The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-01-10
MILLAR TOLD THAT
HE WAS DEAD
TRAVELLING MAN IN SAN FRAN
CISCO GIVEN "A SEVERE JOLT.
Another Man Named Miller Had Taken
His Mail and, Deeply Touched by
Loving Message from the First Mani
Wife, Had Committed suicide-Joy
full News for Dixon, III.
San Francisco Bulletin.

San FRANCISCO Bulletin.
When +. J. Millar of Dixon, ILL.,, en-
tered the Hotel Terminus, on lower
Market street, yesterday morning, re
gistered and asked for his mail, he
was calmly informed by the clerk that
he (Millar) was dead.
Why, man! exclaimed the young
man behind the desk, "you committed
suicide Thursday afternoon in the nave
OF the ferry building. At least, SO the
hotel records state.
Whereupon the obliging custodian OF
the quill and blotter turned over to the
astonlshed gentleman from Illinois a
punch OF newspaper clippings describ-
ing, the recent tragedy in the ferry
building, when a young man named
John, August Miller, shot himself thru
the brain. An empty. envelop, bear
ing Dixon, III, ,postmark, and adj
dressed to r. j. Millar, in care of the
Hotel Terminus, was found on the dead
body. On the envelop the suicide had
written:
This letter makes me desperate. -
Millar nearly tainted Thoughts of
the CONSERVATION in his home at Dixon,
of the result Of the shock to his wife
and his relatives, the anticipation of a
possible tragedy at his own Preside,
staggered him.
He rushed to the nearest telegraph
messages to his family and friends in
| the east.
e In the meantime, awhat had occurred
in the little city Of Dixon, Ill, in which
cMillar is prominent citizen, char
ter member of the Elks' lodge, and
where his wife and her parents reside 2
Mrs. Millar Thursday afternoon re
that a man on whose body was found
an envelop addressed to her husband
! had committed suicide. The unfortun-
ate woman collapsed and took to her
bed. Her mother, Just recovering from
an operation, had a relapse, and Mil
lars large circle Of friends and brother
Elks did all in their power to console
herself widow. The Dixon newspa
pers appeared with glowing eulogies of
the supposedly dead Mil1ar; his pic
lures, framed with inverted rules, dec
grated the front pages, and the Elks
prepared for a fitting memorial.
| While all this was goin on Millal
was in Los Angeles. Here is his
My name is F. J. Millar. I live al
Dixon, I'll. I am an expert for thu
Acme Gas company of Chicago.
have been on the coast for two months
doing experimental work for the Cali
fornia Fruit Gamers association. \
left here a week ago last Sunday fo
Los Angeles to make tests for the Can
ners' association at their Los Angele
and other southern plants on differen
warded from the Hotel Terminus un
til the following Saturday, expecting a
, that time to get back here for Christ
J mas. .f-. -..- ~
: "Delays incidental to experimental
work detained me until after Christ
mas, and, as I expected to return
from day to day, / left my mail at tn
l Terminus hotel unforwarded. In tn
meantime [ had been sending my let
tiers east from Los Angeles.
2 "When I returned c ON the belate
owl train this morning I found that tn
hotel had changed Management an
. clerks. When T told the clerk at tn
desk that there must be some mail fro1
my little wife he looked at me. and ez
claimed:
/ q why, man, you are dead!'
After asking for an explanation
! discovered that another man by til
ting some; of my mail, and that one le
n ter postmarked Dixon, ILL.,, Dec. g
seemed to have affected him peculiarl
10 to have touched some sensitive Choir
Is in his heart. I am satisfied that m
70 wife had written me in response to
. homesick letter wrote her concernin
my first Christmas away from hon
. since our marriage. I have just r
ceceived telegram from my home
reply to several messages I sent toda
The telegram states that my wife is r
: covering and my mother-in-law is al
. getting better' -.-. 80 = =
It is probable that the suicide, Nj
Ter, opened the letter hoping it was f,
him. When he read Mrs. Millar
DO sweet. sympathetic message to- h
homesick husband the contents cappt
80 his climax Of misery, and he sent a br
W let into his brain. .&
SO The Dixon papers have RETURN
IS their rules, the Dixon Elks have cou
It fernandez their order for the beautifr
u ly. engraved memorial, and all Dixon
4 wishing the dazed little wife of F.
Millar a hannv new Uea1