Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-03-26
GRIFFITH NAS INNOCENT.
HE WAS A VICTIM OF CIHCUM-
STANCES IN THE BOSTON
SUICIDE CASE.
SENSATIONAL REPORTER
simply Took Advantage of the Dis
ccvery Of His Name Upon the Card.
Been Very Successful Since Dcaying
Harvard.

It appears that the connection of the
name of George Griffith with the sui
eide of Mrs. Phillips in Boston, was a
piece of misfortune which must be laid
at the door of a sensational newspaper
reporter, who made no effort to ascer-
tain the true facts. The following
special telegram to the Register from
Boston, gives full and detailed infor-
nation, which will be read with inter
est by the friends of Mr.. Griffith.
Special to the Register.
BOSTON, Mass, March 25.-Mrs.
Nora Pauline Phillips, who shot her
self Monday at 1880 y. M, at 81 Claren-
don street, oied at the City Hospital
at lao this morning.
Mrs. Phillips was before her mar
rage Nora Pauline Mcnamara, OF
Leicester, Mass. Beautiful and accom-
plished, she welded Gilbert w. Phil
lips, Of Putnam, Conn, a Yale grad
afate and a member of a distinguished
Connecticut family, a son of Judge
Hhiliips, of Putnam, Conn.,, and a
grandson of the late ex-Goy. Phillips.
The death of her husband left her
well provided for, and she is known to
udNO a GIL " W IA 4AsSoV ~
year. She was a graduate of Smith
college. She vas young, pretty, had
many friends who moved in the best
circles, and wanted for nothing.
In response to a query as to cause
of suicide, the sister said she thought
melancholia was the motive.
Since she came TO Boston she show
ed a morbid interest in death and its
tragic forms, intensified by the circum-
stances of her own life, and encOurag-
cd by constant reading Of the blood
curdling and sensational fiction.
Emotional insanity, aggravated and
made chronic by the perusal of sensa-
tional novels was the aus of the at
tempted suicide of Pauline Phillips last
fall. She came to Boston for a change,
with the hope that she would ecove
Instead, among strangers, she became
lonely, kept to herself, and, lacking
the companionship of friends who
knew her case and who could cheer
her up she brooded more and more
A decided sensation was caused
when her room was searched and on a
blank paper found the names of sew
eral prominent young ladies, members
of the most respected families In this
city. 1t now t~ranspires that the names
of the young ladies were those who
had attended a tea party given last
year at Holworthy Hall. Harvard col
lege, by a student, Mr.. George C. Grit
fifth, a friend OF the critically wounded
woman.
Her sisters openly charge that an
old SchOOlmate in this city had made
special e~ndeavors to put temptation in
the way of the unfortunate woman.
at was this oma who tried to lay
the blame for my sisters suicide on
MIR. Griffith" said Mrs. Mcnamara,
land she is the responsible n
.she did everything she could to
drive my sister to destruction, and /
regard her as largely responsible.
Mr.. Griffith liked Pauline, and paid
her some attention. He has been
more than kind to us. l am sorry that
he was drawn into the affair.""
George Griffith is not a Harvard
man this year, but he is we'll known
and remembered in Cambridge. His
home is in Moundsville, ". Va.
Last year he lived in 8 Holworthy
Hall. During his course in college he
made a reputation seldom equalled in
Cambridge. He came to Cambridge.
At once he began to make money, and
as IN advertising manager of two
he fairly coined cash. He
was one of the cleverest men in his
line.
He took the business end of the old
Harvard Advocate to make what he
could out Of it. He did we'll. His
master stroke came as the guide and
guardian of Willie X. Vanderbilt, jr.
Vanderbilt was not figuring conspic-
uously in college affairs. But his
name was too good to waste. Griffith
laid his wires and in a short time he
announced that Willie X. had been
elected as business manager of the
Advocate. This was Willie's first and
last business. To be sure, Willie
probably worked very little, and it is
doubtful if Griffith expected it. But
the name was valuable. Last year,
after two years of management of the
Advocate there was trouble and Grit
fifth started a new magazine, known
the Harvard Illustrated Monthly.
Griffith, at present a law student at
Boston university, was one of the