The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-08
"I ACT THE DIVINE WILL"
LAWYER SIT COTS 4 FORMER SWEET
 HEART THEN KILLS HIMsELF,

HEART THEN KILLS HIMSELF, Young Woman Not Mortally Hurt-At- tempt at Murder DeIiberate-The Would be-Murderer Leaves a Number of Letters Comb Saves His Intended Victims Life.
 Washington, June 7.-Charles F. Bar Der, prominent patent attorney, made an attempt this morning on the life of Miss Dorothy Squires, a typewriter, twenty-two years of age, with whom he was in love, and after shooting her twice placed his pistol against his own temple and sent bullet into his own brain. He died almost instantly.
 Miss Squires is at the Emergency hospital, and the physicians there say that her wounds will not result fatally unless blood poisoning sets in. The shooting occurred a few minutes be- fore o'clock on Four and a Half street just above Pennsylvania avenue. Miss Squires was going to her office when she was accosted by Barber, who had been concealed in an areaway. He ad- dressed her, but Miss Squires hurried on. Barber followed a pace or two be- hind, talking to his intended victim. They had gone few rods when Bar Der drew a revolver and fired point blank at the girl
 rrbo b,111a+ ct, tba ba n1x Of her ear but it's force was somewhat broken by a celluloid comb Pieces of the comb were driven into Miss Squires' skull. The bullet was embedded in the fleshy part of the neck Miss Squires drop ped on her knees when the bullet struck her, and while she was in that position Barber fired again, wounding her in the hand. He then killed himself
 Barber came here from St. Lawrence county, NewYork, in President Arthur's administration. He went into the pat ent law business and secured good practice. Recently he had acted queer ly, and the local papers have had anus ing accounts of his trouble with other persons about a dog. The trouble got into the courts.
 His attentions to Miss Squires also brought him into notoriety. He had threatened her a number of times, and several weeks ago was arrested for as- saulting her brother. Then Miss Squires applied for a restraining order to pre- vent him from interfering with herself or her business. Miss Squires had fre- quently rejected the lawyers offers.
 Barber was a hard drinker and an inveterate gambler, who made several futile efforts to reform at the instance of friends who recognized his brilliant talents, but also his lack of steadiness and purpose in life. He left several letters showing that he had premedi- tated to-day's tragedy. He loved no toriety. In a statement to the public he said:
 ''I shall kill Miss Dorothy Squires and myself tomorrow if she will not consent to marry me. Over five years ago she came to me for work as stem agrapher and typewriter; I employed her. She fell in love with me at once and I with her; she is bright, accom- plished and was devoted to me, but very jealous"
 Barber, then complains that friends of Miss Squires had influenced her against him.
 q am simply insane and dying for love of her I have not always done right, but loved her better than I knew and always came back to her. We are both sensitive and high strung She is my very life and will be my death."
 A postscript to this said:
 ''I was born in New York, was an orphan at the age of three years, had 8 stepmother and left there for Wash ington at the age of fifteen, studied law and was associated with General Beniamin F. Butler for the last five years of his life. I have bright pros poets to open up a law office with a good man In New York, but I cannot live to do it. I gave President McKin- ley at St. Bernard dog and stood well with him. May God pity and forgive us all.'
 His reference to President Mckinley grew out of the fact that he sent him an immense St. Bernard dog several weeks ago.
 Another statement left by Barber reads:
 Sadness and anxiety seem to be in- creasing upon me. Like cattle in a burning stable, I cling to what con- sumes me, to the solitary life which does me so much harm. let myself be devoured by inward suffering.
 My old self, the dreams which used to haunt me, passionate impulses, high aspirations, all revived in me at once with unexpected force The dread lest I should have missed my destiny and stified my true nature, lest I should have buried myself alive. passed through me like 6 shudder. The free being who abandons the conduct of himself yields himself to satan; in the moral world there Is no ground without a master. and the waste lands belong to the evil one. I have these two con ficting extracts with me, trying to grasp the latter and control myself but the struggle Is too much.
 'I cannot rally, I am sorry, and I am not I believe I act the divine will.
 Signed: "B. D..
 Norwich Republicans Victorious.