The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-17

ated by Illuminating gas Sunday in the
Carlisle apartment house, 425 South
Carlisle street.
The bodies were discovered at noon
when T. W. Eckert and his wife, father
and stepmother of Mrs. Heck, stopped
in the city. on their way from New
York to Washington to visit the Hecks.
Mr. and Mrs. Eckert were unable to
get into the Heck apartments and de-
tecting an odor of gas. the door was
forced and Heck and his wife were
found dead in the sitting room, The
woman fully dressed lay on a couch.
Her husband was in a kneeling position
beside her. His head rested on her
chest. Heck was dressed. Gas escaped
from two partly opened burners in the
gas stove in an adjoining room. The
gas was lighted and turned low in the
room where the bodies lay The couple
had been dead many hours.
Heck failed to appear at the theater
| at s o'clock on Saturday night and it
may be the pair were asphyxiated be-
fore that time.
The couple lived at the Carlisle apart
ments since July. They were devoted
and the only thing to mar their happl-
ness was heart affection from which
Mrs Heck suffered and which COM
PEELED her to abandon the stage. Mr..
and Mrs. Heck came to Philadelphia
from Topeka four years ago.
mo, it's not suicide. He had every
thing to live for. It was accidental" )"
said Louis Heck, Sr., father of the dead
man in a voice broken with sorrow as
he sat beside a window at Nhis home,
SIS Quincy street, and gazed with tears
coursing down his cheeks out upon the
street. I'VE got a telegram Sunday af-
teTnoOn at 3 o'clock from Mr.. Eckert
saying that they had found Louie and
his wife dead in their rooms and that
the gas must have escaped from the
stove while thev We're asleep. It was ac-
cidental, it happened while they were
asleep. 1t says that they were both
found in bed
MY boy and his wife will be buried
here. The bodies viii be sent today
from Philadelphia and will arrive here
in a few days, / don't know just when.
The funeral services will be held from
the Church of the Assumption but it is
too early yet to announce the details of
the services
ut was terrible shock said Mrs
John Griley, sister of the man who met
such a tragic end.
Louis Heck, the announcement of
whose death is contained in the dis
patches from Philadelphia, is theeoldest
son of Louis Heck of S28 Quincy street
the veteran teacher of violin ana Tor
mer leader of the orchestra at the
Grand opera house when the amuse-
nent house was at the height of its
popularity. Louis Heck, Jr-, inherited
a taste for music from his father ana
early in his life showed a passionate
fondness for the violin, his fathers IA
vorite instrument. He was born IN
GAINESVILLE. Ohio, on August 16 1864,
and would have been Al years of age
had he lived until this fall. At the age
of 8 he started in to master the tech
nique of the violin under the instruction
of his father, under whose care he re-
mafned for two years, following which
he was sent to Columbus to take a
course of instruction continuing over
course of eight years under the wise
guidance of Herman Eckhart, one Of
the prominent teachers of the violin in
that city.
On the first of September of 1882
the family moved from GAINESVILLE to
Topeka. Almost Immediately follow
ing their removal here the two Hecks,
father and son, became identified with
the orchestras of the Grand and
Crawford opera houses. The father
was leader of the orchestra at the
former of the two houses, While MS
son became the head of the orchestra
at the Crawford He was barely Is
years of age at the time. Louis, Jr-,
continued his connection with the
Crawford until May 20, 1887, when ne
felt the need of wider study. depart
ing for Berlin, Germany where he
placed himself under the tutelage OF
the famous Joachim. For two years
and a half he received personal in
struction from the hands of the great
master He received not only in
struction upon the violin but also in
the theoretical field
In 1890 he returned home. He then
became musical director of a number