Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-02-03
A TRAGIc INCIDENT.
Two Days In a Country Town, old
Forepaugh, the Snowman,
Squared Everything.u

There is one country town in the
west which does not believe that circus
people are mercenary. The incident
was recalled by a man who saw it. He
said: ut was in 1872, in the town OF
Holden, Mo-, q place on the Missouri
Pacific railroad, where there is also a
Junction of n branch of the Missouri,
Kansas 81 Texas railroad. The circus
opened on Saturday. AS it was to show
In a town in an adjoining county on The
following Monday, it remained in Hol-
den over Sunday. On Saturday morn
Ing a man who lived in the town killed
hiswife and himself. In a small town an
occurrence of this character nearly
paralyzes business. Everyone had ac-
cess to the house of the double tragedy.
Naturally, the crowd in town was great
er than usual. The circus had drawn on
the country. Wagons filed with people
blocked the lanes early, and hen filled
the town. These people waiting for the
show to open put in the intervening
time looking at the dead. The bodies
of the man and woman had been placed
side by side. The pistol was picked up
by the coroner, who found it under a
small table near where the shots had
been fred. And that is how he discov-
cred two circus tickets that had been
left on the table. Where they had been
purchased was not known, as ~circuses
do not have tickets on sale in small
towns except at the wagon. Inquiry
showed that these people had no money
Not a cent was found, and at the place
where the mar had been employed 1t
was learned that he had %overdrawn his
earnings. The night before he pleaded
with his employer for a dollar. He
said he wanted it to buy tickets to the
circus, and added that his wife threat
ened to leave him If he did not take
her. On this plea he obtained the
money. There was no other evidence
at the inquest.
The coroner was an honest man. He
returned the circus tickets to the pro-
prietor, old Adam Forepaugh, who
learned the story of the double killing.
1 was present when the coroner told his
story to the gruff old circus man, who
put the tickets in his pocket and walked
away without saying a word.
Sunday was the day of the funeral.
The circus people remained in their
train, which was made up ready to pull
out on the following morning. In the
~llttlehouse where the dead were cofined
were less than a dozen persons. A few
minutes before the dead were taken out
a stranger called and asked for a friend
OF the victims. The only one who an
sWered wa the undertaken, and it is no
likely that his friendship was entirely
unselfsh. The interview between the
men was brief.
The little cortege on Its way to the
cemetery crossed the track on, which
the circus train near by stood. An old
man sat on the rear platform of his
private car, smoking, as the hearse and
three buggies went by. He took off his
hat until the vehicles had passed. The
undertaken was satisfied, and when the
graves were rounded up and the under
taker left some flowers there, an un-
usual thing at a country burial, and the
few who We're with him wondered, he
told them that old Forepaugh, the cir
Y man, had squared everythin3,,p-
n. Z. Sun.