The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-11-12
ROMANCE AND
 TRAGEDY OF THE SCHENkS
Young Doctor Now Brought Into Poisoning Case of
 the Millionaire
EVIDENCE IS QUITE STRONG
Wife in Luxury at Jail and Eats Meals from Swell
 .T~c~
 NCsIU
Especial from United Press.)

Wheeling, w. Va, Nov. 12.-A net of circumstantial evidence is being woven about a doctor and salesman in the mystery of the poisoning of John Schenk, millionaire pork pack CT. in this city. Mrs. Laura Farnes- worth, the wife, is luxuriously and even magnifcently locked up in the county jail, here, charged with trying to kill her husband.
 The millionaire is at a local hos pital. fighting against the ravages of the slow poison that was administer ed to him in regular doses with the prepared water that he drank.
 The prosecution believes that 1t would have heen impossible for any one, totally ignorant of the chemis- try of drugs, to administer the ar senic in the scientifically subtle man. ner in which it was given to Schenk. Therefore. suspicion fastens on a doc tor. The prosecution says that 1t must have been one at least as skilled as 8 doctor, who knew as to what quantities of the arsenic would kill slowly but surely and leave no evil dence of crime.
 Mrs Schenk, locked up in a cell in one of the embattled towers of the county jail, lacks none of the comforts or the nldnS1On, WHICH Schenk took her from the kitchen of one of his fathers neighbors, where she was employed before he married her. The iron bars are concealed by tapestries taken from her fashionable island home. It is a cosy corner. She sleeps on an embroidered couch. She has a mahogany card table and plays solitaire through the day. Called from her home to the jail at mid night. she hastily gathered together the appurtenanceS of her dressing tables, perfumes, powders, combs and brushes.
 She had her best clothes sent to jail and from her dress she might be clad for an afternoon tea. On ad- vice from her lawyers, she says noth- ing-not even to the jailer.
 Her meals are brought to her from the city's leading cafe and they cost $2 each. The local papers call her .'the splendid prisoner"
 From kitchen to mansion and from mansion to jail-that covers the life story of Laura Farnesworth Schenk. She was born on a farm and came to this city to work 15 years ago. She worked as 8 domestic three years and the remainder of the l5 years have been devoted to unsuccessful social climbing by brilliant events.
 She was working as a domestic for a neighbor of Schenk's father when he met her. He married her against the protests of his family. The Schenk family had had social ambi- Schenk. the father of John Schenl<, came to America from Germany. where he started a butcher shop and now his family owns a great deal of the tangible property of the city. The wealth he had amassed had just opened the doors of the charmed social circle to them when John mar ried the neighbours domestic.
 If she is not as good as we, I will make her as good" said John, and nificent than his fathers and furnish ed it more beautifully than the home in which she had worked. Two chil dren were born to them-a girl who is now 12 years old and a boy who is seven.
 Laura Farnesworth Schenk began her social campaign a year after she was married. She invited numerous of the local aristocrats to the apart ments the newspapers used to call magnificent, but few came. She be- came discouraged and made attack after attack on the social barrier that kept her out. The income of John Schenk is s100,0OO a year. It has been spent freely on his wife, He bought her S10,000 automobile and built a garage in the rear of their home.
 Jahn Schenk, although a million aire, is work-a-day sort of a per son. Schooled to hard work, he had never acquired the social graces necessary as an asset in his wife's social campaigns. He didn't like dress suits and his custom was to sit around the house in his shirt sleeves. Among the things that Mrs. Schenk learned in the course of her social education was that shirt sleeves are not proper in a splendid mansion. John Schenk, old fashioned and plain, began to find himself out of place in the home to which he had brought his wife. His interests were all in the pork establishment and his real estate. He found himself unable to keep pace. Schenk then began to yearn for the broader future that he thought he had neglected and the social personal atmosphere that his wife seemed to acquire so easily. He had decided he would see the world and a year ago he circled the globe.
 Wheeling is not large city and one cannot do things without the neighbors knowing and talking, as is possible in a metropolis. Wheeling shortly after John Schenk left. John Schenk's S10,000 automobile is one of the sights and will be as prom1- nent an asset of the city as the old soldiers monument, in front of the
 When wheeIing's leading auto was seen joy-riding about the streets dur ing Scnenks absence, gossip began. There was talk about young man who was in the machine. Mrs. Schenk also rode in it.
 The accusation that the state has brought against Mrs Schenk is based on the prosecution charge that there was an intrigue between Mrs. Schenk and the young man; that the plot to poison Schenk was to be the final step in a social invasion; that the chauffeur of the Schenk auto had been asked to drive the machine in- to a ditch when Schenk rode in it; that a promise of $1.000 was maGa to a nurse if she would give Scheniz 9 poisoned pill; that she was prom ised another $1.000 if she would find the key to the strong box that con tained Schenk's papers; and that poison was found in the lithia water that had been prescribed for him.
 The prosecution claims to be able to make a complete story, one fact connecting with the other. in the romance and tragedy of the Schenl<s
 Schenk became i'll shortly after he returned from his trip around the