New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-11-16
EX-MINISTER DIES ALONE.
FOUND AFTER DAYS.
CheUalier Petich Vas IRUentOr, ar
chaeOIOgist and RecLuse.

Italy to Mexico, was found dead in his bathroom
at No $50 Ninth-ave., yesterday He had been
dead for three days. dspossess notice OBJ
tanned in the Tenth Municipal Court by agents
of the Astor estate served on him last
Wednesday. Petich was a diplomat, scientist,
inventor, electrician, scholar, chemist, httera-
teur, anthropologist, Archaeological, philologisr
traveller. courtier and recluse. He came to this
country a few years ago to recuperate his fort
une so that he might join his wife in Buenos
Ayres and the circles he was wont to move in
1t is a mystery whether or not the apoplectic
fit which killed him was caused by the court
notice.
The only person who can be fund in the neigh
borhood who knew the inventor is Mrs. Roberts,
who lived next door. though Petich knew many
physicians and men of scholarly attachments
She said the man led strange life with his
inventions and in his laboratory. She had not
seen him for three days up to yesterday, and she
sent her son to the West Forty-seventh-st. sta
ton to tell the police about IT. The son and a
policeman got into the two story and basement
stone house by a rear window, and in the bath
room found the ex-Minister dead. Petich was
sixty-five years old.
DIR. Mead. of Roosevelt Hospital said the man
had been dead several days. Coroner Scholer
said death was caused by apoplexy.
The dispossess notice found by the police was
issued TO Franklin E. Lord, John Jacob Astor
and Warren Deano, executor for the estate OF
Laura A. Delano, and was returnab BILE on Friday
This Mr. Petich mentioned to no one. Mrs
Roberts VII used to have daily talks with him.
said he told her nothing about IT. though that
was the last day she saw him Thirteen cents, a
silver watch and a jewelled sword and chapeau
were the only things, outside the electrical ma
chinery, of value in the house.
on the front of the house the ex-minister had
painted a sign, five feet nigh and three feet wide,
reading:
This is the only place in the world where you
can get entirely free the best electrical medical
battery and a newly devised pocket apparatus,
UNIQUE and simple for the cure of the most in
veterate diseases indor3ed by the highest cleo
tricians and most renowned physicians
Immediately inside the ground floor was
the inventors laboratory, filled with the cleo
trical devices in which he revelled- Mrs. Rob
erts and neghbors said the man seemed to care
for nothing but his inventions and electrical ex-
perirnents Here were found five thousand cleo
trical pocket batteries, of the kind mentioned
by the sign 1t was said that the inventor sold
MANY of these batteries and that German
firm had made to him an offer Of $1,000 for a
tongue scraper he had invented. In the yard
were scores of little tin pots around the fence.
with wires stretching from one to another
Neighbors said the chevalier used to work with
these wires and pots daily. No one ever knew
what they were for.
In the laboratory a large picture of Presi-
dent Diaz Of Mexico and the diplomatic corps.
There was also a document. seeming to show
that the old man had some articles of value.
such as paintings and relics, in storage ware
house at Seventh-ave. and Fifty-third-st. A
Handsomely enerossed set Of resolutions, eulo-
CYSTIC Of Chevalier Petich. was found signed by
over a hundred delegates OF a diplomatic con-
vention held in Antwerp. Belgium. in 1885.
Scattered all about were the batteries OF face
massage Instruments, Of the invention Of which
fbe chevalier was especially proud.
Another room bedroom. But the top
floor large room was the strangest of all. It
WIS fitted I'D as a chapel It had an altar. with
various vessels and relics statuary, candelabrs
and simple altar fittings. The apex Of the altar.
a kind of ia bernacle held the object for which
the altar had been erected-a portrait of Do
menica Petich. the inventors wife. The only
other articles in the room were iewelled sword
and chapeau. They were in corner. Neigh
bors said they could tell sometimes from the
outside that he was in that room, but just what
he did there they never could ascertain.
Policeman Kelly of the Forty seventh-st sta
ton was placed in charge of the house by the
coroner city marshal some court official
called early in the afternoon and tried to take
possession of the dead mans goods. Kelly put
the man out.
Luigi PetiCh was the who found and
owned the famous Smiling Toltc Heads"
These were among the first American arChRO-
logical finds The heads found in Mexico
and I'm tumuUs heap o. refuse in which
skeletons and broken relics mingled. The faces.
believed to lee Toltec images. were of Chinese.
African and Egyptian types There ten
of them and they had at times been lent by
the Chevalier to the Metropolitan Museum OF
Art Replicas Of them have been Ie and
sent all the world, and they have caused
increased interest in the study. of American
archaeology and anthropology. They were said
by psychologists TO have been formed about
thousand years after Christ and TO be the only
objects of that kind OF the Toltec age found.
The Petich collection. 1t was known. con-
sisted of $40 objects. and in artistic and scien
tihc value is second o. ly to that OF the Museum
of the City of Mexico
Antonio c. AStarita. who had been CheValier
Petichs lawyer said last night that the dead
man about sxty-five years old. His wife, If
she not here now. would be in this country
from South America soon, as the chevalier had
been expecting her. The dead man was an en-
thusiastic collector OF antiques. and had recently
given a collection of Mexican images and pottery
TO the Metropolitan Museum OF Art. He was
also most enthusiastic about electrical expert
ments, and had invented many devices. medical
and for other purposes. He had factory Tor
the manufacture OF his electric battery MI
Astarits. thought