The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-07-29
CRAZED BY WHlSKEY.
The Terrible Tragedy Enacted by Drunk
en- Brute.

Tie Terrible Tragedy Enacted by Drunk
ELBERToN, July o. Yesterday af-
ternoon at twilight Dave Bergman, a
white man, killed his wife, four little
children, the oldest of whom was four
years of age, and committed suicide.
The awful tragedy was enacted at
Berryman's humble home, three miles
from Royston, in Madison county.
Late in the afternoon Mr.. Bergman,
who was a man noted for lis dissipa'
ton, though liked in general way
by those who knew him, was at Hull
& Vaston's saw mill. short distance
by the country road from his home.
He was intoxicated, though by no
means helplessly drunk. Shortly be.
fore the hour for closing down he left
the mill and went, it appears, directly
to his home.
When he arrived the four little chill
dren were playing in the house and the
faithful young wife had prepared sup
per-as tempting a meal as the circum.
stances would permit. The drunken
husband entered. In few moments
six successive gunshots rang out upon
the early evening air and neighbors
rushed to the scene to find the floor OF
of the little cottage bathed in blood,
the dead bodies of the wife and chill
dren strewn about the room and the
brutal husband lying ACROSS the bed,
gasping in the agonies OF death with
his hand tightly clasped about the
stock of q new breechloading gun.
The supper that had been prepared by
Mrs. Bergman was untouched upon
the table aod the room showed no
uigns of disorder. the work of the
murderer having been quickly accom-
plished and without a struggle. Mrs.
Bergman, the wife and mother. was
killed first, and then in quick success
sion, the children, who were too small
to flee for their lives or to the murder
Gus assaults of their father, were shot
one by one and their bodies fell to the
floor, one of them across the breast of
its mother.
Bergman had coolly and deliberate
ly loaaed the gun at each required in
terval and the sixth cartridge, the last
of the third loading, he fired into his
own person. 1t was when his family
lay before him murdered, that he step.
ped across the room, fell face forward
on the bed and stilled the hand that
had rlready sent five lives into eterni-
ty. Bergman was dying when the
neighbors reached the scene. He was
already unconscious, and the deep,
strangling breath of the inhuman
murderer was pregnated with the
fumes of whiskey broken bottle in
his pocket furnished the first surmise
for the cause underlying the tragedy
"a hush md had committed, perhaps,
the most sensational tragedy in the
criminal annals OF Georgia while his
brain was fired by drink.
There was not an eyewitness to the
enactment of the crime. The words
that passed between husband and wife
rrior to the shooting will never be
known. Mrs. Bergman was come
ly, industrious young woman. She
loved her husband and had stood his
dissipation with a fortitude rarely seen.
She had frequently been treated inhu'
manly and yet she clung to him with
that love that binds q wife to hus-
band over the lives of four innocent
babes. is know n that she felt keen
ly the humiliation of her circumstances
but that did not meet the humiliation
that she felt at her husbands insinceri.
ty and infdelity. She often reproVed
him for the undue attention that ne
paid to another woman In the neigh
borhood.
He was absent from his home the lar
ger part of yesterday his wife suspect.
ed his whereabouts and as he reached
home last night, probably upbraided
him for his conduct. 1t convulsed
him With angry passion. He snatched
the gun from its rack and the slaughter
of innocent lives was the sequel. The
tracks on the bloody floor would indi
cate that he turned to the door to es.
cape; he retraced, stopped and glanced
at the bodies of the dead, fell face for
ward on the nearest couch and ten,
as if to atone for the bloody crime end
ed his own life.
Bergman was only % years old and
of good parentage. He was once be.
fore married and his wife left him and
secured divorce on the ground of in
human treatment. He had recently
become infactuated with another wo'
man in the neighborhood and in con.
sequence became tired and dissatisfied
with the young wife thathe murdered.
He had frequently treated her roughly
and on more than one occasion threat.
ened to kill her. She attributed his
brutality to the effects of dissipation,
however, and continued to live with
him, though he barely provided a sub
sistence for the family.
His little children were bright and
playful and at times he seemed to be
fond of them. The oldest was little
girl of 5 and her devotion to her father
has been marked. Her mother encour-
aged it in the hope that family ties
would bring him closer to a sense OF
his duty. The youngest child was 8
babe of few months only. 1t was in
the arms of its mother when she fell
and its body probably received the
second shot that was fred. The heavy
load of the gun ploughed through b the
little ones person, literally tearing i
into shreds, and buried itself in tht
opposite wall. The other two children
were aged 2 and 4, respectively, ano
they had been playing about the home
only few minutes before their little
souls were swept into eternity. AT
lanta Journal.
/ Indian g RataH are Your Men.