The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-03

BOTH WERE OPIUM FIENDs
SHARON PROBABLY DIED EARLY
YESTERDAY MORNING.

Dead and lying partly on a bed and rest
ing partly on the floor, amid filth indie
scribable. the police last night found the
body of Thomas w. Sharon, well known
rs George Thomas. in a small. dilapidatCd
cne-story brick building at $40 East Pearl
street.
In a room TO the rear was his wife. sit
ting beside the stove, with her elbows
resting upon it's edge. unable to get up
from her chair.
How long Sharon had been dead is not
known. His wife said the last she heard
of him was early yesterday morning when
he called TO her and she was unable TO re-
spond. His body was removed TO the city
n,orgue and she was taken to the City
Hospital.
Sharon was about sixty years of age, and
his wife says she is thirty-fve. They had
lived I'm that house for many years and in
the vicinity for twenty years. She said
they were married twenty years ago, and
that she came from Galena. Ill. Sharon
was white and she was always thought to
be a negress, but she said last night that
she was half Indian and half Portuguese.
The house presented a picture Of utter
desolation and filth. The rooms were filled
with trunks, broken furniture, boxes and
other things piled upon each other and
covered with dust. which appeared as If
1t had been there for many years. The
only semblance of order TO be seen was
in several boxes where the envelopes ana
papers In connection with Sharon's PEN
sion had been carefully laid away I'm regu-
lar order as received. Several small boxes
were filed with the papers and in some
the dust had helped fill the space not occu-
pied by the papers. On the floor was dust
nearly an inch in thickness. On boxes
and on the floor In both rooms were rem
nants of such meals as the couple could
provide.
BOTH OPIUM FIENDS
Both were opium fiends. Sharon for mary
years was a familiar figure about the
streets near where he lived, being many
times a day found leaning. under the in
huence of the drug, against buildings and
telephone poles. He had for years been
driven from one drug store to another, no
enc caring for his trade. although he was
n liberal purchaser OF the drug.
Nothing seems TO be known OF his earlier
history, except that he served during the
civil wal with Company G, of the Thirty
sixth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and
was a pensioner, drawing $l per month
- NAE NA1 NNA1AO NAAtAA Nv
ing near him that he had several months
| ago drawn a large sum of back pension
money. He never talked OF the woman who
claims to he his wife and she was seldom.
seen on the streets. Some twenty years
ago he attracted attention by his dress,
which consisted of good though ill-ftting
| clothing and a silk hat. lie travelled about
The country surrounding Indianapolis sell
Ing cement for mending broken china and
| glassware. During recent years he had paid
lut little attention Co his business and most
CT his time was spent I'm the house or
around the drug stores. IL was said of him
that many years ago when he would come
home and find his wife In the back yard
he would drive her into the house by
| throwing bricks at her.
What became of his back pension and
his current pension money Is not known,
unless IL was all spent for opium. sharon
a. said never 10 nave gone into n saloon,
ana ~ H. known that little or nothing
was spent for food and clothing. For
many years he had habitually carried away
the waste food from the restaurants AID
East End hotels and boarding houses. Shar-
on WIS unusually talkative when slightly
under the influence OF the drug. but sew
eral persons 70 whom he talked much said
they remembered that he never spoke of his
Idst. except vaguely.
His death. his wife said. was probably
caused by heart and kidney trouble. She
s. afflicted with acute rheumatism and
p~.euTisy. Sharon's relatives are unknown.