Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-08
SAM JONES' LIFE IN PERIL
Insane Georgian Visits His Home With
Murderous Intent.
Claims the Evangelist Has Tried to
Ruin Him-The Police Notified
and Arrest Follows.

An attempt was made a few days ago to
assassinate Rev. Sam P. Jones, the evan
gelist well known in Washington, by a
man who is believed to be insane, who went
to Mr.. Jones home. in Gainesville, Ga,
for that purpose. The would-be assassin is
man named Rise, tailor by trade, who
for thirteen years has been a resident of
Atlanta. During this time he has frequent
ly heard Mr.. Jones preach. Rise is said
to be Victim of the widest sort of delu-
sional insanity-what the experts call in
sanity paranoiac.
The information in reference to the affair
came an intimate acquaintance of Mr..
Jones here from personal friend, who
after briefly referring to the affair, went on
to say: For nearly five years Rise has
been firmly convinced, he says, that Sam
Jones was endeavoring to ruin his char
acter and his family. He has written many
letters to him telling him that the matter
must be settled, and whan Mr. Jones re-
piled that it was all a mistake, the deluded
| man looked upon the disavowal as a sub
terfuge and a prevarication.
Tells of His Wrongs.
"Risse had told his family of the persecu-
ton and had made them believe his
charges. Night and day he had talked to
his wife and children of the great wrong
Sam Jones was doing him. Finally, after
five years of the imagined persecution, he
made up his mind that he could bear 1t no
longer, and went to Gainesville for the
purpose of settling it once and for all, as he
said.
Fortunately Mr. Jones was not at home
Mrs. Jones received the man, and when he
had gone away telegrapned the chief of
police at Atlanta, and requested the chle1
of police at Cartersville to do the same
asking him to arrest Rise as soon as ne
nod h a
veyed the information that Rise had
threatened to kill Mr.. jones, and as soon as
Risse reached Atlanta he was taken into
custody and locked up at the police head
quarters.
.Risse was visited in his cell by several
friends of Mr.. Jones, one of whom asked
him to make statement as to why ne
wanted to kill the evangelist, and in reply
he said: I am forty-eight years of age and
have been in Atlanta for thirteen years
Over five years ago Sarh-JoneS began ms
efforts to ruin me. The first thing he dld
was to tell my employers that was I'M
plicated in some stealing in their store. L
was then trying to get better situation
and that ruined me. Since then he has
told all my friends that l was a thief and
ought to be run out of town l wrote him
thirty-one letters, the first one being dated
eighteen months ago / kept writing and
telling him that this thing had to be set
tied, and that he had to let me alone. He
replied only once, and then he wrote me a
pack of lies saying that l was mistaken,
and that he had never tried to hafln me, as
he did not even know me.
"'Of course, that was written just to
throw me off the track, for after that he
kept up his mean work, hurting my char
acter all he could. / told him two weeks
ago that | was going to Cartersville to see
him. and today being the Fourth OF July
and a holiday | just thought it about the
time l could find to see Jones and make
him settle the whole matter with me right
away When l got TO Gainesville, found
that Jones had got scared and run away.
| met his wife and she told me Mr.. Jones
wasn't there. and then | knew he was
scared. / had to come back to Atlanta, but
| will see Mr.. Jones again.
when asked if it had been his intention
to kill Mr.. Jones if he had found him at
home Risse replied oh, we'll didn't want
to Kill him, but if he had not settled the
matter | don't know what / might have
done, for l have stood this thing as long as
l am going to-
Risse Powerful Man.
"Risse is a powerfully built man and
abundantly able to do Mr.. Jones harm if he
should get convenient opportunity.
''Of course, no one who knows MIR. Jones
will believe for a moment that there Is any
truth in the mans charges, but the ques-
Rise? If he is in truth a paranoiac, Mr..
Jones life will be in constant danger if the
man is at large, and it is probable that Mr..
Jones family will want Risse sent to an
insane asylum.
IF Risse is sent to an institution his
wife and seven little children will be left