The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
THE FAT REPORTERS STORY.
Near Suicide Without Knowing 1t.
 Circumstantial Evidence.
.om the Chicago Record-H Herald.

From the Chicago Record Herald.
 Do you know l came pretty near com hitting suicide one time and l wouldn't have known it if l had" remarked the fat scribe as he broke into a conversa- ton of night police )orters at Central.
 Wish you had" said Pipes, absorbing d cloud of cigarette smoke and laughing cheeressly. You throwed a scoop into me the other night that hurt. But how about it? What's the story?'
 Well, 1t was just this way" said the fat reporter. At the time the startling affair occurred 1 was engaged in a sort of day bodice stunt. That is the editor kept me on criminal stories as a sort of speciality. An express car hold-up came off in Iowa and 1 was sent there to re- port the chase of the bandits. It was a long, hard game. living out among a lot of hilsiders with bum grub and poor beds. Plenty of whisky, though, but rot ten
 "One day I gets telegram to come home and there never was a guy that packed his grip with such joy. 1 had been gone a month, and what with the life l lived and the excitement of the hunt and all that, l was about all in. l had been in the habit of staying up late at night, and l knew I could not sleep com fortably in berth, so I threw myself down on the long leather seat in the smoking apartment of the Pullman Travel happened to be light and l was not bothered.
 q had a revolver with me in my right hip pocket It hurt me as I rested upon 1t and I raised up and took it out of the hip pocket placing it in the left coat pocket. Then with my overcoat and right arm under my head 1 made a try for little sleep.
 Pretty soon l snoozed off Then l dreamed. I dreamed that the train was being held up and that three-masked men armed with rifles or shotguns appeared on the platform of the car. I had got ten it into my head that the bandits in- tended to kill me, and in my nightmare thought l sprang up and tried to barri- cade the door with chairs and seats. But my efforts were useless. The robbers pushed their way in and jeered at me. l heard one of them say: Kill him. That's the guy that has been after us' "I felt that my hour had come, but something made me want to die game. l reached for my revolver and got it, and strove desperately to fire 1t at the vil- lains. But, strangely enough, the revol- ,, yer would not discharge. l pulled and , pulled at the trigger, but it was no go, ', Just then there was a crash--I thought I had been made the present of q load of buckshot, but 1t was simply the porter closing the door--and l awoke covered with precipitation. l was half daZed. and it took me a moment or two to get my bearings. Then I found l had my re- volver in my right hand, and my index finger was gripped around the guard as if it were frozen there, so intense had been the strength I had applied to the weapon. If 1t had been the trigger in- stead of the guard-oh, my"
 "I then figured it out. l had reached into my left pocket with my left hand transferring the revolver to my right which was under my head The angle of this weapon was directly over my heart when I strove to discharge it. The re- volver was a heavy bulldog and l wouldn't have known what hurt me had 1t gone off But some kind of a good fairy saved me-"
 That aln't a bad yarn.' remarked Pipes. Your friends would have cer- tainly said you had taken the suicide route"
 Sure they would" approved the fat re- porter. ''All of which goes to show that circumstantal evidence is sometimes bum steer.''