The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-02-29
Reward is Offered for Miscreant.

Reward is Offered for Miscreant.
Aiken, Feb. 27.-Aiken city coun-
Gil met this afternoon and offered q
reward of $1,000 for the arrest and
conviction of the unknown person
who last night attacked Mrs. Fred
erick o. Beach.
At the meeting were present a
number of the Aiken winter resi-
dents, among them was Mr.. Beach,
husband of the woman upon whom
the murderous assault was made.
The city lookup is full of negroes ar
rested last night and to-day, as sus-
poets, and Mayor Gyles states this af-
ternoon that the police are to make
several more arrests tomorrow.
Mrs. Beach was reported late this
afternoon to be resting easy.
According to the story told the
police by Mr.. Beach, it was about
10 o'clock when he heard his wife
scream, the sound coming from the
front yard. He rushed to her assist
ance, and found her lying uncon-
scious inside the yard gate, and
bleeding profusely from an ugly
wound in her throat. She had been
called to the gate, he said, by some
one, and that when she went out to
answer an unknown man was stand
ing just outside the gate, who stated,
that he had a note from Katie;
who's in the employ of Mr.. Harri-
man." Mrs. Beach stepped from her
porch into the yard and reached for
the note, when the man sprang inside
the gate, slashed her throat, laying
her neck open for several inches, and
as she fell to the ground, tore her
earrings from her ears, then dashed
away in the darkness.
Mrs. Beach, upon recovering con-
sciousness, declared that she did not
know who her assailant was, and
there is doubt expressed that he was
a negro. He was dressed, she said,
in a gray suit, but she could not see
his face.
A crowd, attracted by the screams
of Mrs. Beach, quickly gathered,
among them being many of the win
ter residents, who had been attending
a reception in the neighborhood, and
searching parties were quickly organ
lied to scour the town in pursuit of
the assailant.
Physicians summoned to render
medical attention, found it necessary
to make nine stitches in Mrs. Beach's
throat, and it was with difficulty that
they stopped the profusive flow of
blood. Her injuries, they state to-
day, are not as serious as they were
reported last night, the most imme-
diate danger then being the loss of
blood, which nearly cost Mrs. Beach
her life.
Mrs. Beach is prominent in New
York society, and has been winter
resident of Aiken for several years
past. She was formerly the wife
of one of the Havemeyers of the
American Sugar Refining Company,
who met mysterious death in New
York city some years ago when shot
by an unknown person. Mrs. Beach
is also sister-in-law, by her first
marriage, of Mrs. w. Butler Duncan
of New York, who is one of the most
prominent of the Aiken winter resi-
dents, and she is also related by her
first marriage. to the Tiffanys of
New York. The attack upon Mrs.
Beach, the purpose of which was
clearly robbery, took place in the
heart of Aiken, not more than one
square from the main business street.
Her condition to-day is reported by
her physicians to be improved and
she will recover.
The clue the Aiken police are
working on is that Mrs. Beach's as
sailant was familiar with the house
hold, if not one of the servants either
in the employ of the Beachs or the
Harrimans, since he stated to Mrs.
Beach that the supposed note was
from the Hartman home, and the
Beachs and the family of Joseph Har-
riman are very friendly.
Committee Meeting.