The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-24

poisons, ana declared that he would yet
accomplish that end at the first oppor-
tunity.
San Rafael's authorities are of no mind
to give him another opportunity for some
time to come. Mrs. Gouldy, the landlady
of the little vine-clad cottage on Ross
street, where the Dodges had apartments,
swore to complaint against Dodge, alleg-
ing insanity, yesterday afternoon, and
upon this complaint he was lodged in the
County Jail. In day or two he will be
examined by the Lunacy Commission and
probably committed to the asylum at
Ukiah for term. Meanwhile he will re-
main in the custody of the Sheriff.
Dodge does not care to talk much about
the occurrences of Wednesday night and
Thursday morning further than to regret
that the poison did not work.
81 blundered at the Job, +" be said yester-
day afternoon. 81 have been a failure al
everything else, and even failed to take
my own life. Well. l shall try again.
There are better ways than poison. I'll
not blunder the next time"
He looked i'll yesterday in his cell in the
County Jail, and one who saw him found
it easy enough to believe that he had taken
overdoses of morphine and chloroform.
buster buttoned tight to his throat, evil
IDENTIFY hiding the absence of linen. He
shook vlsibly when he rose, and there was
even a slight but continuous muscular
contraction when he was seated. He was
very nervous and apparently very weak.
Mrs. Josephine II. Dodge, his mother,
does not show the effects of the poison she
says she swallowed and inhaled as much
as does her son. She is woman of about
90 evidently well educated, of polite man.
ners and rather good conVersationist.
As she talked to THE CALL man yesterday
there were no traces of previous sufferings
on her face, though it was rather pale, and
she seemed a trifle nervous. Evidently
she is perfectly sane, but this fact only
renders her statement the more remarkable.
"We' have been contemplating this act
for nearly year." she said. "My son has
been in bad health, and we have had all
sorts of bad luck in a financial way. His
father was a surgeon in the army and died
when Arthur was about year old NV
father was man of considerable means, q
lumber merchant of Maine, and we have
well-to-do relatives there. We had ap-
pealed to them for help but they turned
their shoulders upon US, and for the last
year or SO our prospects have been the
gloomiest
I'VE paid $500 for the San Miguel
Courier, and after the dry seasons had
longer, sold it for mere song. Since then
everything my son tried seemed to fail
him, and we have often thought of the al
tentative.
ga week or SO ago Arthur told me that
he was going to give up the struggle.
told him to keep on, and tried to cheer
him up. But our funds were gone, and all
the cheer that 1 could give him was sor-
rowful enough.
''We were expecting that he would get q
clerks appointment at San Quentin, but
Governor Budd' illness. think, prevented
that.
Whenever Arthur spoke of death 1
urged him against it and tried to convince
hlm-almost contrary to my own judg-
ment-that such course would be cow
ardly, Finally he said to me one day last
week:
"'Mother, will go off in the woods some
day and kill myself and you will know
nothing about it till they find my body
II could not bear the thought of that
Perhaps hey would not find his body for
many days. Rather than have him do
this l told him l would die with him. I
had nothing to live for and thought
what great relief it would be to both of
US.
Sunday he was quite respondent and
wanted to do the act then. We had moth
A'iS W SdI. liz UOuSuI SOlue TIC dHo W e
soaked it in water and drank that. Since
Sunday, that is the only food we had.
l had written to Warden Hale and was
waiting for an answer. l asked Arthur to
wait day or two until we could hear from
San Quentin. If the answer is unfavor-
able, we will die together in our rooms
told him.
We'll, the answer was unfavorable.
Warden Hale wrote that Governor Budd
had not recommended Mr.. Dodge for a
position there. 1t was Monday afternoon
when we got the letter. Then we made
our plans for suicide
Tuesday Arthur went to Mrs. Gouldy's
sister and borrowed half dollar. We
wrote to DR.. Sawyer, asking him for
prescription tor morphine, telling him that
we wanted it to use as a medicine. When
the prescription came Arthur spent his so
cents in getting it filled at the druggists.
We were ready then, but we waited an
other day. knowing that our landlady,