poor, wretched sur
roundings.
Miss Jones' called on the con-
denmed wife poisoner the next day.
SHE no longer wore the diamond set
IN a strip OF gold that marked her as
the afIianced bride of another man.
She had told her promised husband
very plainly that she could never
marry him, because she loved anoth-
er, When Harris was removed from
the upper tier Of cells down to the
condemned row In the tombs, she be-
gan TO call upon him every day.
They talked in whispers for hours.
Whether she proposed marriage TO
him, or whether he, with unbounded
faith In his good fortune, asked her
TO be his wife, is a secret which now
rests in her keeping alone. But it is
certain the pair became engaged TO be
married.
Carrie Jones paid her last visit to
Harris after Recorder Smgthe had re-
fused to grant him a new trial. Pris-
on discipline forbade him seeing any
stranger after that, and, under the
rules, Miss Jones was a stranger. Up
to the last moment she never lost
hope that Harris life would be spared.
she was one of the hardest workers in
bringing forward neweyidence to help
him to a new trial.
I'm