Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1911-09-01
NEWS OF THE DAY.

Oscar Fox, an aged farmer living in
the town OF Danube, n. Y, dropped
dead as the result of fright yesterday
in a moment when he thought his
wife had been struck by West Shore
train. Fox, with his wife, was attempt
ing to drive their cows from the rail
road tracks. He was on one side OF
the tracks and his wife was on the
other. In the excitement the aged
woman fell, as it seemed to her hus-
band, in front of train. In his
frantic efforts to reach her he was
stricken with heart failure and toppled
over, dead. His wife was unframed.
Egbert Gillett and Elizabeth Sears,
members of the Shaker colony at Ash
ton, near Kissimmee, Fla, were placed
in jail Wednesday night, charged with
causing the death of Sadie Merchant,
another member OF the colony, by the
use OF poison. Sadie Merchant died
August % and was buried on the colony
land by Gillett and woman known as
Sister Amanda. The officers were
notified and after an investigation ar
rested Gillett and the Sears woman.
They admit giving the poison, assert
ing that the victim was hope!essly i'll
with tuberculosis and wanted to die
and escape from her suffering. They
accedel to her appeals and gave her
chloroform.
Fellow employees told James Dono-
van, Of the Dolinger Lumber Company,
in Bossier parish, La, that the nitro
glycerin in dynamite would stop ear
ache. Donovan, who was foreman of
field gang, had been a sufferer from
earache for several months, the result
of dive. When one of the men sug-
gesteh dynamite be decided to try it.
Taking up lump, he began squeezing
out the glycerin Then be thought he
detected foreign substance, and bent
over to examine it, asking as he did
so, that some one bring him a match.
There was an explosion, aud Donovan s
head was blown almost from his shout
ders, and several persons were struck
by flying debris.
The discovery OF five aces in a deck
of cards caused the fatal shooting of
William Petroskey and Alexander Bur
bay in Wilkes-Barre, Pa, yesterday
morning Michael Skitis, the third man
in the card party, was arrested later
for the crime.
Tales of many vessels in peril and Of
rescues from savage seas came into
Philadelphia yesterday along With an
account OF the suffering of woman
and two children for whose lives men
were fighting in an open yawl buffeted
by great waves. One story that Clark
Russell would have liked was that of
the crew saved from the schooner NAL
colin, lost in the hurricane that, few
days ago, swept the southern coast The
woman and her children came from
the schooner Josie r. Rust, abandoned,
off Barnegat, N. j., after the crew
had stood at the pumps many hours.
And, finally, came the report of 8
L SSuOOuCl, llS
John Ross, abandoned and afre off the
Carolina coast.
r. The Buffalo knat has been fixed upon
by Henry Garmsn, government bac-
teriologist and entomologist OF Lexing-
ton, KY, as the cause OF the myster-
lous disease, pellagra, which has been
spreading in the mountain regions OF
Kentucky. 1t had been thought that
the malady was due to consumption OF
mouldy corn. Just how the gnat COM
n,uicates the disease is not known, but
the scientist believes he is on the right
track and eventually will find cure
for the disease. The Buffalo gnat
exists in great numbers sill through the
south. Several new cases of pellagra
have developed in the mountain dis
tricts, but no new victims have been
found iE the state asylums.
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