The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-21
WHY HENRY GRADY LEFT NE "
YORK.

No clue has yet been found to the MUIR
derer or murderess of young Mr.. Ayres
in Washington. Several witnesses say
they heard cries for help but made no
effort to help; others saw a woman, scam
tily attired coming down the fire escape,
but did not try to apprehend her or to
ascertain what she was doing; and others
that. though cries for help" were heard,
nobody went into the young mans room
until eight O'Clock the next morning. 1t
is not surprising that the young mans
father feels outraged. He says:
While on this subject l cannot desist
from expressing myself somewhat frankly
upon some of the circumstances surround
ing my sons untimely death. That a young
man in his room in a hotel should be at
tackled by a murderer or murderess and
brutality murdered, that people in the bo-
tel and surrounding buildings should hear
the shots, the cries for Help: and the
agonizing appeals in a city of 9G0,e90 in
habitants, and not go to his rescue or
make an cutlery is beyond my compre
hension. If this murder had beel CON-
mitted in the village of Port Austin
there's not a man, woman or child OF the
700 inhabitants but who would hove rails
ed an alarm and sought to rescue him
from the hands Of the assassins.'
The Washington Star says that '.the
more he hears the more Disguised ne
becomes over the failure 20 apprehend
his sons slayer. He fails to realize how
such q crime could have been committed
and no investigation made for SO many
hours"
The Indifference felt by many people in
cities about the fate of their next door
neighbor is strikingly illustrated by a
story which is said to have
caused Henry Grady to leave
New York city. AS a young man
he was employed on the New York Her
aid. AS he was leaving his boarding
house one morning, shortly after his ar
rival in the city, he saw hearse stand
ing in front of the adjoining house.
''who is dead?" Grady asked his land
lady.
sure. l don't know" was her reply,
with such tone Of Indifference as to fall
like a clod on the heart of the synpa-
thetic young Georgian who had sorrowed
from his youth in every grief that came
into the family of a neighbor. AS ne start
ed down to his office, little coffin was
being borne down the steps followed by
mother who was crying as if her heart
would break. He turned to ask his land
lady If she was going to the funeral,
when she said: Sure it is none OF my
affair" Such heartlessness, or seeming
heartlessness, made so unpleasant an i'm
preston on Grady that he is said to have
told his wife: Pack your trunks | am
going back to Georgia where people have
time to shed tear with their neighbors
when death removes their child, and
where it is an affair of the whole neigh
borhood when grief invades the home. 1t
is no home for us where our next door
neighbor is heart broken and nobody cares
about her grief" And they went back to
engrossed in great affairs that he did not
stop to sympathize with his neighbors
and friends in affection.
1t is not surprising that Mr.. Ayres,
living in a town of 700 inhabitants can
nor understand how nobody came to his
sons rescue or gave the alarm. There
is much pathos in his statement that
in Post Austin There's not IA man, wo-
man or child of the 700 inhabitants but
who would have raised an alarm and
sought to rescue him from the hands
of the assassins::" How they could be SO
indifferent in washington is as strange as
the murder is mysterious.
The platform on which Mckinley was