The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-12
THREATENED TO LEAVE HIM
AND BAD TREATM ont.
HE TRIED TO COMMIT SUICIDE
SOME SIX MONTHS AGO
They Had Been Married Less Than Three
Months She Begged Him to Give Up
Liquor and He Became Angry
Little Katie's Story of
tie Tragt dy.

AFTER seeing nome DllgnteQ ana one
life sacrificed by the insane Jealousy
and craze of drink, which caused a ter
rible double tragedy here yesterday, the
nurses at Rex Hospital are this morn
ing watching another life as it hangs in
the balance.
Albert Watson died two hours after
he sent bullet crashing into his own
brain, and Ada Watson, his wife, may
die at any moment.
Their little four-room cottage, No. 713,
on North Salisbury street, is to-day a
house of sorrow. One of the front rooms
is splashed with the blood of the wife
and soon to have been a mother. The
husband lies in the other--dead. 1t is
4 small house-parlor, bedroom, dining
room and kitchen-with piazza and
well-kept yard in front Everything is
scrupulously clean, though, and be-
speaks the presence Of careful and
thrifty housewife.
All day long yesterday this scene of
the tragedy was visited by crowd of
morbid curiosity seekers. anxious to
view the last vestige of the terrible
deed
The wife was removed TO Rex Hospi-
bal yesterday afternoon at o'clock and
rested quietly during the night. The
funeral of the husband will be held this
morning at 10 o'clock from the Taher-
nacie Baptist church, of which his moth
Or is a member No. eaa
Just three months ago next Thursday
night there was a pretty wedding at the
home Of Mrs. Pearce, 215 Northwest
street. That was the night on which Al
bert Watson promised to love, cherish
and protect pretty Ada Pearte until
death should them part Those who
witnessed it said it was q love-match
and that the two young people would be
very happy
They had been sweethearts for a long
time. But Albert was wild and dissi-
pated, and because of this Ada had re-
fused to marry him until he would
promise to reform. Once he did promise
and they were TO have been married in
April, but just before the day came the
promise was broken, and, true to her
word, the girl sent back the presents
Watson had given her and told him it
was all over between them. In vain he
plead for forgiveness. She adhered to
her decision, and only after he had swal-
lowed an ounce of laudanum in an at
tempt to end his life did she forgive him.
er explained yesterday. She had always
said she wanted to attain to something
better than the surroundings in which
she was reared. Though a factory girl.
she was modestly conscious Of her beauty
and had always declared that it was
her desire to so marry as to elevate her
station in life. This was her dream, and
before she promised to marry Albert
Watson she had told him of her longing,
reminded him that to be a drunkard's
wife would bring shame to any woman,
and made it a condition of the marriage
that he give up forever the wine cup.
He promised again, she took him at
his word, and on July 14th they were
married. He was twenty years old
and she was eighteen.
For two months the couple lived at
the corner of Polk and Bloodworth
streets, apparently in so amicable
manner that their neighbors thought
them the happiest of all that section of
the city. But the neighbors were
wrong, as neighbors frequently are The
husband and wife outwardly calm and
happy, were each bearing hidden sor-
rows that sooner or later BODIED the
breaking up of that cordially that
means everything when people live be-
tween the same four walls.
The time came, as the weeks went by,
that Watson chafed under the promise
exacted and the restraint imposed by his
wife. Old friends, now that he refused
to join them in their "nights out with
the boys" gave him only a nod in pass
ing. Then, no doubt, some Of them took
pains to let him hear them say they
were too much of man to let a woman
manage them.
However this may have been, Albert |
Watson soon began to use morphine
pretty freely, and now and then he
would come home with the odor of whis
key on his breath. This always brought
forth a rebuke from his wife, and at
each succeeding time there would be a
heavier family jar than before.
Saturday night he came in later than
usual and much more under the infu-
ence Of liquor than he had been since