The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-12-26
What DR.. Reidy Knew
of Frank Bennett.
FRIEND OF THE DEAD MAN
Says He Was an Admirable Char
acter and Thoroughly
Reliable.

The memory of Frank Bennett is
warmly defended by DR. Reidy of the
Honolulu Drug Company, who was a
friend of Bennett. and who had known
him early in the seventies on the from
tier in Colorado. He fatty contradicts
the story that Bennett was a drinking
man, and quotes an incident to prove
that the deceased avoided the use of
morphine and opium.
AT the time Bennett is alleged by
Mr.. Ottmann to have threatened sui
eide" Dr. Reidy states, 81 am quite
sure it was on the same night, that of
November 5th, l received a telephone
message from Bennett, who was at
Ottmann's place asking me to send out
some seidlitz powders to Ottmann's,
which / did. He would not be taking
medicine to improve his health on the
night he contemplated suicide, it seems
to me. AS to his alleged intemperance,
never saw Mr.. Bennett under the in
fuence of liquor but once. That was
sometime in September of this year.
He came into the drug store and talked
to me. | observed that he was drink
ing and spoke to him about it, express
ing my surprise. He said it was his
and that 1t was the first drink
he had taken in twenty-three years. He
w as 90 years Ola lfdt uay.
The last time ] saw him was, /
think on Wednesday, the day that
Clara Schneider died. He came into
the store and told me that he had not
been able to sleep for four nights, that
he had been troubled with the neural
ga in his head and with insomnia, and
he wanted me to give him some medi-
cine to make him sleep. He specially
however, that he did not
want anything with opium, morphine
or any like drug in it.
Mr.. Bennett never confided his fl
nancial affairs or his association with
to me. He was very quiet and
in such matters. and such con-
versations as we had We're in relation
to mutual friends we had had on the
or "reminiscences. | was in
business in Colorado in '73 when he
was stationed at Fort Lyon, four miles
away. He occasionally rode in to town
and came to the store. | never was
asked by him, either then or afterward
for morphine or opium. | knew him
when he was shot in the head by Chey-
enne Indians and was confined in the
hospital. He was always a gentleman
and never heard him use an oath or
rough language in all my association
with him. He was an admirable char
acter, and if there We're more men like
him the world would ba much better
and the statement that his suicide was
a coward's act is absurd in the light
or all his brave deeds asd the perils he
has faced for his country. There was
some other motive than the promptings
of cowardice that caused him to kill
himself. / agree with Major Ennis, as
do all those who knew Bennett well,
hat his suicide was probably the car
'ying out of his high ideas of honor,
through some unfortunate association
With the woman who | think took her |
,wn life.
II also wish to say that whenever
Bennett heard woman lightly spoken |
If, 1t was always his custom to re-
,roach the man who spoke, with some |
;entle rebuke, and l don't remember to
lave ever heard him speak an unkind |
word of any one, man. woman or child.
Things that have been said since his
ieath in his diSfaVor could not have
'een said while he was alive, with safe
y to the man who said them. While
ender-hearted and kind. he had n per-
'onality that all would naturally re-
pect, and no one would have dared to
rave uttered such things in his life
ime as they have since his death. II
eems to me to be altogether uncalled
or, unnecessary and, in fact n coward
V thing to have done, to attack the
memory of one whose life was so full
f all commendable things, whose ser
ice to his country was so faithful and
o filed with daring and bravery. and
Tho, being on the other side of the
rave, has no reply but the silence Of
eath, in his own defense. Those who
ave slandered his memory would not
laVe dared to smrch his name while
le yet had pulse beat"