The morning call., 1894-02-27
ONE MORE LINK
In a Remarkable Chain
of Fatality.
The Last Is William Nelson, Who
Winds Up on Cot at the
Receiving Hospital.

A large bodied man. not yet so years of
age, with suggestive stoop to his shoul-
ders and a big round face. was taken to
the Receiving Hospital yesterday. There
was great deal about the man indicative
OF more prosperous days, and in his facial
lines there was written plainly history.
The man was William NJ. Nelson, and
he was suffering from severe stomach
trouble, so serious as to be deemed danger
Gus by the physician who attended him.
Nelson without doubt appeared wreck
of what he once was.
Everybody will remember William Mel
son, for not many years back he was
prominent figure in local affairs, appearing
in many roles and attracting attention in
each. Whether as a virile writer in weekly
journals. a lecturer on politics, a PAM
phleteer attacking other men with a Vol
| tartan sting, or as the indefatigable
worker in a mistaken cause, he was the
same strong. inconsistent and unsuccess-
full genius. But even in his failures he
attracted attention from the very manner
of his methods. AS politician ne had no
policy, as lawyer no briefs, as writer
no followers He was only feared for his
methods. For over a dozen years he ran
this erratic career. until each ill-directed
purpose came heme like the Arabian's
curse to roost and William NJ. Nelson,
broken up and ruined, disappeared from
public view.
Chiefly. however, will be claim men,
DRY in local affairs from his connection
| With the Sharon case. Nelson was the
man who first brought that cause celebre
| into the courts. and in the beginning ap-
peared as the Quixotjc champion of the
unfortunate Sarah Althea Hill. She came
| TO his notice while he was an editorial
writer on weekly journal. and he at once
| took up her cause with his characteristic
but lil-dlrected force. Throughout the
early parts OF that celebrated legal drama
he occupied a prominent position. but
when the heavyweight lawyers got in
! their work, he ceased to cut much figure.
Nelson, in his collapse and decrepi-
tude, without home or friends, nor a cent
to buy meal. incapacllated mentally and
| lying on cot from which he may never
arise, is only another striking example of
! me strange fatality attending the careers
| OF the leading actors In that most remark
| able case, SO iDterspersed with the
humorous, the pathetic and the tragic.
| Misfortune, poverty, dishonor and death
has claimed at times the leading dramatis
| persona.
First came the death of Sharon in the
midst of the legal combat. Subsequently
Judge Terry almost disrupted his family
| by eSpouslDg the woman whose name had
3.
next scene was the attempt to get posses
sion of the celebrated marriage contract
| by the payment of S25 600, which was
seized by George Washington Tyler's
clerk, Mclaughlin. Mclaughlin fled with
the money, which he spent in Honolulu,
afterward ending bis days in misery and
obscurlty.
OF the Judges who tired various phases
| of the case Judge Lorenzo Sawyer is no
more. and Judge T. K. Wilson. who tried
those accused of perjury in the case. died
in Los Angeles.
George Washington Tyler, Sarah AL
| thea's leading counsel, lived to bring the
| disgrace of disbarment upon himself.
| Expert Piper for the defense likewise
vanished from the scene. Each succeed
ing episode in the concluding scenes of
that lamentable drama brought melan-
choly examinations TO the careers OF the
actors. AS the denouement approached
tragic element prevailed, and the pistol
ana the knife were fiourlsned in anything
but metaphorieal confusion.
First, In the United States Circuit Court
Sarah Althea was arrested for having a
weapon in her satchel. Then came the fatal
meeting of Justice OF the Supreme Court
of the United States Stephen j. Field and
eX-Judge Terry at Lathrop. The intended
| slap in the face, conceived as an insult by
the ex-duellisi, died before the thought
| BECAME action, for a bullet FROM the pistol
OF Dspuiy United States Marshal Maggie
put the SLAYER of Frederick into that sleep
| which knows no waking.
Still more tragic than death came the
fate OF the central figure in the case,
Sarah Althea, the Infringing of her mina,
out of tune and harsh. Saddest fate Of ali
was this, 10 pass the remainder of her
days in padded cell in an insane asylum,
listening to the tangled bells of diseased
| mind.
/ Last comes Nelson, who first pulled the
strings that set in motion the strange and
tragic scenes that make up this eventful
history. Broken in health, ruined in
prospects with hardly the comfort of
| lingering hope, he lies neglected, for
gotten. on the pauper bed of public hos
Dital. from which he may never arise.
After many years Sarah Althea Hill and
| Nelson lie on the same rack of a common
misfortune and appear TO be the connect
/ ing links which hem in he sfr 60,