The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-08
LOST GIRL DEAD ON ROOF.
FOUND. AFTER 4S HOURS, BrIEG
ON 4 MOUND OF SNOW.

~ 80 @e
Roor 1t Last-suan's Eeotprifts Beside uer
Her Lover MAD uroksn 9Ssir EnSaEement.
Kate Drought, a handsdfAo girl Of 10 who
used to DO q model in q big dressmakine house
in Madison avenue. disappeared from her homo
last Saturday. She was found. yesterday. dead
Of carbolic acid poisoning on tho roof Of
the building in which her aunt lives,
Madison avenue and 135th street. Her
body up on tho roof was not discovered
until o o'clock last evening, when her uncles.
Michael and Daniel Drought. distracted with
grief and worn out by an inoessant search for
the girl. covering a period of forty-cight hours,
went to the roof as a last resort, and found her,
fully dressed, lying on q guilt, which was spread
on n mound of snow.
Miss Drought wac tho daughter Of William
Drought, n builder, who lives in the apartment
house at 200 West 105th street. Kate was
his favorito daughter. and she had many
friends among the young people Of the neigh
borhood. ono Of them being Robert Wright. a
good-looking man Of "a, who formerly lived in
tho same apartment house with the Droughts.
A short time ago Wright, It Is said,
bought the saloon on the northwest corner of
Madison avenue and 135th street. and he went
there to live. On Jan. 3 Kate's aunt, Mrs.
Mary Hicks. and her husband moved into the
fat on tho third floor. and Kate began to call
there frequently.
On Saturday afternoon she left her home at
$50 o'clock. saying that she was going TO meet
her sister Hannah. who works in Altman's. She
said she would wait until Hannah was through
for the day and 60 with her to a milliner's
in the shopping district to buy a bonnet
for her baby sister. Instead Of doing
SO. she must have gone directly across
town to her aunt's home in Madison avenue
Mira Hirla snya that X ta rnYpn IN har Ant at q
o'clock and said she wanted to 500 Wright. At
her request Mrs. Hicks went down to the saloon
and told Wright that Kate was waiting in
the fiat upstairs to see him. Wright, Mrs.
Hicks says, declared that he could not
see her at that time. Ho said that he
was tired and that he intended to go directly to
bed. as he wished to get a few hours sleep before
6 o'clock, when he would have to relieve his
bartender. Mrs. Hicks went back to the fiat
and told her niece what Wright had said. The
message, Mrs. Hicks said, did not seem to affect
the girl. for she was cheerful and chatty and
apparently not disconnected.
About fifteen minutes later Mrs. Hicks left
the house to do some shopping in tho neighbor-
hood. When she returned in hall, an hour the
girl, Ella Allen, was not in the fiat at the time.
When she came back she said she had not seen
Mrs. Hicks says that for some reason she inn
mediateiy began q search for her niece. She
hunted through the neighborhood. and when
she could neither find her nor any one who had
seen her she went back to her home and began
to search about the rooms. On the dining room
were scrawled these words:
H. "DEAR ArNT: | am going far, far away.
TO me. Please tell papa and mamma.
- KATE"
Mrs. Hicks sent the note to the girls parents
tiaeS ths SSiice and har two ancses. Daniel and
Michael Drought, who began search independ-
They visited the hospitals and police stations
without result, and finally. Yesterday afternoon
Tinally Michael began to question Ella Allen. tho
servant. The girl finally told him that on Sat
urday afternoon some one had stolen a bod quilt
which she had hung out for an airing on the
Ladder add reaching from ne hall to the roof. She
before because she feared her mistress would be
"Eet US try the roof" suggested Michael
Drought; It's the only place we haven't Wis
Daniel pointed to the ladder. which was rick
ETY. and difficult of ascent, and said that no girl
could ever climb to tho roof on it. Michael
frsa Thing hR; M his ege ne lE Pahshsaf ON up w sns Kaf. ao Sst the q
ostrich feathers. which lay on the roof 3
it he saw the body OF his niece
lying in a heap in the snow near the corner; Her
Her clothes were slightly disarranged,
at apa ahd her top. waist aar S Saa oS SreMs T Ssfs %ns nsSslS
sSi!'d back ePd q "tfSs herr he inso and a knot ono h ct
as though burned with acid. The legs were
drawn up and the body was twisted as though
shoulder cape which she wore on Saturday.
the rh snSw w sreu fo9t ISe boa Sppf soma 0f ia tbe 9nc Ma in
evidently made by the shoes Of a man. but
there was no evidence OF a struggle.
vaEfiDatinn fhR fNvn InRlnG NJ tho 1and ntrl
climbed down from the roof ar.d fled TO tho
street. where they told a policeman. The case
street station and a squad of men were sent out
on a tour Of Investigation. Meantime the news
spread through the neiehborhood,. and a great reet
crowd gathered at the doorway leading to
tho fgt; a hastys message was sent to Cor.
ON on't the eI reof un nfp he sn arrived SSaI Wien VIZ a' he cams
there he borrowed a lantern. and. followed by
sSxGrai M eS Q Of the he l aSiior Street an stati oS.
climbed up the rickety ladder and made
a after h's which eH So @ oTdsTea ct Il to the So t sSSy;
down from the roof An undertaken succeeded
s an Esisinf Il tN Sa 90d fSs aeMd t 10 a stre ehs eerr nnd
when his assistants lowered it through tho
sfutale 2, It Nv was SH SMSq hsln by several ncighoors who
Hicks his physician. pr. o,Hanlon, made an au.
carbolic acid poisoning. Then a hunt for the bottle
which had contained on taed The poison was begun, but
IL c0Nlu not DO tOunu eltner on tne roof or In the
rooms OF Mrs, Hicks. Coroner Bausch said
that Mrs. Hicks and her, husband told him
ITS and that She Ind one on Thurs:
Coroner about the message which Kate had
sent to Wright. Later when Detective Mcchan
questioned Wright he admitted that he, had
been engaged g the girl. but said that he
had broken the engagement off because
hor father objected to tho marriage. He
said he had received a letter from the girl last
Friday. in which she said that he. Wright, stood
between her and her duty to her father. Wright
said that he Immediately wrote a reply telling
Kate that he did not wish to come between
her and her father. and that the engage.
ment might better be broken off. 1t is
evident that Kate. received this letter
on Saturday morning. and It is sup
posed that her object In visiting her aunt on
Saturday afternoon was to endeavor to per-
suade her lover to let the engagement stand In
spite of her fathers objection.
Detective Meehan said he also learned that
Kate's father had called on Wright on Saturday
night and Threatened to. kill him il he did not
cease his attentions to Kate.
Tho building In which Mrs. Hicks lives Is
three stories high. On the ground floor is the
saloon OF Wright. On the second floor there is
a lodge room, and the third floor is occupied by