The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-13
LETTER RECEIVED AT WASHING
TON STATING THAT HE is ON
HIS WAY HOME.
NOT MURDERED BY TURKS.
STORY OF HIS DEATH AROSE FROM
HIS SUDDEN DETERMINATION
TO LEAVE CRETE.
RETURNED MISSIONARY TALKS.
Says KOords Are but the Paid Tools
of the SuItan-MinneapOIi
Matters.

George Cyrus Thorpe, the special
correspondent Of Minneapolis news
paper, reported in a cablegram re-
ceived one week ago Saturday to have
been killed by the Turks in Crete, still
lives. Such, at least, was the purport
of a special telegram received yester-
day from Washington. The message
was brief, but it appears to indicate
beyond the shadow of doubt that
George is now homeward bound. The
telegram is as follows:
Washington, D. c., Sept. 12.-Mary Kerr
Lyman, Of this city, received letter today,
dated August %, at Athens, from George
Thorpe, who was then en- route to Rome.
If George Thorpe left Athens Aug.
% on his way to Rome, it would have
been an utter impossibility for him to
have met death at the hands of the
Turks near Hierapetra, Island of Crete,
Sept. 4, as reported in the cablegram
announcing his assassination. The let
ter received from him by his Washing
ton friend shows concluSiVely that he
had gotten safely out of Crete and was
indeed far removed from all contact
with the sultan's followers at the very
time of his supposed death.
The meager information now at hand
bears out the theory advanced by DR..
Thorpe, who, in the absence of details,
was from the first inclined to doubt
the truth of the report-that he left
Crete under such peculiar even sus-
picious circumstances, as to give rise
to the wild rumor as to his murder,
which was flashed over the wire before
it could be confirmed. 1t may have
been supposed that the Turks did away
with him, as they had evidently
threatened to do, and had also disposed
of the body
However that may be, the young
man is evidently crossing the Atlantic
at this time and should be in New
York in few days, if, indeed, he has
rot already sighted the statue of Liber-
ty. In his last letter to his brother,
in which he describes his dissertation
of Turkish grave, which is thought to
have greatly aroused the wearers of
the fez, he said that he was heartily
sick of Crete and announced his in
tention of getting back to the United
oldleS dS SUOu DIS pOSSlUlS. All the
while that he had been on his way
toward home and friends. his distract
ed relatives have been cabling the for
eign officials at Crete and the state
officials at Washington, in the vain at
tempt to either confirm or disprove
the dire tidings. The suspense to which
they have been subjected has been ter
rible.
Having left Athens, Thorpe must
have been fully unconscious of the
carard about his tragic end and has
been in no position to inform his rela-
tives that he was still in the land of
the living.
DR.. Thorpe has gone to Morris,
Mimi, and consequently could not be
seen when a reporter called at
his office in the Guaranty Loan build
ing He will be back today and will
read the tidings in this mornings pa
per. The probabilities are he has al
ready been informed by wire Of the
latest developments.
The reception that will be accorded
| George upon his return to Minneapolis
will be rousing one. Dr. Thorpe said a
| few days ago that if Providence would
permit him to return alive he would be
met at the depot with a full brass
band and made the guest of honor at a
dinner of sumptuous proportions.