The Wichita daily eagle., 1896-11-15

Yesterday morning between ten and
teeven O'Clock Henry Bolte, an old-time
citizen of this city, committed suicide in
barn in the roear of his residence, No.
Bo South Water street Two shots were
hard, and his son Walter, lad of i6
fears. rushed out to the barn to see
What was the cause. He found the
iocdy OF his father still quivering upon
the floor of one of the stalls, the revolver
with which he did the deed laying about
is inches from his right hand. He has
tened back to the house, and informed
his mother of what had occurred She
rushed quickly TO the barn, but kind
hands removed her back TO the house as
quickly as possible. Word was telephon-
ed 10 the coroner, who. when he ar
rived, found Officers Kensler and Macy
upon the scene. They had arrived soon
after the shots We're fred, and had se-
cured the names OF the first persons up
on the scene. The body was immediate
" taken charge of by the coroner and
Undertaken /. w. Gill sent for, who re-
moved the body to his undertaking es-
tablishment, on East Douglas avenue.
The barn floor appeared to have been
recently swept. Just inside the door
Were found his hat and cane upon a
shelf where he had laid them. The body
was laying upon its right side in the
South STALL The explanation of the two
shots heard seemed hard 20 account for.
The revolver (Which is a 3S-caliber
Hopkins & Allen automatic ejector) held
only two cartridges, one loaded and in
the first chamber TO the right of the
one directly behind the barrel which was
the one fired last. Another loaded shell
was found in the right hand pocket Of
his pants. He more than likely had quI-
city walked into the barn, laid his hat
and cane upon the shelf just inside the
door, walked around into the stall and
placing shell into the revolver, fired
j. into the ground to see if it would work.
Then breaking down the arm which
would throw the empty shell out,
placed the loaded shells into the cylin-
der and closed it with the hammer rest
Ing upon the first one. Cooking the arm
mould bring the second shell behind the
berrel, leaving the loaded one to the
right, where ii was found after the
tragedy He probably leaned against
the side Of the stall until he was ready
then, placing the muzzle or the revolver
into his mouth, fired, the ball ranging
upward and lodging in the back of his
4iedo- ne zen upon MS TlSnt sue, Win
his right arm extended above his head
the revolver laying about eighteen inch
es from the hand which fired IT.
MIR. Bolte was an old-time citizen, hav-
ing come to Wichita in 1870. He has
been in feeble health for some time, being
partially paralyzed in .his lower limbs
This, with other physical troubles, prob
ably brought on partial dementia, which
caused him TO prefer death to existence
Under the circumstances He has al
ways been regarded as an honest, up
right citizen. and has had considerable
business capacity, having accumulated
quite little property. He was a Ger
man by birth, and was somewhat over
IS years of age. He was a member of
the Odd Fellows, some of whom were
Cpoi. the ground shortly after the trag-
edy- The coroner's jury which tried the
case brought in a verdict in accordance
with the above results.
The funeral will be held under the aus
plces OF the Odd Fellows lodge this
afternoon from the residence, corner of
Water and Waterman