Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-09
Mr.. HARTMAN IS BETTER
This Statement Was Made by Mag
mates Doctor Yesterday.
ALARMING RUMORs AFLOA1
These Are Denied, but All Details
as TO Illness Are Refused
Empty Oxygen Tanks Sent
to New York.

TURNER, N. Y, Sept S.-Edward H.
Hartman is better. This statement is
based on the assertion today of the two
men closest to him outside of his immediate
family. His medical adviser, DIR. william
G. Lyle, said so this morning and reiterated
II late this afternoon. His spiritual ad-
wiser, Rev. j. Holmes McGuiness. made
the assertion in almost the same language
after visiting the sick man personally dur
ing the afternoon.
How far Mr.. Hartman has improved and
the precise state of his health is still mat
ter of conjecture and the subject Of a sue
cession of alarming rumors. The official
information from the Hartman residence
today utterly failed to quiet these reports
and there seems to be some ground for
the persistent If unconfirmed reports that
he suffered a second slight attack of in
digestion yesterday and that DR.. Lyle's
reassuring statement at midnight referred
to his Improvement from this second
seizure.
Empty Oxygen Tanks.
There is no doubt that Mr.. Harriman's s
recent Illness has been desperate. Evidence
of this was furnished today by two empty
oxygen tanks that were sent down from
Tower Hill this evening to be returned to
the manufacturer in New York. That these
attacks will be recurrent and that they
must grow increasingly ominous is the be-
lief of even those who. have no immediate
fear for his life and profess to consider
reports published in New York as exag-
gerated.
DIR. Lyles first statement today came in
his own handwriting in response to a note
delivered to him at Arden house at about
IL o'clock this morning requesting more
definite information. This reply read:
Mr.. Hartman is better.
''W. G. LYLE"
More Alarming RumOrs.
Conjecture was thus lulled only for a
few hours. In the afternoon alarming
rumors, originating, some in Wall street
and some from sources unknown, poured
in upon the newspaper men at Turner and
Arden until o'clock. when Dr. Lyle again
was called on the telephone. The most
startling report of them all was that re-
peated to him:
1T is said in New York that Mr.. Harri-
man is dead"
Those reports are not true" replied Dr.
Lyle, "Mr. Hartman is better today"
His assurances were qualified in the
minds OF many, however, by q visit paid
to Arden house by Mrs, Mary Simonds,
Mr.. Harriman's sister, who lives in Center
Valley at the foot OF the mountain.
week ago when Mrs. Simonds was
asked 20 confirm or deny a rumor that her
brother was dying. she replied: IF he
was dying do you think 1 should be
sitting quietly here at my homer"
Tonight member OF the Simonds family
was asked IL the sisters visit indicated
any change for the worse. The reply was
mo, quite the contrary"
Pastor Says Little.
The Rev ]. Holmes McGuiness is the
young rector of the Episcopal parish of
which Mr.. Hartman is a member As
pastor Of st, Johns church at Arden, he
has long enjoyed the confidence of the
Hartman family and by those who com
pare the millionaire's broad acres here to
a baron's isle he is some times referred to
as Mr.. Harriman's chaplain
Alarmed by the morning papers, DR.. Nc
Guinness drove to Arden house about O:SO
from HIS home at Chester. On his way
he told the newspaper men he had no first
hand information from Tower Hill. He
spent two hours with the Hartman family
and was not seen In the valley again until
he drove home between and O'Clock.
Reluctant TO discuss his visit, he yielded
when told that a wrong Interpretation
might be placed upon his call II followed
by absolute silence and asked: you tell