The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-07-08
UNHAPPY LOVERS
| die TOGETHER
Ioliver Gray, Aged 2l, and
Lucy Pond, Aged l8,
Take Poison.
HIS ACT PREMEDITATED
oespordent Because His Circumstances
Precluded an Early Wedding the
Young Man Got His Sweet
heart to Die With Him.

Elk Point, S. D.. July 7.-unhapPy
because their circumstances precluded
heir early marriage. oliver Gray, aged
y years, and Lucy Pond, aged Is, took
poison, by agreement. and died almcst
together Tuesday morning.
The double tragedy was at the home
i If the young woman where Gray mad
gone to call on her yesterday, after
supplying himself With the deadly
strychnine George Gray, father of the
youug man, and w. Pond. father of the
girl, are neighbors about two miles
southwest of this place They are we'll
. known and respected farmers
The girls parents had gone to Chats
WORTH Ia. to celebrate the Fourth,
leaving their daughter at home. She
WAS expecting Gray but gave no indi-
cation that she intended to end her
life Her farewell 10 her parents WAS
. natural and they do not believe she
& had any understanding With her sweet
! heart before his coming with reference
TO suicide.
Told of the Deed and Died.
u was shortly after O'Clock this
morning when Gray, his face aaggard
nd his step tottering. came to the room
of the brothers of Miss Pond. Charles
al.a Lowell. and said:
Lucy and ] have taken poison. She
is lead and ! will be in a few minutes
spnsn convulsed his frame, he sank TO
the floor and died in few minutes.
flaZed by the sudden and incompre-
hensibe statement which aroused them
fro;n their slumbers and the collapse
/ of their friend Gray. the Pond boys
could scarcely pull themselves togeth.
+ er sufficiently to call other members of
the household.
The family could not believe that
these young people had really taken
poison in fatal doses and messenger
WAS dispatched 10 ELK Point for ply
sician. DR.. A. c. Phillips was sum-
moned and he arrived at the stricken
home shortly after o'clock.
The lovers We're dead They had
made sure that neither one should sur
yive to mourn the loss of the other.
A Night of Horror.
1t was no doubt a night of horror
which these young people spent. Gray
vas bent on suicide. for he had taken
great care to provide himself with the
poison. II is eass' TO imagine the shrink
ing of the young girl when he proposed
that they should end their lives togeth-
er. Imagination can easily picture these
two in argument over this awful step
the girl, young and attractive. desrous
of cinging to life, and hopefully saying
that they would soon find means of
getting married. Then there would be
happiness instead of the terrifying. In
resistible approach of death. The heart
of a girl, however deeply in love. must
rebel at the thought of deliberate sui
eide for the sake of her sweetheart
The dependency of the young man.
the blank future in which he could see
nothing to promise more than he had
suffered, his passionate argument that
he must end all. either with or without
the girl he loved-these can be easily
imagined. Gray had come early i'm the
=
his plan at once. The anguish of the
two for the hours which interviewed un-
i'll they arrived at the momentous de
cision to die together. must have crazed
them both.
Bought Poison at Elk Point.
hary yesterday afternoon Gray came
TO town and asked for strychnne at
gist was out ard the jeweer in charge
refused to sell the deadly drug. Gray
said he wanted the poison for .rats
Later the jeweler saw Gray on the
street and the latter said he had Sc
cured the drug at another place.
The coroner went at once to the
scene of the tragedy to hold an in
quest.
Coroner Pnard of jefferson this
morning held an inquest. the jurors
being c. L. Nichols, I'riah Wood of
I.ik Point and Mr. Belinger. a farmer.
meditated suicide. a letter written bs
Miss Pond was found addressed to her
parents, who We're visiting in Chats
worth. stating that Oliver was not
feeling very we'll and intended to kill
himself, and that she had decided to
die with him. She asked that her en-
easement ring be left on her finger
and that she be buried in the same
grave with her lover. She made a re-
quest that the druggist be not blamed
for selling the poison.
Charles Pond said when he returned
home about ] O'Clock this morning his
sister and young Gray We're talking
together and seemed cheerful
'lhe fllnnrnl will he fn1n,nrrn,,.