The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-05
HE TELLS HIS STORY
FIRST PUT THE INFANT IN A BOX
AND HID IT IN A CULVERT.
THEN HIRED A NEGRO TO BURY 1T
BABY,s MOTHERS HANDKERCHIEF
Is FOUND IN THE BOX.
She is Supposed to be the Ex-Bookkeeper
ofa Prominent Factory-How
the Trail Was Found.

the Trail Was Found.
Dr.. L. J. Jones was arrested last night
by the officers charged with the DISPOSE
ton of the little boy baby that was
found in the Arkansas river last Fri
day.
The coroner's inquest was to have
been held yesterday but on motion of
John Davis. the county attorney, who
has taken a great interest in the drown
ed infant, the hearing was postponed
until May % for the purpose of develop
ing some suggestions that were liable
10 throw light on the subject.
The arrest OF DR.. Jones was made
early in the night but it was near mid
night when a reporter for the Eagle
rang the bell at the county jail door
and was admitted to the corridor.
From the corridor the reporter saw
the white whiskers of DR.. Jones
through the bars of the first cell in the
rotary and the glinting of his gold rim
med glasses.
When he recognized the reporter to
be one from the Eagle he called and
beckoned for him rapidly to approach
and when he did DR.. Jones extended his
hand through the strong steel bars and
said: 'Ohi 1 am glad that you came
l wanted to see you awful bad because
the Eagle always gives the right side of
StorT. tsG
After saying this the aged doctor
shed coDiouS tears and seemed to be
half crazy.
Commencing he reviewed his life from
infancy TO the present time. II was Sc
years old in February" he said, land
this is the first time 1 have been in a
jail charged with a crime He was born
and raised in Flemming county, Ken
lucky, but came here before the boom
the pOssessor of money and property
aggregating $4,000. He then told a sad
and pathetic story concerning his fall
and his spasmodic outbursts of grief
would draw sympathy from a heart of
stone.
To make long story short, he found
himself pauper without home or
friends and his children sea tered when
Oklahoma opened. He went down
there and took a claim, but as he him
self said Texan swore harder than he
could and he lost his claim in a contest.
At one time the doctor had a fine
house in the neighborhood Of River
view In fact he named that street him
self. The house was heavily mortgag-
ed and no one was living in it.
When the doctor returned from Ok
iahoma he did not have a blood relat-
i've in the city. He was ragged and
homeless and did not have a penny in
his pocket. Il was too honest to steal"
said he. too proud to acknowledge my
poverty and too much of a soldier to
beg" The result was that he went TO his
empty mortgaged mansion which, by
this time was in ruins, placed a little
straw in a corner and slept there.
When the nights got cold he took with
him a homeless Salvation Army boy
and both together managed to keep in
differently warm.
Notwithstanding DR.. Jones' poverty
ne still had his pride and he appeared
smiling and apparently happily in the
streets although hunger gnaw at his
stomach for days al a time. Every once
in a while some poor unfortunate
among the depraved and the wicked and
the diseased would give him so cents to
be cured but the greater number of
times the cure was wrought without the
compartment of the coin. The doctor
had with his pride a generous heart
that warmed 10 the distressed. He said
that he did not like the practice he was
doing as he never was used TO Ii, his
profession before coming to Wichita be-
ing entirely confined TO country vista
tons in Kentucky. He had, however.
10 do something for 10 get enough
money to buy a few crackers occasion
ally
In trying to tell his sad story to the
reporter for the Eagle DR.. Jones wand
- 1a,N
nected. He sometimes talked most pa
thetically about his family affairs and
al other times he would talk about his
srmy life. He was a surgeon in the
Union army and received a fine sword
from his regiment al A token of esteem.
When the doctors days of prosperity
were darkened he received from a gen.
erous~ government the sum OF So per
month and he rented an office on East
Douglas avenue, where he made has
home until he was arrested. Having
the patronage of an unenviable class of
people and being old he found better
ing his practice, so far as extending II
into the better class of people, fairly
hopeless and he was contented TO make
90 cents here and there as best he |
could.
One unfortunate told of his kindness |
10 another unfortunate and the result |
Is he had practice which. while extern 1
sive, was making him more Of pau !
per than he was before. And still the 1
doctor acted the part Of the respectable /
southern gentleman as best he could /
under the circumstances.
Some weeks ago a young woman /
whom he family knew or recollected as
a bookkeeper in a certain factory in the /
city and not far from his office sent a I
note 10 him - come and see her. He /
did and found out her trouble. She I
was having those nervous fits peculiar /