Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-10-15

Wnen burnp myselG OH, Sne Sdlu'
last week, I'm not going to take the
carbolic acid or the gas route-they
are far too commonplace for one OF
my temperament. realize fully that
I am one Of the most, II not the most,
spectacular female figures that ever
broke into history. If I suicided In
an everyday manner, like ono OF
these love sick servant girls, I would
be doing q cruel injustice to the thou
sands Of unborn painters, novelists,
playrights, and joke carpenters who
will go to my career for material"
She was in excellent spirits In the
morning when she was engaged IN
preparing q banquet In honor OF the
suffragists who recently threw bricks
through the windows Of the Senate
Chamber in Rome. Enemies Of the
Votes for Women" movement aver
that she killed herself, to get out of
this banquet, but this has been vehe-
mently denied and partially disproved
by circumstantial evidence.
Agripina xensis, Cleopatra's Greek
maid, who boards at 240 West North
Street, gives this account of the trag-
edy:
1.-THE mistress had been sitting on
the lawn in the afternoon reading
from paper back French novel and
eating macaroons. She seemed to be
unusually cheerful until she noted
pair Of large ants stroll together
across the cake plate. The insects
must have turned her thoughts toward
Mr.. Antony, because she became
moody at once. and after murmuring
Tony, Tony!! twice. Just like that, she
got up and went to her bed room,"
The girl says that she followed but
that Cleopatra Immediately sent her to
the corner drug store to get rs cents
worth Of cyanide Of potassium.
II want it," she remarked, casually,
ito poison a relative with"
The maid realized later that the
seemingly innocent purchase was
merely a ruse to get her out Of the
way. This was about o'clock. for
the girl remembers that the whistles
down in the stockyards district were
blowing at the time.
AS the maid opened the door of the
servants entrance on her return from
the drug store. she heard a scream.
She Immediately dropped the cyanide.
spilling it in a barrel of flour, and
rushed to her mistress room. The
door was locked, and her knocks
OF Vt
at keyholes through six years Of do
mestic service, the maid applied her
eye to the small aperature. She could
see Cleopatra reclining on the Daven-
port clad in her pink Powered wrap
per and Japanese slippers. She SEEM
ed to be asleep.
Madam, madam" the girl called
loudly.
She received no answer, and the
figure on the couch did not move.
The maid at once became alarmed and
phoned to the Pyramid Park Police
Station. An ambulance was sent and
Patrolman Mikelos assisted the sur
geon in breaking in the door. There
were still some signs Of life, and Cleo
patra was rushed to the emergency
ward of the Isis Hospital on Main
Street, where she died an hour later
without regaining consciousness. The
snake escaped and is still at large.
On the dead girls dressing table
were found two farewell notes. These
were weighted down by the picture of
Mark Antony in evening clothes and
an onyx rouge box. One of the mis-
sives was addressed to a near relative
and was delivered without being OPEN
ed. The other was in a plain unsealed
envelope, and read,
TO whom it may concern:
am tired Of living. When you get
tired of living there Is but one thing
to do-shuff1e off. In very few min
utes I will have so shuff1ed. Pay Cloe,
the Ethiopian wash-woman, the dol
lar thirty-five that I owe her for last
weeks wash. Get my blue silk from