The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1909-05-31
DEATH GAME IN
BREATHING FUMES
TO RELIEVE PAIN
tContinued from Page one.l

tered at the Hawaiian on May and
were assigned to room G 6, down
stairs, corner room on the driveway
on the left hand side as one goes
through the main front building of the
ancient hosiery. A brass bed head
and left side to the walls, was occupied
by Nichols, and Namias, to be handy
for call, slept in front of the window
on cot at the foot of his employer
bed
Saturday afternoon, about g O'Clock,
Nichols who had been suffering con-
siderable pain through rheumatism in
his shoulders and legs, and who was
feeling somewhat easeG and wanted to
go to sleep, told Namias he could go
out and enjoy himself. Namias went
to the Seaside Hotel He returned
soon after 6 o'clock, according to his
story, and about 7 O'Clock he looked
into the room of his employer to see
If he was all right. He saw that
Nichols seemed to be asleep, also not
ing that he moved leg. A blanket
was drawn up to his ears and covered
his feet. Namias went to eat and
Japanese boy of the hotel placed a
chair on the veranda and sat down to
watch in case the old gentleman might
call for anything. When Namias re-
turned from dinner and a stroll he was
informed by the Japanese that the man
in bed had not moved. The Japanese
had meanwhile communicated the fact
that the old man had not moved to the
hotel clerk, and the clerk, Namias and
the Japanese boy, a little after Ma
MAS return, entered the room together
to see if all was well. The blanket
was thrown back, the handkerchief dis
covered, smelling of chloroform, and
it was found that the body had a bottle
containing little chloroform clutched
in the right hand, held near the nose,
the head bent toward it.
The bottle had been placed on the
chiffonier, back of a lot of other bot
ties, with the idea of KEEPING it out of
the reach of Nichols, the chloroform
being given him as a relief for pain in
smaller bottle. Namias had hidden
the bottle, he says. Nichols had search
I'd for it and found it.
OUT OF CHLOROFORM.
There was a little chloroform in the
small bottle when Namias went out for
| the afternoon. 1t did not seem neces-
sary to put any more therein for the
reason that Nichols was inclined to
sleep and Namias had been trying to
break the old man of the habit of TAX
ing the chloroform so frequently. He
was absent several hours, during which
time it seems that Nichols must have
awakened, must have had a recurrence
of pain which was very acute with him
at times, probably found there was no
more chloroform in the small bottle
and got up to look for more of the
relief medicine which he knew was kept
in a larger bottle. Finding the larger
bottle where he might naturally look
for it first, where certain other medi-
cine bottles were, he presumably put
some on the handkerchief, as was his
habit when he did not sniff it direct
from the bottle, and, suffering great
pain, retained the uncorked bottle,
which held about a sixth of it's original
contents, uncorked, in his right hand.
A little chloroform on a handkerchief
laid lightly over the mouth and nos
trils, not pressed, so allowing also the
ingress of air, has a comparatively
brief effect. The bottle was probably
held ready to re-saturate the handker-
chief in case the first few limitations
did not produce the desired effect OF
temporary sleep. What simpler. than
that with the uncorked bottle in his
hand, close to his face, and sleep being
induced by the saturated handkerchief
the victim should roll his head nearer
the bottle so that his nostrils met the
mouth of the bottle, and that death
came merely as a continued sleep, all
pain gone? And where is there any
substantial indication of any intent to
take his life? There is less intent OF