Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1903-01-08
BIZ REV THOMAS B. GREGORY.

/ NEW YORK, January ESPECIALLY D
Human nature! God: What thing
/ 1t is:
With heights higher than heaven,
| with depths deeper than hell, it re-
mains one eternal enigma. One thing
| we cannot understand, though we
beat. our brains out in attempt to
| pluck out the heart of its mystery!
| The ridiculous is so close to the
sublime, the Internal to the divine,
we know not what to say or even what
to think.
With love at the bottom, this man,
Albert King, to get even" with a
woman, Elizabeth 1Ianlon. who spurn-
ed his affection. committed the deed
which would make the sturdiest fend
in hell hesitate.
And yet, and yet o thou unfath-
on1able human nature!
It is possible that in the love which
lies down underneath this tragedy
may sleep the secret we are after.
which, when it is revealed. may
make all plain!
But now-now we can only stand
awed, with bowed head. before the
most atroclous deed of which the
city..s history is able to tell.
A !. coachman, driven into Jealous rage
and the fact that she loved the child OF
her employer better than she loved him.
ran amuck In the home of j. NJ Finlay,
who had also been his employer, In Mt.
Vernon, to-day.
The frenzled mana Swede named AL
bert king-came upon the 4-year-old
child OF Mr.. Finlay, and, seizing the
little one by It's golden locks, cut off
her head.
Then the brute pursued the servant
who had rejected his offer of marriage,
and. falling to. reach her, he blew out
his brains.
The child's mother, q. member Of a
famous firm of modistes, left home be-
fore the double crime was committed.
She swooned when she saw the headless
body of her. child, and the doctors have
fears for her.
Girl May Go Insane.
The. servant girl, who witnessed the
tragedy. became delirious and may go
insane.
Mr.. Finlay, father of child, is with the
big dry-goods firm. of Saks &: CO. He
was summoned to his home by telephone,
and did not know Of the awful tragedy
until he arrived there.
Elizabeth Hanlon, the dead childs
nurse. on the stand before the coroner
at the inquest this afternoon told by far
the most dramatic ctory of the terrible
tragedy. She was the only eyewitness
of the mad act of King. Miss Hanlon
declared that she could assign no rea-.
son for Kings act except insane jeal-l
ousy of her affection for the little girl.
Miss IIanlons story of the affair fol-
lows:
II was in the library this morning.
busting and fixing the rooms up, some
where between 8 and 10 o'clock, when
King came in. had placed little Helen
In a big arm chair and had given a pic.
ture book to her.
.I heard some one enter the room and
turned around to see who it was. /
found that it was King.
He was making most awful faces and
grinding his teeth together terribly.
t'te did not say a word to me. nor to
him.
Before I could reach him he had lifted
little Helen from, her chair and was hold
lIS eICt up III liiS 0l! a.
length: still by her neck.
Then saw him drawing something
from his pocket and realized 1t was
razor and that he meant to kill some one.
.'I was so terrified I nearly died and
ran shriekins from the room crying for
help.
I, ...rhe next moment I turned back into
the room determined to do something to
save the little one.
Head Almost Severed.
Helen was lying on her back on the
floor at one end of the room with her
head almost severed from her body, and
4. the other end of the room lay King
with a revolver on the floor near him
and bullet wound through his head.
81 met King some eleven months ago
have been with the Finlays three years.
When met King, we became good
friends. but after some months his atten-
ions to me became distastefu because OF
he: liberties he took and because Of his
labits and reputation.
s.Iis discharge followed my complain
ng TO Mrs. Finlay of his unwelcome and
pressing attentions.
.He constantly asked me to marry him
ind wrote me hundreds OF letters at
rarIous times and all couched in the
most loving terms.
.I think that his real name was Faber
md that he had a wife and children
living.
..FIe was at the house last night about
o'clock and c1iided me for receiving the
attentions Of other men, I told him that
was not engaged to him and ! was at ],
,erfect liberty to receive the attentions
Il any man.
He Was Not Joking.
..fIe said then he would never see me
nra red to- anv other man. or married !
q any other man than himself, atif he'll