The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-08-27
PRICE ONE CENT
SHOOTING In 4 HOST'ELRY
Hotel Vendome, New York. the
Scene of a Tragedy.
Bostonian Wounds a Guest Register
ed From Baltimore and Kills Him
sei-ihe Affair n Mysterious One
Throushout-Note Left by the Man
Who Put aE End TO His Existenee.

NEW YORK Aug. 27.-Shots fired on
the ninth floor of the Hotel Vendome. at
Broadway and Forty-frs Street, at s:15
o'clock this morning sent the elevator boy
Tying down TO the Office and back with the
clerk. AS the clerk ran along the hall
, toward Room 307. from which the reports
had come. II. H StTfdiron guest. regis
tered from Baltimore but said 10 be
Chicago lumber merchant. ran out with
his hands 10 his head. from which blood
was pouring. The clerk dashed past him
and pushed open the door of the room with
an effort. The body of J. H. Ford, regis
tered from Boston. was lying against it.
He had shot himself in the head
stridiron, in the statements he was able
to make later, said Ford had shot him and
then killed himself
Stridiron was hurried away to the New
York Hospital in an ambulance. His con
dItion was pronounced dangerous. He had
bullet wound in the back of his head
and more severe one in the forehead
When the police arrived and took charge
of Ford's body they found the following
note:
THE better the day. the better the deed.
act | hope TO spend better life in the
next world than l have spent in this
IL was concluded from the first sen
tence OF the note that Ford had planned 10
commit the murder yesterday. Up to the
time Stridiron went 10 the hospital the
shooting was unexplained
Ford had been about the hotel for sew
eral days. but had not registered till Sat
urday night. Stridiron did lot register
| until yesterday, bur he and Ford were seen
drinking together in the hotel on Satlr-
day evening. When they registered. room
7V' was assigned TO Stridiron. Fords
room was 25S
The two men came into the hotel to-
gether at o'clock this morning and vert
TO StTldiTon's room. Neither any of those
IN the office nor the elevator boy who car
RED them upSairs noticed anything out of
the way The elevator boy said aftervard.
however, that quarrel began as soon as
the men reached the room.
According TO StridiTon. he was standing
with his back TO Ford when Ford shot him
IN the back of the head He Whirled around
and received another bullet. this time over
the eye. Instantly Ford put the revolver
10 MS own forehead. fred, hurled the re-
FoiVer out OF the window. and fell. The
weapon was found in F0Tty-first Street on
which the room faced. Il was said at the
ho%el that StridiTon was q widoWer with
TWO daughters. He seemed to be prosper
Gus.
The story of the case is somewhat
! tangled one, but the police believe in the
first place that it was an attempted mur-
der and suicide. The outcome of the al
. tempt at murder yet remains 10 be seen
The police believe that the man who al
tempted the suicide and the murder was
John Sesson, forty-fve years Of age, a
salesman. Of 119 SeeIy Avenue, Chicago and
the man he shot who is now in New York
Hospital, is H j. StridiTon. q lumber n1er-
chant also OF Chicago. They know moth
ing. they say, OF the causes OF the trouble
between the two men. They say that
both Of them had been drinking and that
Sssson left a note in which he said that
his life had been a failure.
Stridiron was conscious after he reached
the hospital, but the physicians said that
his condition was serious
About noon young woman came into
the women's waiting room OF the hotel
She was weeping and she said that Sesson
was her friend. She had given a consid-
cradle amount Of jewelry TO him last week
to keep for her, she said None was found
on the dead man OF about his room.