The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-11-12
BARTHOLOMEW CURTIS, FORMER
RANcHER, KILLS HIMSELF.
REGRETTED THAT he SOLD
Sells Farm and Moves to City, But
Change Upsets Him =
Mentally.
Sundays Daily Gazette.

From Sundays Daily Gazette.
Rueing the sale Of his ranch and
brooding over imaginary trouble which
he seemed to fear would follow as a
consequence, Bartle Curtis killed him
self yesterday afternoon.
The instrument he employed in com
hitting his deed OF self-destruction
was an old government carbine OF the
kind used by the cavalry before the
present style of weapon was adopted
and carried a 45-calibre bullet. The
place he selected for the act was a
little kitchen in the rear of his home,
at the southeast corner of North First
avenu and Thirty-tifth street.
AS near as can be learned it was
between 2:3O and 8 O'clock when Cur
tbs killed himself. At the time no
one was in the house, except himself
and a little boy, Martin, son of the
dead man, aged about 10 years, who
was sick in a front room Mrs. Curtis
had gone out to the stable to look at
ter a COW, while the other children,
five in number, were absent. The
sound of the explosion of the gun was
heard by Mrs. Curtis and the little
boy and when they entered the room
Curtis was dead. A neighbor was sum-
moned and he informed the coroner.
DR.. Chapple Immediately went to the
house and after looking at the dead
body locked the place, Mrs. Curtis n
the little boy going to a neighbor's.
The doctor then returned to his office
and made arrangements for holding an
inquest. He summoned a jury and
with it's members went back later and
formally viewed the body.
The sight that met their Mortified
vision was one calculated to make
even the strongest heart sick and the
most healthy stomach turn. Lying
on it's side was the body OF the SUI
eide, one hand across the breast,
while the other was underneath and
partially buried in a mass of coagulat-
ed blood, which also covered a large
portion of the floor Immediately near
the remains. The gun already de-
scribed lay between the legs, the
stock near the knees, which were well
drawn up, and the muzzle pointing to,
ward the face. The features were IN
distinguishable because of the blood
which adhered to them, while the en-
tire forehead was gone and the major
portion of the skull as well. Several
feet away lay a mass of what nee
had been the suicides brains, while
still in another lay a piece OF his
skull. The ceiling overhead
was despatched with blooe
and brains which CLEANED
through the black marks left by the
powder. In the center of the insight
" and sickening spot was q large
round hole, made by the bullet as i
emerged from the skull and buried 1t
self in the roof.
Near where the body was lyint
stood a table and On this rested tn
dead mans hat and pipe, showing
that he must have been smoking whel
the impulse to commit self-murde
oyercame him. Several other article
of furniture were nearby and all wer'
more or less covered with blood an
fragments of brain and flesh. AS we
as they could Judge from the position
in which they found the body tn
Jurors arrived at the conclusion tina
Curtis had rested the stock Of tn
gun on the floor and then bendin'
forward had discharged the weapon
the muzzle pressing against his fore
d head, directly above the bridge OF tn
nose. Only in this manner could the
account for the position OF the bod
and the nature of the wound Whlc
had caused death. 1
The oldest son of Curtis came
while the jury was in the room an
at first declared it to be his belle
that the death of his father was tn
result of an accident, but finally admi
ted that for sometime his father ha
been Respondent and had worried b.
he had sold his ranch, and ths
a few days before he had taken tt
same gun away from him because b
had feared that his father intende
to harm himself. He said the gu
had been loaded and gave to DR.. Cha
ple the cartridge which he said !
had taken from it and then had b
the weapon. At that time his fath'
had written q letter Of several pag'
directed to his mother In which
AZ 80. AAnA .ho uz0ai1d have