The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-25
Determined to Cheat the GallOWS. IS STRANGLED TO DEATH Letters Tell of His Resolve to
 Take His Own Life. Whiskey, He Declares, Was the Curse of His Life, and to It He Lays Responsibility for
 the Crime He Committed.
IS STRANGLED TO DEATH

Tuskegee. March 24.-(Special. )-Ralph Armstrong. in jail here under death sent eEee for the murder of his cousin, Miss Allie Armstrong. committed suicide in his cell this morning by hanging himself with a belt.
 The suicide occurred probably about S o'clock. His breakfast was sent to him at the usual hour this morning, and at that time the prisoner seemed in accus- tened spirits About o'clock Deputy Sheriff George Lamar went to Arni- strong's cell to give him his mail, and found him suspended from the barr ed ooor by a belt, dead. He had made slip moose. fastened one end of the leath- CT to the top of the cell door, and draw ing up his feet, allowed himself to slowly str angle.
 Several letters were found in the cell which made 1t evident that Armstrong was bent on escape or self-destruction. All the epistles are addressed to his mother and despite the abhorrence with which the crime committed by Arm streng is viewed. they compel sympathy and pity for the unfortunate young man. In one letter Armstrong made known his hope to escape. and asked that his mother place his army overcoat, a hat and some money at a certain spot in the Auburn cemetery, that they might assist him in making his way to foreign land, there to begin life anew
 Had Resolved on Suicide. In another letter he told of his resolve to die by his own hand rather than suffer the disgrace of the gallows. He said that he had procured a bottle of morphine and taken its contents, but that the poison failed to effect the desired result. Later. in the determination to leave this world. 7 ha had eaten the heads of matches, and S also had partaken of ground glass
 He expressed a great longing to spend one more night beneath the roof of the ] cid homestead at Auburn. and in all the letters were love and veneration for the noble mother who had ministered to him at even the verge of the gallows and the grave. He requested that his remains bs inferred at Auburn and that Rev. MT. Napier of the Baptist Church, who had visited him often in his cell. offici- a.s at the funeral. That all who had loved him would meet in Heaven was his feFVent wish.
 Armstrong declared that whiskey had been the curse of his life. and to 1t he laid the responsibility for the horrible crime he committed.
 The body of Armstrong will be carried to Auburn on tomorrow mornings train and the funeral will occur there.
 Tn the early morning hours. a leathern belt in lonely eel. ended not only an unfortunate, misspent life. but 1t closed the history of one of the darkest trace dies that has stained the records of the courts of Alabama.
 Tt would seem that there could te noth- ing more grievous. nothing more sorrow- ful than this wreck of life. with purple face and swollen tongue. hanging from the door of feloDs cell, to know that which hung hy the door had been the hearer of an honored name, the scion of 6 distinguished family. It was a pitiful ending, and yet there are those who ad- rfred and loved the kin of Ralph Arm strong, thoFe who knew the rec ord of a few unhappy years who say. ''It Is we'll"
 In sympathy with those whose hearts were torn by Ralph Armstrong's earli-r mindeeds and finally by the horrible traG edy in the family homestead at Notasul- ga, there are those who say that the end Ing of Ralph Armstrong's gloomy life in the manner of his taking of was not the worst that could happen
 Waking or sleeping the shadow of the gallows was upon him. And more dread Ful still was the biting anguish of re- morse, stinglng him night and day. He came to endure all the painful cruelty ot FHmoTse. Those who saw him daily at the jail. those who saw him as he faced a ury of his peers. livid and gaunt. his treat black eyes shining from the da k eaverns under his brows doubt not that he vulture of remorse fed uron his vii alR.
 Tn his face was written the keenness pf his anguish for the part he had played h the tragedy of that October night when beautiful Allie Armstrong fled too late from the cruel flashing pistol
 The Sting of Sorrow
 With the anguish which came from the picture in his mind of a new made grave aan Hap gka fwEf iUaA ryikL bf spring. there came the sting of sor. Eow that he had brought shame upon an honared name, that he had filed with orFow the few hearts that had loved him trough his misdeeds and misfortunes.
 The Japaneae have d caste whose mem- erw can not endure life when honor is cad. Shame and dishonor to them or their family is their death warrant apanese fatalism finds no remedy for lshonor but Samurai The pride of fam ly, the sting of dishonor. perhaps moved oung Armstrong as he looked upon the tars through the grated bars of his cell or the last time to the Oriental fatalsm f Samurai. And the eternal dishonor of he gallows, what were few moments f gasplng and struggling for breath tC hat? Gently born and gently bred this unfortunate youth felt no fear of the arkness and iciness of death when the win skeletons of his evil and his dishor- rose to mock him.
 Ralph Armstrong was not always the vid, unsteady wreck who stood up in ourt and heard the law condemn him to cath. There were those who remember i'm as handsome. debonnair youth ark avAA --' smooth faced. They re- ne, as having that grace and en hammer which marks and ist well born youth of the ou 1 the respectful and In- raj ner which characterized Is
 Tn lr JekyI side of his char etc lis in his sober moments
 pr dsome and self-possessed ,ho ly in the paths of recti- nde.
 Btu de of Armstrongs char cter mastery only too easily