The Sentinel=record., 1912-03-28
YOUNG HITCHBORN
 COMMITS SUICIDE
SON OF ADMIRAL IN NAVY KILLS HIMSELF OVER DEsPoNDENcY
 AND HUMILIATION.
Wife EIoped Over Year Ago and Young Lawyer crleved Until
 He Lost Mind.

1 Philip S. Hickborn, a young law yer and son of the late Rear Ad- miral Hickborn, killed himself to-. night in despondency and humilia- ton over the elopement more than a year ago of his wife, Eleanor F Hoyt Hickborn, with Horace l.. Wy. He, prominent Washington attor- ney. He shot himself in the head with an automatic army revolver and | died almost instantly
 Hickborn went for dinner to the home of his sister, Mrs. Paul S. Pear sail The family was out and short ly after his arrival servants heard shot in his room. The door was broken in and he was found dead. On a table Hickborn had left note. sealed. The coroner took charge of 1t and it's contents may be made known If the families consent.
 A person who claimed to Ihave seen the note declared part of it's text was
 T am not to blame for this, think l have lost my mind"
 The remainder, which was brief was said to be devoted to a mention of his little boy.
 AttutH DN ul5 OWu HdDU" dUuS OIe more chapter to a distressing domes- tic tragedy which shovSed the most exclusive society of Washington and sent it's sorrow and humiliation to the homes of some of the capitals most prominent families.
 The first public intimation that all was not we'll in the Hickborn family came in December, 1910, when Mrs Hickborn and Wylie disappeared at the same time. Mrs. Hickborn's family denied stories of an elope. ment and said she was patient in a private hospital, broken down by the death of her father, Henry M. Hoyt former solicitor-general of the United States and at the time of his death counsellor for the state depart ment
 In that winter the couple, travel ing as MT. and Mrs. Henry Wise, was reported on the Nile. later in Paris, and on the Riyeria. Both fami- lies stoutly denied persistent stories of their whereabouts and no verifica- tion of the facts was had until last | January, when Hickborn sued for di- vorce That action never came to trial, and ended by his death.
 In April, 1911, Mrs Hickborn re- turned to her mother and simulta- neously Wylie returned to his fam l fly in Washington. He had deserted wife and four children Mrs. Hick- born had left 3-year-old baby boy. It is supposed this attempt at recon 1 ciliation was the result of a meeting of few weeks earlier in Paris be- l tween Mrs. Hickborn, her sister, Mrs ! Ferdinand von Stumm, the wife of a | former attache of the German em- bassy here, and Mrs. Hoyt. It really 1 however was the outcome of an l agreement between Mrs. Hickborn and Wyle that each should return home and if both found a reconcilia- ton impossible they should accept such realization as justification for l their elopement It appeared at first that the Wylies had become reconcil- ed, but not so with the Hickborns
 The next step came last fall when Wylie turned over to his wife and children real estate said to be worth $300,000 and personal property worth l $l0a,000. It was thought this was the final action Tn bringing the fam fly together, but it proved to be the step which separated 3hem.
 wylie resigned from the clubs which had not already dropped him and sailed from Boston for Europe. Mrs. Hickborn remained with her mother, near Boston, and after a hurried trip to Washington, sailed in November for Europe, from Montreal. Soon after, the couple were said to have been seen in Westminter Ca thedral, and later in France. That was the last Washington heard of their movements.
 Young Hickborn remained in Wash ington, except for brief trip to California, from which he returned a few days ago. He never seemed to rise to his former spirits and a day or so ago his sister remarked to a mutual friend that she was having time to keep Phil together" He was known to host of friends as the best type of young man.
 The prominence of his family and Mrs Hickbofn gave unusual notice to the disaster. Rear Admiral Hickborn, for long the chief constructor of the navy. was referred to as the master shipbuilder and to his genius was giv- en much of the credit for the per fOrmance Of the American fleet in the war with Spain.
 Mrs. Hickborn's father was a man of letters and a scholar fitted for the position he held.