The news & observer., 1905-12-06
Leads all North Carolina Dailies Inn News and Circor

gotten her over it,
Il was horrIned and suggested that
she have another physician but he
said no, she was doing very well then
Then ne excused himself and said he
lwouid go up stairs and give her some
medicine. [ asked to be allowed to
go and see il 1 could be OF any as
Sistance, but he said she was not in a
condition to see company.
He left and while he was out the
door bell rang. l went to the door,
and in the passage | heard his wife
breathing so loudly up stairs | went
up there. The door was half open and
saw DR.. Mathews before the dresser
preparing a hypodermic, it appearing
to me that he was using it on himself
/ went to the door, he waved me back,
saying his wife was in no condition to
see company He came to the door,
but | pushed on in, went to the bed,
saw that the woman was apparently
dead except for her hoarse breathing,
and | went Immediately down stairs,
sent the little boy for Mrs. Hay, tele-
phoned for physicians, and as soon as
Mrs. Hay came went to look for ply
icians myself the little boy going
also.
while we had Doctors Brooks and
Farrar present Mathews was almost
helpless from use of drugs. | had
never seen him that way but once be-
fore when / dined there and his little
boy called attention to fathers being
doped' at the dinner table and | saw
he was bad off. His sister. Mrs. Nick
German. of Manchester. about three
months ago asked me about his using
morphine, and that was about the
first time l had heard of his being
habitually that way.
when he met me at the door |
had to lead him to the parlor he was
so drunk, and helpless. He insisted
on telling about his family troubles
before he ever told me of his wife's
illness and that he had about gotten
her over it, When Doctors Farrar and
Brooks arrived he went over the same
story, about her taking strychnine
that he had told me-"
Mrs Mays story.
Mrs. A. III May testified that little
Ben rushed over to her house saying
his pa had given his ma an overdose of
medicine and he believed that she was
dying when l got in the room Math-
ews was sitting on the bed beside his
wife, with hypodermc syringe in his
hand, but whether he had put it in
herGp~ himself | could not tell. He
said he had~been working on her since
ten oicock the night before. and when
| aid she ought to have another doc
tor he said it would do no good. she
was about zone. / rushed down stairs
Mortified, because she seemed dead eX,
cept for her hoarse breathing. / wens
to the phone to try to hurry up the
doctors that others had gone for. /
went immediately lack uD stairs.
Mathews said nothing could save her.
as she was then gone. Later when
Drs. Brooks and Farrar had come and
given hor medicine and she seemed
better. Mathews asked us all to go out
so that he could have a few minutes of
silent prayer with his dying wife. The
doctors went out, but | would not. He
insisted on my going after the others
had gone, but | said | was going TO
stay. If you desire to pray let us both
kneel by the bed and we will pray to-
gether' He said That will never DO
as I am rot accustomed to pray in
public. | then said Your prayers
would amount to nothing, as she is
about gone; and how can you pray
like you are? He was very angry with
me. Later h2 said some ladies were
down stairs to see me. The doctors
had come back so / went, and they said
they had not called FOR me. He would
try every possible way to get us ali
out of the room at one time, but | was
determined not to let that happen, as
had seen too much.
Finally. while Dr. Farrar was
standing before the table fixing a hy
poderInic, he got on the bed with his
wife pretending to fee! her pulse.
watched him and saw him make some
kind of p movement with his hand
under the cover. | was expecting he
was going to shoot her and said 'Oh.
H.. 80
here right before me- He then said
his pants were caught in the cover and
he was simply trying to straighten
them Then he said he had spilled
some money out of his pocket, ana
little Zen said Why, pa, I've got a
nickle you can have if you lost YOURS.
1--WE made him get uo and ne left
the room and Doctor Farr2r searched
her carefully to see if he had injected
anything. but he could find no fresh
nuncture IN the arm. This was be-
tween three and four O'Clock. about
an hour after he had tried to get mo
out of the room so he could pray.
knew he was irving to do something
wrong, fo~ rs he got on the bed he
kept his eye on me, while at the same
time you could see he was trying TO
dc something under TIE co.er. This
was saon aftcr the doctors had beeh
talKinS 50 nOtFtLul-' dDGuC le-N pCiiiS
so much better.
'"The woman never spoke. She was
unconscious all the time her eyes shut.
Mathews was in better condition in the
afternoon than in the morning when
he was not himself at all. He used to
be our family doctor until about four
months ago when / saw he was dopinS
50 much | was, afraid to risk HIM
DR. Farrar's Statement.
Dr. Farrar next gave tho same evil
dcnce He also said that Mathews at
two different times had approached
him and endeavored to get him to say
II was heart failure that Killed her,
asking him to make a certificate to
that effect to keen from injuring him
and his little bty. as wei! AS his wife's
rarutation. He told of Mathews cf-
forts to get them out of the room at
various times. and finally OF the last
limo about six O'Clock, when his wife
was considered nearly out of danger.
he had been caurht red-handed inject
inr strvchnine in her wrist and of DR..
grabbing the syringe out OF
his hand 1t had been plunged into
her arm at the wrist and i was the
i,,oiaediate cause of death.