The Penn's Grove record., 1904-02-05
WILLIAM C. WHITNEY DEAD
Former Secretary ofthe United States
Navy Passes Away.
END CAME AFTER RELAPSE

P~eritonitis and Blood Poisoning SET in
After q Severe Attack of Appendix
Observation-Disclosures of Traction Lines
"A Man OF Repeated Successes in
Large Enterprises.
New York City.-William Collins
Whitney, former Secretary of the Navy
in President Cleveland's first Admins.
t%ration, street railway financier and
sportsman, died at his residence, ST.
Fifth avenue. His death was due to
peritonitis and blood poisoning follow
ing an operation performed for appen-
dicitis.
MI. Whitney's condition from the
time that the operation was performed.
1t was admitted by those intimate with
the family, was much more serious
q indicated by the bulletins issued.
THESE bulletins We're not signed by the
physicians in attendance, but were is
sued, 1t was explained, by Mr.. Whit
neys private secretary, Thomas Regain,
as coming from the household.
The comparative suddenness of MI.
Whitney's death was a great shock
to his friends, many of whom fastened
to make inquiries as to his condition
when the new Of his illness was
first made public. 1t is now UNDER
stood that his condition was so grave
tnat among those familiar with the
case no hope was entertained for his
recovery.
The operation, to perform which Drs.
Bull and Walker were hastily sum-
moned, Dr.. Bull being called in from
out of town, disclosed the fact that the
disease had attacked Mr.. Whitney In a
particularly virulent form. When the
appendix was laid bare, it is under
stood, 1t was found to be in a highly
1nfamed condition, and pus was flow
ing freely from the sae.
The sick man was nearly sixty-three
years old, and although an excellent
constitution helped him to rally slightly
after the operation his age initiated
against him, and great physical de-
preston rendered him still less able to
Withstand the progress of the disease.
Inc case was complicated by peri.
tonitis, which set in after the opera.
ton, and was fully developed two days
later, although according to reports
sent out he had passed a favorable
night with less fever and inflammation.
those who knew had faint hopes of his
recovery, and these quickly disap-
peared before the ravages of the blood
poisoning.
Mr.. Whitney had been unconscious
for an hour when the end came. With
him at the last, his dying hands clasped
in theirs, were his son and daughter,
Harry Payne and Dorothy Whitney.
Two hours before death the condition
OF Mr.. Whitney seemed to show i'm
provement over that of the preceding
day. DR.. Walter B. James, the family
physician, who had remained beside
the patient throughout the night and
morning, felt hopeful for the first time
since the operation was performed.
1t seemed then as if science had
stayed the hand of death and that
Payne Whitney. the younger son. and
Adelaide Randolph, tie step-daughter.
who were hurrying homeward on spe-
cial trains from the South, would find
a convalescent father to erect them.
Mi. Whitney underwent a sudden re-
lapse and passed from acute pain into
merciful Inconsistencies.
William Collins Whitney was born in
Conway, Franklin County, Mass. on
July IA, 1871. He came from the best
Puritan stock Of New England. being a
descendant in the eighth generation of
John Whitney, an English Puritau,
who settled in Massachusetts in 1875.
On his mothers side he was descended
from William Bradford, Governor of
Plymouth Colony.
After preparing for college at the
Williston Seminary, at Easthampton,
Mass, young Whitney entered Yale in
1859 and was graduated with honors.
He came here and entered the law
office Of Abraham Il. Lawrence
But while he practiced law he did
not abate at all his interest in politics.
and in the Blaine-Cleveland campaign
of 1884 worked hard with his charac-
teristic skill in organization for the
election of Mr.. Cleveland. The day
after Cleveland's Inauguration Mr..
Whitney was appointed Secretary of
the Navy. He afterwards devoted him.
self TO securing control o. the surface
railroads of Manhattan, and succeeded
in building up the great corporation
known as the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way Company.