The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-31
MYSTERY NOT SOLVED
ADAMs-CORNIsH POISONING CASE
STILL WORRYING POLICE.
Theory that the Alleged BrOmO-Selt-
ger Had DecOmpOsed Secuted by
Manufacturers of the Drug.

NEW YORK, Dec 3O.-There is hope that
borders on expectation that the silver
plated trinket received by Harry Cornish
through the mails may prove a conclusive
clew to the person responsible for the death
of Mrs. Kate ]. Adams and the poisoning
of Cornish 1t is not a bottle holder, as it
has been represented, but toothpick holder
or ash receiver. A private mark is stamped
in the silver of this little article 1t is No.
S14 toothpick holder or match stand" 1t
was made in Newark, N. j., by Frank A.
Lebueckner & Co., manufacturing silver
smiths. This afternoon Mr.. Lebueckner said
that only fifteen of the silver match safes of
the design sent to Cornish had been made by
his firm. OF these one each had been sold
i'm the following cities: New York city,
Brooklyn, Salem, Mass, Newark, n. j.,
Baltimore, Syracuse, San Francisco and St.
Louis. Two were sold in Middletown, Conn.,,
and five were disposed of to firms in Chi
cago. The names of the firms purchasing
them Mr.. Lebueckner withheld at the re-
quest of the police. Mr.. Lebuecl<ner said
that his New York customers included the
silversmiths of the city. 1t was the practice
of all such firms to keep track of their
wares, and mo. S14'' should be traced di-
rectly to the purchaser.
"A silver match holder or toothpick holder,
such No. Sl4 is rarely, if ever, purchased
for woman, or by one, unless it is intended
as a present for a gentleman said Mr..
Lebueckner. 1.-THE little tray surrounding
the cup shows in itself what it is to be used
for-cigar ashes. burned matches or broken
tOOthpicks. There is no size of brOmO-SeltZer
bottle made that fits that article we made.
tried It to-day They 5 are all either ot too
holder fits perfectly The bromo-seltzer bot
tie must have ratified around in No. S14 and
showed plainly that 1t did not belong there "
Captain McCluskey, of the detective bu-
the store at which the toothpick holder was
bought, but he refused to say what estab-
lishment it is. further than that it is in
New York. Captain McCIuskey regards the
elew, as the most important one that has
developed thus far.
Mr. Mcintyre has received a letter to
which he attaches a certain amount of i'm
pGrtance. 1t suggests that the poison that
killed Mrs. Adams might have developed
from bromo-seltzer in the process of de-
composition. This letter may shed light on
this mysterious affair." he said. 1T may
prove that Mrs. Adams's death was an I'M
fortunate accident, and that there is no
The letter in question was sent to Mr..
Mcintyre by S. j. Russell a druggist of Jer-
sey CITY. While. reading the account of the
Adams poisoning case in the newspapers Mr..
Russell's attention was arrested by the
statement that the glass bottle containing
the supposed bromo-seltzer bore the label of
a drug company in Baltimore Md This re-
called to his mind an invoice of bromo-selt-
ger which he had received from that COM
pany, but which he had sent back as unfit
for sale: He then received from the COM
pany a letter saying that the company had
tried graduating bromo-setzer. but finding
that it did not keep well in that form de-
cided TO abandon it. The question raised by
this letter is whether the decomposition of
the granulated bromo-seltzer that was man
ufactured by the Baltimore company is like
~ to produce a poisonous substance, and if
50, whether that substance is the same poi
son which killed Mrs Adams.