The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-07-30
Young Lady in Maryland Muir
dered by a Negro.
He FIRST OUTRAGED HER
And Then Cut Her Throat With
a Pocket Knife.
ANOTHER LYNCHING PROBABLE E
The Murderer Has Made a Confession
and the People Are Now in a
Very Excited State
of Mind.
of Mind.

Washington, July ga coroners
jury to-day found Jas. Smith, the ne
gro waiter, guilty of the murder last
night of Marguerite Drown, at Seat
Pleasant, a large country boarding
house about eight miles from Wash
ington, in Prince Georges county, and
late developments in the case have
added so much horror to the crime that
there are numerous threats of anothca
Maryland lynching as soon as con-
venient opportunity occurs.
Smith was arrested by the Washing
ton police to-day in the northwestern
part of the city and in view of the
excited condition of the people OF
Prince Georges county, probably VIII
be held until formal requisitlon is
made in order to permit the excitement
to be partly allayed.
The negro made two confessions,
partly contradictory, but each admit
ting the murder. In the first coDfes-
sion he said he had cut Miss browns
throat with a knife yesterday because
she rejected advances he had made to
her again In his second confession
he denied that he had outraged as well
as murdered her yesterday, but also
stated that he had gone to her room
for the purpose of making advances to
her, had been repulsed, had choked
her into unconsciousness and then had
procured knife from the kitchen and
killed her.
The doctor who performed the au-
topsy said that the examination of the
body showed that the girl first had
been knocked down and rendered un-
conscious by blow on the forehead,
that she had then been outraged and
later killed by the sewerage of the
wind pipe and jugular vein.
The jury promptly returned its yer-
dict in accordance with this evidence.
The negro servants about the place
were held in custody on suspicion that
they knew more of the affair than dis
closed in their testimony.
Seat Pleasant is country boarding
house, conducted by Mrs. Sarah r..
Drown, foster mother of the murdered
girl. The deed was committed shortly
after o'clock. A colored cook heard
a noise upstairs and saw Smith COM
ing down the steps. He asked him
what Miss Margaret was screaming
about. Smith replied. ooh, nothing;
she's just laughing" Smith said he
would go to neighbors after some
eggs, and that was the last seen of
him until his arrest to-day.
Mrs. Drown, who was in Washing
ton, arrived home shortly afterward,
and the cook told her what he had
heard. She went up to her daughters
room and found the door locked. An
other key was secured; then Mrs.
Drown entered the room and made the
awful discovery. The murdered girl
was lying in the center of the room,
at the foot of a bed, PROSTATE upon
her back, her arms outstretched. Her
face was covered with blood, and her
head lay in pool of it, A gaping
wound showed in her throat, evidently
made by keen-edged pocket-knife.
Subsequent examination showed that
the jugular, the wind pipe, and the
arteries had been severed. The wea-
pom had evidently been plunged into
the woman's throat with a powerful
thrust and drawn across. The imple-
ment of murder was not found.
1T was learned from persons familiar
with the circumstances that James
Smith, the suspected murderer, had
made advances to Miss Drown several
times during the past three weeks.
Miss Drown was twenty-fOur years
of age. She was a handsome girl, of
fine figure.