The Penn's Grove record., 1897-05-28

A Brooklyn Bnrrister. Who Had Wealth
Because Life Had Been a Failure
Sacrificed His Boy to Save Him Pain
Called the Lad From Play to Death.
New YonK CITY (Specia).-Charles
Kemble Hillyard, a Brooklyn lawyer, who
began life as an actor and was u relative
OF Charles and Anna Kemble, Mrs. Scott
siddons and Algernon sartorls, took the
life OF himself and of HIS thirteen-year-old
boy either on Monday night or early Tues
day morning. His own failure in life, his
inability to obtain clients, or In the social
world to gather friends to himself through
the bonds Of sympathy, had been brooded
over so much that 1t had become a o
mania with him. When there was added
to this the melancholy Into which the death
OF his wife threw him, his unbalanced mind
turned to suicide as q relief. Unwilling to
have his boy face the world that had
proved SO bitter to him, Hillyard took the
lad with him into the great unknown.
The double tragedy occurred in the
sleeping room Of the father and ION, on the
second floor OF their home. at No. 212
Greene avenue, Brooklyn. A revolver, with
two empty chambers; which was found near
the body Of the father, and bullet holes in
the heads OF the father and SON, just above
the right ear in each case, tell how the deed
was done, though it is not known that any
one heard the shots. 4,
Among the letters, schedules and state
ments written by Hillyard in explanation
Of his contemplated deed, there is a re-
markable sort OF brief or argument for the
tragedy which he was planning. Additions
and nfartipanftnn in Qnma+ nj thpCp EtNfp-
ments make IL probable that the killing OF
his boy was an a~fterthought.
Hillyard was nfty-four years old. and. al
though a graduate OF the Columbia Law
School and with twenty years of attempted
practice of law behind him, desk room in
an office of the Arbuckle Building was all
he needed for conducting the legal affairs
Of his handful of clients. On Monday even
ing he returned home in q particularly
%fretful, uneasy frame of mind. Through
out supper his manner was exceedingly
nervous, and when he arosei from the table
he told his son to come upstairs with him.
But the lad, a happy. talented y%oungster,
was repairing his bicycle for a ride which
he intended taking, and said:
"Wait, papa, 1 want to clean my bicycle"
The father consented, but went upstairs
himself. At 8 o'clock the boys usual bed
time, Hillyard called down for the boy, and
the latter went up. After the boy had re-
tired Miss Catherine Mein, Hillyard's sister
ln-law, entered the room with q basket of
apples, and found Hillyard writing. Then
she went to her room on the third floor,
where also slept the servant, the only other
person in the house.
Miss Mein, at 8 O'Clock next morning,
knocked at the door of the room, and, hear
Ing n answer, entered just far enough to
see the body OF the boy. She thought she
saw the lad move, but 1t must have been
the wind blowing the covers. Fearing to
arouse the irritable nature Of her brother
ln-law, she withdrew.
1t wa after the luncheon hour when sus-
piciops were aroused by the ~non-appear-
ance. Of the two. Miss Mein again went to
the room and this time went in far enough
tG see that the heads OF the man and the
boy were covered with blood.
The body Of the boy was lying In his little
brass bed in the alcoye of the sleeping
room. It was lying OF the left side, and
he placiS countenance indicated that there
was no return of consciousness when the
father leaned over and fired the shot that
changed the sleep of life to the sleep of
death.
The fathers bed stood beside the boys.
HilIyard's body lay across this, and the re-
golver wa on the fioor.5He had evidently
sat on the edge of the bed to shoot himself.
Over his nfghtgown was a dressing-gown,
and his slippers were on his feet.
On the centre-table were found the state
ments md letters which he left, and some
unpaid bills. On q stand at one side rested
q large Bible, open at the twenty-third
Psalm. In the closet was Hillyard's hat,
with a mourning band on it, and q dress
suit,