The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-07-28

| than the statement left by his dead
| brother. He is a man IF slight build,
with delicate, shapely hands and beau
! tiful brown eyes, a gentleman such Is
one Ends in romance. and he ooks tie
| part of the poet, which &c actually is
The statement left by tue dead man
is as follows:
81 take this with my w free viii
and accord. | asked my brother TO get
. make mistakes. but am nc
seward.
ROBERT KEITH DAHGAN.'
/ did not call upon Ihe widow, fol-
that would have been cruel Besides
she is Ill; so i'll that Some say she viii
| never recover
THE DOCTORS STORY.
DIR. J. G.. Edwards said that w. L
| Dargan telephoned him that hight anG
| he hurried, in response, to the office.
| r. K. Dargan was dead when he got
| there, resting in the position as de-
| scribed by the coroner. There was the
| bowl from which he had di unk the
| whiskey: there was the vial that had
held the fatal acid, the dor of which
was still in the room There was the
note, quoted above, On the table near
his hand Pegram vas there and in
great distress, but he would not make
! any statement. He advised them to
send for the coroner which they did.
They then removed the corpse to the
mansion. Next morning, when he eX-
anined il, there were signs Of doom
position, such as a blueness about the
lips. '"Tne man is dead if there ever
was a dead man." he declared.
THE BARBER INTERVIEWED.
J.. K. Doyle, Il barber and Il member
of the cOrOner'S jury, which, in this
state, is composed of u men, said that
the man is dead. He said that at 1870
O'Clock that night he was sem for to
shave the corpse. He has shaved many
a dead man, and this was r. X. Oar
gan and no waXen figure nor hypnO-
tiZed mn. He had known Dargan per
sOnally for five years. He could smell
the acid and saw marks of it about
the mouth. Next morning when he
went into the chamber with his fellow
jurors the body was lying just as he
had left it. It's beer reported he
said, that the o got $1,000, the
doctor $4,000 and [ $1,000, 10 say
these things, but that is an absolute
Iie."
KNOWS DARGAN Is DEAD.
Superintendent Of Education H. G..
Burns told me he saw the body when
the jury was viewing it; that it was
Robert Keith Dargan, and he was
dead.
Foreman Of the Jury G. II. King, a
very emphatic and intelligent man,
said that it is nothing but d scandal;
that Dargan is dead, for he saw his
corpse and knows a corpse when ne
sees one. 1t all got started, he thinks,
from the ejectment from the mansion
by ". +. Dargan of two rutfians who
went there through curiosity with the
jury, and who had no more business
there than I've got in heaven:
Receiver WilliamsOn's opinion is that
there is no doubt hat the man is dead.
Of him MI. Williamson said: HE was
the smartest man and had the best
memory and the greatest capacity for
work of any man l ever knew"
ATTORNEYS, THEORY.
The dead mans attorney said that
his theory is that Dargan, who had
great pride i'll his business ability, had
bolstered the business, which had forI
more than q year been u"mprosperous.
out of his OWL resources. Since hisI
death it is found that this, hat and tnel
other property belonging to him Eladl
been sold, and that there is no ac-l
counting for the money they must nave
brought. He had probably to keep upl
confidence until better times came, giv-I
ell his OWN substance thus, and hadl
also paid 'dividends" out OF the capi-l
tai stock. But discovery came beforel
better times, and h~igh-spirited as he
was, the man died rather than facef
the shame of failure and the rnin|
which it brought upon himself apdI
others.
SUSPICION VS.. EVIDENCE
So it seems hat it is a case Of sus-
piciOn against evidence. The street
talk and tram talk--there was Lttie|
other talk on the train this morningl
from Columbia to Florence and fromI
Florence here, except about this sensa-|
tiOn-and the talk everywhere is thatl
Il man who vas clever enough to carry
on this graft on such a hegoic scale sol
oIlS Il AfSNSi 1iotSh W Ioo1 t1C
public with Il sham suicide. He hadI
on his life $4,000 insurance for his|
wife; 5000 for mis- daughter: some
$4,000 for his estate, and probably
more.
WHY GRAVE is NOT OPENED.
They say that only his widow would
have authority to open the rave, and
she does not even know of the rumQrsl
atiOat. Unless the public will credit
the men who say they saw the man
dead, there is no way to settl the
question except to &C into the grave by
violence Or at the demand of the in
surance people. What impresses the in
vestigator is the i~lconsequence of the
whole business on both sides.
MONEI MISSING.
"What has becuile of Che money!"
asked Mr.. Williamson.
81 don't know" ne replied.
Il can't get the straight of this