The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-02-24
DEATH WINS THE RACE.
George WestermnE's Desperate Eff
fort tn See His Dying Wife.

NEW YORK, Feb. 24.-George Wester-
mans last voyage around the world was
disastrous. 1t ended yesterday when he
Kings County Hospital, broken in health
and spirit The last leg Of the vOy-
age had been made overland.
Racked with pains caused by rheuma-
tism contracted in the forecastIe of a
British ship he made I'll the haste he
could on the stretch between Tacoma.
Wash. and Brooklyn. A letter waiting
for him when the ship reached Tacoma
had told him that his wife was dying. and
that her constant appeal to the doctors
was Keep me alive until George ar
rives"
When he was so i'll from pain that train
hands advised him to stop of ana enter
hospital the whirr OF the wheels Of the
car seemed to him to sing, Keep me alive
until George arrives" and he remained
in the car which was 1ringing him nearer
to his dying wife il each OF those ago
mixing minutes.
In the effort to keep the woman alive
that she might see her husband once more
her doctor had her removed from her
home, IS South First S. rect. Williams
burg. TO ST. GATHERINGS Hospital. There
was no hope Of saving her life, but il was
believed that the fading spark might be
kept dimlY burning by artificial means for
a few days
Mrs. Westerman had looked forward to
St. Valentines Day. Eecollections of her
childhood that had been forgotten re-
turned to her in her weakness. and she
was convinced that her husband would
come on that day and be her lost valeu-
tine. Come today. George, she muir
INJURED again and again. and as the sun
sank in the evening the one word Come
faded Oh iIeI lips as she ceased TO breathe
Her son and her daughter kept the body
until last Saturday when the crippled Wild
over limped into the house where the dead
wife lay. I came as quickly as l could. ~
he said but / had shipped from New YORK
TO return 20 the same port, and there was
a question about forfeiture at Tacoma
If l forfeited some OF my pay / should
have been stranded. The British Consul
finally ordered the captain TO pay my fare
overland. but he was slow; too SLOW
Mrs Westermans body was buried. and
then the question Of providing FOR Yves
termau was considered His two children
could not aid him. Westerman had had in
I 1Ueutial friends in New York but he eth
or would not or colld not tell his sou
where to find them.
He had been for many years caretaker OF
one and another Of the Sandy Hook pilot
boats. and when his term Of usefulness IN
that position had ended bis friends placed
him in Sailors Snug Harbor. He appeared
/ 10 be restored to health after he had been
there a short time. and he became ambi-
tiOus TO again earn his bread
Despite the protests Of his friends and
The iniirmities from dfty-twO years Of eX-
pOsure. he shipped on the steamer Engle-
horn and sailed from New York TO Yoke
hama on May 10 last. He had overesu-
mated his strength. and when his ship
reached Tacoma last fall he realized that
he had made a mistake.
His son in despair applied 10 Relic.
Clerk Short. at the office OF the Chariue-
Department in Brooklyn, and when Mr.
Short heard the story OF the trip across
. the continent and the death Of the hopeful
wife he signed an order for the reception
Of the patient although ne had never beer
. a resident of Brooklyn.