The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-12
MISS GARDNER AT
 WRIGHT'S BIER
Was Only Woman In Attendance
 at the 0bSequies,
TEARS FOR THE MAN SLAIN
Smith, Wrleht's Slayer, Is Loved By Miss Gardner, and 1t Is Said They Were to Be Married
 March 1.

With tears trickling down her cheeks and with an expression of sadness upon her face. Miss Gussie Gardner sat near the coffin that contained the remains of A. T. Wright during the funeral services, held at the undertaking establishment of Lige Loy yesterday afternoon. Miss Gardner was the only female in attend ance and except for occasional sobs was silent witness to the obsequies follow ing the tragis death of one who loved aer at the hands of jealous rival.
 The man she loved, John Smith, was in a cell in the county jail half block dis tant, charged with the murder of his un- successful rival, whose body was enclosed in it's small tenement that would soon be committed to the grave
 Besides the weeping girl brothers of the mystic tie were gathered round, specta- tors of a scene following tne terrible ending of young man who ardently loved and who because of his affections for a pretty young woman, was shot by another to whom the girl had protested her preference.
 Masonic Honors.
 The funeral services were conducted by the officers of the Masonic lodge of Ely ton. singularly impressive were the rites of the order as the members paid their last tribute of respect to the dead.
 Mir Wright was a member of the Salter Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, Farrar lodge of the A. F. and A. M, and the Car Wheel Molders union. He also belonged to a lodge of Odd Fellows at Little Rock. The pail-bearers were stephen Edwards. Frank Booth, J. M. Dupree & R. Wolf. P. J. Kavanaugh and Ira Drake. At the conclusion of the ser vices the body was conveyed to the depot and sent to Hartselle. The father of Mir Wright came to Birmingham just before his son died at the Morris sanitarium Tuesday afternoon and accompanied the remains.
 Miss Gardner Goes to EnsIey.
 Thirty minutes before MT. Wright ex- pred Miss Gardner left the sanitarium She did not go to her boarding house on Avenue F and Eighteenth street, but boarded a car and went to Ensley where she remained Tuesday night with friends Yesterday morning she came to Birming- ham and, after attending the funeral, im- mediately went back to Ensley. The fact that she went to Ensley instead of going to her boarding house accounts for her short disappearance from Birmingham and her whereabouts Tuesday afternoon and night.
 After the funeral she telephoned Mrs. M. F. Kirkland, who conducts the board- ing house on Avenue F. where she had been living, that she was going to Ensley again Mrs Kirkland says the young lady Is with friends in that city, and thinks she Is stopping there with Mrs. Waits on Avenue O.
 John Smith, who shot and killed Wright, did not care to discuss the affair last night He said, however, that he shot his rival In self-defense; that he had heard that MT Wright had threatened to kill him. Further than this he declined to talk of the shooting.
 Her Love for Smith.
 Just before MT. Smith was taken to the county jail Miss Gardner called on him at the police station. She declared she loved him, and told him she deeply re- gretted that in obtaining the first news of the tragedy a porter had stated she preferred Mir Wright to him.
 On the night of the tragedy Miss Card ner was greatly excited. number of persons stood around, and she was natur- ally nervous and was suffering great the shooting was caused by jealousy be- tween the two men, and stated the name of the one for whom she cherished affec- tion. It was reported as MT. Wright, but 1t Is evident a mistake was made, either by Miss aGrdner in giving the informa tion, when she was laborlng under men, tai strain. or by the newspaper man.
 MT. Smith said last night that when he saw the first account of the shooting he knew there was a mistake, as he was confident she loved him.
 Engaged to Be Married.
 A girl friend of both of the young peo- pie said last night that Miss Gardner had told her that she and MT. Smith would be married on March 1. Wright perhaps knew of the engagement. and this may account In large measure for his desper- ation in leaving his room with a pistol in his hand when he knew the young lady was with MT. Smith in the hall at Mrs. Kirkland's.
 The preliminary trial of MT. Smith will take place Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock before H. B. Abernathy. justice of the peace.
 Miss Gardner has relatives at Blocton
 FOR ST. ANTHoNY's CHURCH.