The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-22
Body Found in Grocery
 Store Cellar. LEFT SEVERAL LETTERS Gave Life That Family Might
 Collect insurance. He was Steady and Reliable ana His Accounts Were Correct--No Biem-
 ish on Character of Young

 | low men, Charles l.. Jones. 30 years old, clerk for the wholesale grocery | firm of Winter Loeb & Co, on Com merce Street. yesterday afternoon. | shortly after 1 o'clock, took his life in | his own hands.
 Mir. Jones resided with his wife and | one child at 210 Pelham Street. He was a native of Montgomery County | and was connected with some of the | best families in the County.
 In the cellar beneath the great busi- | ness house in which he was employed the unhappy man blew out his brains | with 41 Salipre Colts revolver For l nearly an hour, his fellow employees worked on, ignorant of the terrible tragedy that had been enacted beneath their very feet.
 | Shortly before o'clock, New Jordan. a negro laborer employed in the estab- iishment, went into the cellar. Lean- | ing against sack of oats, with his | brains spattered over the floor and 1 holding in his hands, the big revolver l with which he had ended his earthly 1 existence, the negro beheld tee lifeless | form of Mir. Jones.
 1 Mortified by the sight Jordan rushed up stairs and gave the alarm. Among the first to reach the body was Albert l Bayne, Jr., first cousin of the suicide. l and fellow employe in the establish ment.
 l Wrote Letters to Relatives A hurried search revealed the pres- ence of two letters to young Mir. Bayne, a letter to A. L.. Bayne, ST.. his uncle. a note to Henry Bowdoin. his brother-in- Jaw, and letter to his wife.
 The notes were addressed in a fine clerical handwriting and there was not a waver in the formation of let- ter to indicate that Mir. Jones was not in complete control of his nervous sys- tenn just prior to the tragedy.
 He wore his ovsrcoat at the time of the suicide and the dark blue of the cloth was almost made incarnadine by blood.
 Clinched in his hands was the big revolver with one cartridge exploded
 The suicide had evidently cooked the
 revolver before firing. He pulled ths
 trigger with both thumbs and when the shot was fired these members were fastened in the trigger guard.
 The ball entered the forehead over the nose. Its course was upward and part of the skull was fractured. The muzzle of the revolver was evidently pressed against his head, as his fore. head and eyebrows were burned.
 In one of the notes to MT. Alfred .l Bayne. the deceased requested that his
 body be turned over to Coroner W. H Tice and prepared for burial The other note asked MT. Bayne to keep tho big revolver, a ghastly token of his es- l teem.
 In compliance with his request, Cor oner Tice was at once summoned. The body was taken to his morgue on South Court Street. where it was viewed by hundreds who had known the deceased well in life.
 Mrs. Jones was notified of the trag- l edy by Mir. Albert Bayne at her home on Pelham Street, where the deceased had resided for several years with his young wife and little girl
 Saturday Is a busy day within the walls of the grocery store of Winter, Loeb & CO. The weeks business was being closed and draymen, laborers clerks and heads of departments were scurrying over the building. Two big | freight elevators were in operation. There is no little noise in a big es- tablishment at this time. The report of the revolver during this period was unnoticed by the force.
 | After the discovery of the body, sev- eral employees recalled hearing the re- port but at the time had thought the noise was that of falling flour barrel or something else incident to the hum l
 When the lIfeless form of the clerk was taken from the building, the great grocery store was as silent as a tomb. Up to the closing hour, the clerks in- voluntarily tip-toed around the big l building, the draymen ceased their raillery and conversea in monotones. It was tribute to the dead man. this silencing of a great business house. Speculation Was the Cause.
 NnkA the cause of the suicide. To intimate friends, MT. Jones had confided that he had recently dropped S1,o00 in a | bucket shop. Those who knew him well say that he had always been a l quiet young man, who saved all he could on his salary and his heavy losses weighed on his mind. He began some time ago to buy cot | ton futures, and the great slump in cotton was his undoing. It is said that all of the savings of his life, including his home. had been engulfed in the falling market. His life was insured for $10,000, his policy was incontest- able. and he gave his life for his little family
 His friends say also that Mir. Jones was a man who read much socialistic and revolutionary literature. He grew to be a cynic on existing con QitIOnb anu was hnOWn Lo OS HllSdn- thropic. It is believed that this had as much to do with his suicide as the speculation losses.
 His cousin and fellow employe. MT. Albert Bayne, Jr., in speaking of the tragedy said. Tt is absolutely inex- pIicable to me He had good posi- tion. a good wife, a good home, anC everything calculated to make a man happy. He was. however. a constant reader and a deep thinker. He was pessimistic and cared nothing for life. suppose he was as well educated as any man in Montgomery and 1t was due solely to his constant reading"
 In a note to Mr. A. l.. Bayne, Sr.. he wrote that he had prepared his clothes in which he was to be buried and gave directions as to where they could be found.
 J. T. Mapes, shipping clerk of the establishment, was the first person to reach the body of MT. Jones. Thr man was then dead and the body rest of the cellar. His experience is tol, as follows:
 About 2:30 o'clock I was told b my porter to go down into the celia of the store. that he was afraid NJ Jones had shot himself. I went i'm mediately down to the cellar and foun. Mir. Jones leaning against a sack potatoes in a sitting attitude. He ha a pistol clutched in both hands wit both thumbs on the trigger
 'sHe was dead when I reached him It seems that he hfsl pulled the trig