The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-08-05

become more and more pronounced dur.
ing the past two years. The most extra.
ordinary of all of them, however, was
perpetrated at the burial OF his wife.
Mrs. Searles death. on July rs. 1SJ1
was mysterious It Is said that the raw.
ages of the grip Slapped her vitality.
When her death occurred the reporters
who sought information at the gates
were turned away. Those among the
Methuen folk who were fairly we'll &C.
Quainted with the deceased and who
called to offer condolences were met by
barred gates.
Before the funeral service was read the
. cause Of death was changed from grip
to dropsy. r.
: Mrs. Searles had been at Great Barring
ton earlier in the season and her husband
brought her to Methuen just two weeks
prior to her DEATH.
The funeral was strictly private. The
Rev. Charles F. Sweet, rector Of So
Thomas church. at Methuen, conducted
the funeral services, and was assisted
by the Rev. c. H. Oliphant, Congrega-
tionalist, who read the responses.
Charles Hopkins Of Brooklyn, BROTH
er of the deceased woman's first hus-
band, attended the service. He stopped
- at . hotel at Lawrence land rode up in:
time for the funeral, after which he re-.
turned to the hotel until train time.
There were only eleven persons pres
ent at the services, including the bereaved
husband, the clergyman and the under.
taker. The service lasted forty minutes,
and the last visitor departed from the
presence of the dead at - o'clock noon.
At midnight four of Searle's worknen,
dressed as liveried flunkies, bore the cas-
ket containing everything mortal of Mrs.
Searles to it's last resting place in the
old Methuen cemetery across the road
from the Searles house, ...,-..
Few Methuen folk saw the funeral pro-
cession Indeed the number may be mar
rowed down to five persons, one OF whom
was a woman. They did not see the pro-
cessiLn move from the house, but they
saw it issue from the gate. they saw 1t
cross the read and Wend It's way Gown
the grass-grown path to the entrance
and watched the weird group move slow
ly through the cemetery, avoiding the
other tombstones, to the grave which had
been prepared for Mrs. Searles. ..-.
The procession to the tomb was headed
by Mr. Searles, whose white hair and
curiously pale complexion were strlklngly
reflected by a torch which he carried to
light the way. 1-.- ~.. -. -" .-., -.
Strange to say, the tomb had been fin
lshed lust five Gays prior to the death of
Mrs. Searles. And it is the only thing
which Mr.. Searles has been known to fin;
lsh during his control of the fortune.
On that night, when those five ;awed
and amazed persons saw that procession
move before them, the town clock, after
performing it's duty of striking the mid
night hour stopped, and 1t has never
started since then. Probably no person
ia courageous enough to wind it: q
The mortuary receptacle In which Mrs.
searles' remains lie is about twenty five
feet long by twenty feet wide and twenty
feet high in the center, with sloping
roof covered with red slate. The door
%hor
MADE down a flight of six broad granite
stems. where open doors of fine tronWOrk
allow view of the interior.
Mrs. Searles, in a rosewood coffin with
a glass top, rests upon the center niche
in the front row. t -,sag p. ..-...y
Soon after the obsequies Searles began
to do other strange things. BY his ls:e
Wife's will he received everything. Dung
Timothy Hopkins, an adopted son, con-
tested the will on the. ground that ,Searlen
used undue measures to warp his aged
wife's Judgment. The case was fought at
Newburyport, Mass, and iSearles subse-
nuently settled it out OF court because
Of the newspaper notoriety he was receiv-
dng. He paid young Timothy, who for
merly was Pat Nolan, SO. 600. 600, and the
latter promised to leave ;Searles In peace
and return to: the Pacific coast.
Searles never seems to be satisfied with
anything his fertile brain conceives, and
no sooner does he get a. project under way
than he directs a suspension. Even the
house he lives fn-hfs birthplace-is. unfin-
lshed. He has spent hundreds Of thousandl
on it, yet above the stone fortress which
surrounds it can be seen unfinished patch
es where tar paper, becoming weather
beaten, rattles like dry bones whenever
the wind sweeps under 1t.
Five years ago he commenced the con-
Struction of a block stone wall around his
grounds. AS the work progressed he be-
came dissatisfied and began again on q
larger scale. He caused an addition seven
feet high to be built upon the top of the
first wall. He has since added layer upon
layer, until now the wall, fortress in fact,
is in some places over forty feet In height
and still unfinished.
u About four years ago he purchased
Sculptor Thomas Balls masterpiece, {
statue Of Washington. which the veteran
sculptor made at Florence.
SearIes paid 1925, 600 and an additional
S75OOO for the statues Of Lincoln, Grant
Sherman and Sheridan, which are spu
.lpon the four corners Of the pedesta
base. /,
The monument is set across the stree
from the Searles estate and is sshroudef
in canvas and wood. There 1t has stood
for over two years, and, in the opinionso
the Methuenites, it will remain so as 1onf
as Searles lives.
handful of Italian laborers daily worl
about the base, grading and trenching
q One day Searles will drive out from hill
castle, accompanied ny a stout coachman
and direct that the workmen place 81
many shovelfuls Of dirt on such and such
q place, and the next day he will visi
them and order the dirt removed.
Meanwhile the statue stands in shroud
~ grandeur nnnn its nn6nixhed ground