The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-06-08
A ROMANTIC SUICIDE.
Tilted Lover Tried to Kill the OBJ
jeot Of His Affections,
AND THEN ENDED HIS OWN LIFE.

The Girl Had Jiltea Him and Had APP
peaied to the Court to Prevent His
Annoying Her-The Suicide u Prof
ligate Patent Attorney,
Washington, June 8.-The throng OF
government clerks and others hurrying
up Pennsylvania avenue yesterday
were startled by the attempted
murder of Miss Dorothy Z. Squires
and the suicide of Charles Barber,
a patent attorney, who had gained
much notoriety of late by his eccentric
actions. Barber shot Miss Squires and
then turning the revolver on himself
put bullet through his BRAIN causing
almost instantaneous death.
Miss Squires was shot in the back of
the head. At the Emergency hospital,
whittier she was taken, 1t is said the
wound probably will not result serl-
ously.
Barber had considerable of patent
practice, but had been growing more
and more eccentric for several years,
and Of late many of his friends thought
him mentally unbalanced. Miss Squires
formerly worked for him as a stem
ographer and upon leaving his employ
he annoyed her with his attentions,
threatening to injure her If she would
not permit him to call.
Finally the affair became so serious
that she had to appeal to the courts for
protection, and he was placed under
bonds to keep the peace. He seems not
to have desisted, however. for since
then the girl had received several
threatening letters from him, in the
last of which he announced that he
would do something which they both
would regret.
Barber was hard drinker and an
inveterute gambler, who made several
futile efforts to reform IT the instance
Of friends who recognized his brilliant
talents but also his lack of steadiness
and purpose in life. He left several let
tiers showing that he had premeditated
yesterdays tragedy. He loved motor
iety. In a statement to the public, dated
Sunday, he said:
Il shall kill Miss Dorothy Squires and
myself tomorrow II she will not con-
sent to marry me- Over five years ago
ographer and typewriter. She fell in
love with me at once and l with her.
She is bright, accomplished and was
devoted to me, but very Jealous"
Barber then complains that friends
of Miss Squires had Influenced her
against him, and continues
Il am simply insane and dying for
love of her 1 have not always done
done right but loved her better than
l knew, and always came back to her.
We are both sensitive and highstrung.
She is my very life, and will be my
DEATH"
A postscript to this said:
II was born in New York: was an
orphan Mt the age of years; had
stepmother, and left there for Wash
ington at the age of is: studied law
and was associated with General Ben
jamin F. Butler for the last five years
of his life. l have bright prospects to
open up law office with a good man
in New York, but I cannot live TO do
1t. I gave President Mckinley a St.
Bernard dog, and stood well with him.
May God pity and forgive us all"
His reference to 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 d
burning stable, cling to what con-
sumes me. to the solitary life which
does me so much harm. l 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
should have missed my destiny and
stilled my true nature, lest l should
have buried myself alive, passed
through me like a shudder. The free
being who abandons the conduct of
himself yields himself to Satan. In the
moral world there is no ground with
out a master, and the waste lands be-
long to the evil one. I have carried
these two conflicting extracts with me.
trying to grasp the latter and control
myself, but the struggle is too much.
l cannot rally. l am sorry and | am
not. / believe ! act the divine will"