The Huttig news. (Huttig, Ark.) 1907-1955, 1912-07-27
SYNOPSIS.
COPXPIll7T 1911
.Xzf BOBRS2KlRRNL CONE4TY

CHAPTER I-Harding Kent calls on
Louise Parrish to propose marriage and
iihds the house in great excitement over
the attempted suicide of her sister Kath=
aflnes Kent starts an investigation and
bndS that Hugh Crandall, sutton foi
tSatllarine. who had been forbidden the
louise by General Parrish, had talked with
katharine over the telephone just before
sAe shot herself. 4 torn piece oil yellow
paper Is fornd, ar sight of which Gen
sral Parrish is stricken with paralysis.
There was enough agony in the Far
IRISH home without having this sorrow
full secret blazoned TO a curious world
in three-inch type, without having a
horde of reporters and camera men
constantly surrounding the house. Be
sides, if Katharine recovered, sooner
or later she would be sure to learn
What the papers had said The knowl-
edge that her foolish crime against
herself had been thus sensationally
proclaimed would be blow from
which the sensitive girl--hitherto
jealousy shielded-would never re-
cover. If she should not recoyer-Doc-
Tor Wilcox and l were trusting to
chance to find a way of explaining her
teath. The servants-all of them
trustworthy and long in seryice-had
been cautioned not to talk to anyone
about the afternoons events. The
doctors aides and nurses, of course,
had been silent. This is part of their
business. How, then, had the papers
obtained the news so quickly? |
could think of but one possible way.
More than likely some telephone girl
who had heard Louise calling Doctor
Wilcox had given 1t to the press. Even
III TIE half=darkness of the middle of
he block where | stood | could read
he word "S-U-LCID-E" stretched
across the page in letters of red.
fastened to the corner where the dou-
Die globes shed down brilliant light,
anxious yet dreading to read what the
paper said. AT the first glance [
oreathed a sigh of relief. The article
was not about Katharine Parrish. |
had not thought of the possibility of
there having been another suicide that
day, but there it was:
Mystery in Self-Murder of Aged Law
yer.
Ordinarily | pay little attention to
| stories of crime. But the afterr Don
had given me new and bitter appre-
citation of the meaning of suicide.
Standing there under the light of a
Fifth avenue corner | read the hastily
written article word by word.
Andrew Elser, the article explained,
mad lived for many years in a West
Fwenty-third street boarding house.
little was known about him there ex-
DIT that he was a lawyer. Several
2ars ago he had given up his down
lwn Office Most of his income was
erived from his fees as custodian of
orphan boys estate About four
clock in the afternoon the iandlady
iad heard a noise in his room like that
f body falling. On entering she
ad found him lifeleGs on the floor
he had called a policeman, who sent
or an ambulance. The ambulance
loctor found that Mr. Elser had taken
loison.
1t struck me as peculiar coinci-
'ence that two persons SO far apart in
ne social scale as Katharine Parrish
re same hour of the same day to seek
death. Was there something in as
-rolory after all? Had the stars de-
creed that both should die? Had
some conjunction of the planets, some
evil aspect In the Zodiac driven both
If them-the young heiress. in the
hloom of joyous youth, and the aged
awyer, in his decrepit poverty--re-
!enuessly, helplessly. to self-destruc-
tion?
So deep was the impression made on
NE by the coincidence that | took the
raper with me and read the account of
Users suicide to Louise Even as |
read it aloud, this inexplicable thought
came to me with startling force:
Suppose that these two suicides at
The same hour were more than mere
coincidence. Was ii possible that the
same shadow had fallen on both these
lives? Had the same mystery driven
them to a death.pact?
It seemed absurd. 1t was unlikely
hat Katharine Parrish had ever heard
of Andrew Elser. If the family hSd
known him Louise would have men
toned It. And yet-why had these
two persons sought to die on the same
hour of the same day? The question
would not let me sleep that night.