The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-12-03
/ SAD CASE.
4 Young Lady Deceived by a Mock
Marriage.
AND TIE NAN KILLS HIMSELF.

ANY Man.

That is d sad case that is reported
from Nichols over in Marion County,
IL brief mention of which was made in
last weeks paper. 1t will be remem-
hercd that a young man by the name
of ID. II. Sarvs had secretly married
young lady by the name OF Burns, and
that when she appealed to him to
make the marriage public he shot her
in the head and killed himself. The
coroner of Marion County held an in
quest over Sarys body. and verdict
was returned that he had committed
suicide. The testimony adduced was
of d most extraordinary character.
Miss Burns was present at the in
Guest and testified that Sarvis was her
husband, having been secretly married
to her in the town Of Mullins on the
night of September p, the night the
Rev. Sam Jones lectured in that
town. 1t was understood that the
marriage was to be kept secrect un
til Christmas, but in some way the
young lady's family heard Of it and in
sisted that it be publicly acknowledged
by SarviS. Monday afternoon she
went to see SarviS at his office. in the
Atlantic Coast Line depot. III which
SaryiS occupied the position of tele-
graph operator, to beg him to acknOw-
ledge the marriage. She told SarviS
her family were indignant and would
insist upon his recognizing her as his
wife. She told him her brother was
determined that the marrige must be
at once publicly acknowledged and
that he had armed himself to enforce
his demands. To show SarviS how
terribly in earnest her brother was she
showed him a pistol which her brother
had recently procured. This pistol
she had taken out Of her brothers
trunk to keep him from using it. She
says SaryiS refused to acknowledge
the marriage, but, on the contrary,
told her that the alleged marriage
was a mock one: that the man who
performed the ceremony was not
magistrate, as he had assured her,
and that there was no legal marriage
between them. The conversation
continued for some time and. failing
to induce him to acknowledge her as
his wife. she rose to leave.
AS she was about to leave SarviS re-
marked to her that she ought not to
be going about with pistol in her
hands. and asked her to give him the
weapon. This she did, whereupon he
fired at her and then turned the pis
tol upon himself, shooting himself
through the neck. When shot she
reeled little distance before falling.
This is substantially her account Of
the affair. The testimony developed
the fact that the young lady's face
showed only a few powder burns,
whereas Sarvis's face was badly
scorched, indicating that the pistol
must have been nearer to him when
fired than to her. There were no eye
witnesses to the affair, so far as now
is known. The impression Of those
who first reached tine scene after the
shooting seems to have been that Sar-
Wis had shot Miss Burns and fled. On
going to the door of the office where
the shooting took place the body Of
Saryis could not be seen, as it lay be-
bind board PARTITION. Thinking Sar-
Wis had escaped, these persons did not
stop to investigate at all. In few
minutes, however. they did come back
and found the young lady in the office
supporting the head Of the dead man
in her Jap,
Before going to Sarvis's Office Miss
Burns stopped at Mr.. G. R. Ford's
store and wrote Sarvis a note. He
sent her a reply, written on the re-
verse side of the same sheet Of paper.
This paper Miss Burns tore up in Mr..
Ford's store and threw the pieces on
the floor. After the tragedy the pieces
were gathered up and, after being
pasted together, we're offered in evil
dence at the coroner's inquest. Miss
Burns's note was as follows: Dear
Duston: Come ever here to the office.
l want tC see you a few minutes
Guess I'll go to Marion this ?. NJ. to
work, or in the morning. Come quick.
I must go. BY, by, joe" His reply
to this note was as follows: Just i'm.
possible for me to come now. You
need not wait on me any longer. You
say you are glad l am gone so you can
60 somewhere. So all right go-D. H.
S." After the word go in Sarvis'S
note there is a blank, a word being
missing. The last word is not plain;
some say it is hell" others head"
If the latter is the correct word the
last clause would read, so all right.
go ahead
Miss Burns was shot almost central
| ly in the forehead, but the ball
glanced, making a painful but not
dangerous wound. Her escape seems
almost proyidential. There is good
deal of mystery surrounding this af-
fair. which may never be cleared up.
Who was the man who performed the
mock marriage no one seems able to
guess. Or whether it was mock mar
riage or a real one: no one seems to
know. Both parties interested are
well known and the affair is, Of course
greatly deplOred.
CHICKENS will come home to roost,
and Charleston is realizing that fact.
Some Of her people have been coQuet-
ing with the Republican party by
voting for Mckinley and other Re
publicanS, and now negro collector is
about to be appointed for that port.
ONE Of the chief things to be decid-
ed by the arbitration committee is the
right of the coal miners to organize
and maintain labor unions, observes
an exchange. The Atlanta Journa!
thinks it is funny that nobody has
thought Of asking it to decide whether
or not capital has a right to organize?
! PRESIDENT Roosevelt denies that