Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1897-01-06

himself slow in recovery. His limbs had
lost their vigor his arms were numb
and there We're premonitions that the
brain had come under the same shadOWy
spell. But Mr.. McCulIagh would not
admit that he was failing. either phys
ically or mentally. He insisted on man
aging his newspaper from his bedroom.
All through the day he sat in his arm
chair, wrapped in blankets, received re-
ports from his subOrdinates and gave
them orders for the conduct of the paper.
The theory of suicide is not accepted
by all of Mr.. McCuIlagh's friends. It is
believed by many that he had one of his
attacks of asthma during the night and
II his struggle for breath be threw UP the
window TO obtain fresh air and III his
weakened condition tottpred and fell.
No writings were found in Mr. Me-
Cullagh's room explaining his act or leav-
ing Instructions for the arrangement of
his affairs after death.
1t IS now definitely known that Mr.
McCullagh committed suicide It APP
pears that he had been quite melancholy
for i've days past, and, although he CON
yersed clearly and talked about his per-
Sonal business affairs with his most in
innate friends and his business adviser.
Louis {. BOhle, his mind was disturbed
1T times. Mr.. B0hie was with him un-
til 10 o'clock last night and observed
that he was unusually weak and nervous.
but he did not think anything specially
serious was the matter. and be left him
with the promise that he would return
IN the morning and complete the arrange
ment of some business matters they had
been talking about.
Just before midnight his sister-in-law.
Mrs. ManlOn, went into Mr.. McCullagh'S
room 10 inquire how he was. as has been
her custom for some time past. and
found the gas streaming from one of the
burners and Mr.. McCulagh in a semi
In NJ tofI,
stopped the flow, aired the room and
aroused Mr.. McCullagh. Then. with an
admoniti0n for him to be more careful.
she retired to her own apartments This
morning. on going into Mr.. McCullagh's
room after his body was discovered it
was found that the gas was again flow
ing with almost full force The con-
clUsiOn is reached, therefore that after
his sister left him for the night he de-
liberately turned the gas on again. but
finding death too slow by that means. he
opened the window and plunged headlong
to the pavement below.
Joseph Burbridge McCullagh was born
in Dublin, Ireland, III 1913, and came TO
the United States when he was II wears
old. He at once became an apprentice
in the office of the Freeman's Journal. a
Catholic weekly paper of New York
city, edited by 'tAbbe" McMaster. In
1853, after spending three or four years
in New York, he went to St. IOdis.
where he obtained work as 4 compositor
and later IS reporter on The St Louis
Democrat.
Removing 70 Cincinnati soon after
ward. he was employed as n stenog-
raDher on the Cincinnati Commercial
lie was energetic in securing news and
thereby so far pleased the managers of
the paper that at the outbreak of the
war they selected him to fill the impor-
tln nj NnSfn f n,nts, ~,
he had the happy faculty of transmit
ting the spirit and the coloring of events
III his dispatches, which were widely
read. 1t was he who developed and per
fected the practice OF interviewing, ara
as Mack he soon became the most
widely known of the Washington CORE
spondents.
Later McCullagh left the capital and
became war correspondent for his paper.
He was an ardent Republican and on
more than one critical occasion relin-
quiShed his pen for the sword being one
of the handful of volunteers who manned
the ironclad st. Louis, the first of the
Union vessels to run the gauntlet of the
shore batteries. While crossing the Mis-
sissippi with Gen. Grant a friendship
sprung UP which listed until the generals
death. NIcCullagh was also with Sher-
man on his march through Georgia
After the war McCuliagh made tour
of the South and wrote up his obserVa tons
for the Cincinnati Commercials Later
he was a stenographer for the Associated
managing editor Of the Cincinnati En-
quirer. and in 1870. i'll company with
TWO friends, bought an interest in the
Chicago Republican, now the Inter
Ocean. The paper was burned out dur.
ing the great Chicago fire, in which
Mr.. McCullagh lost a valuable library
and everything else he had
Returning then TO St. Louis Mr.. Me
Cullagh became editor Of the Democrat
hut when the managers of that paper dis
agreed as TO policy, he founded and ed
tied the Globe. in1S13 those papers were
combined as the Giobe-D Democrat, Of
which Mr.. McCullagh has since been the
editor Coming en- the newspaper stage
when Western journals were just be-