The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-17
Two Have Been Lifeless Since
Sunday, Is Belief.
ESCAPING GAS FUMES CAUSE
Room Closed and Stove GOlmg
Ut Full Blast.
Man Was i'm Bed-WOman Sit.
ting in Rocker.

Dead for two or. possibly. three days
from the fumes Of burning gas stove
John Sanderson lay on a couch in his
bed room at s1S East Eighth street
while his aged wife sat in her chair
nearby until the bodies were discovered
this morning by their daughter. Two
canary birds lay dead in their cage.
The air of the room, which had been
tightly closed. was vitilated by the con-
stantly burning gas flame.
The dead man and woman appeared
to be sleeping peacefully. How long
they had been dead. the wife sitting
where she had kept her last vigil over
her invalid husband after he had been
comfortably tucked in on the couch ON
which he spent the hours when he
was not being wheeled about in an in
valid-chair. can only be guessed. No
person appears to have seen them since
Sunday. last. when Mrs. Clara Con-
nOrs, their daughter. had called upon
them. On the porch autside their door
were three daily papers waiting to be
carried in. Presumably they had been
dead since Sunday night.
Mr.. and Mrs. Sanderson were 6S
and 62 years Of age respectively.
Sanderson was an old soldier and past
post-commander OF Lincoln Post in
Topeka. He was q member of the
58th Ohio regiment.
Discovered by Daughter.
1t was about 3 o'clock this morning
that Mrs. John ]. Connors came from
her home on Van Buren, street to visit
her parents and on entering the room
was Mortified to discover them both
dead. She rushed to the street in time
to hail Will Anderson. stenographer for
the county attorney, who was passing.
''The two old people seemed asleep"
declared he afterward. Possibly they
/ 80 H~~np
could have had no warning OF their
danger. The air Of the room was heavy
with the lack of oxygen which must
have been consumed by the stove. al
though it was still burning. Its damper
had been turned SO that no draft was
passing into the flue to which the stove
was connected. The fact that the two
birds in the cage we're dead made the
cause Of their death unQuesticnAbae." :"
|. A. A. Sanderson of 1855 Van Buren
street, a son, was called soon after
the discovery was made. and accorc-
ing to his statement death may have
occurred several days ago.
Il ate dinner with them Sunday"
the son said, land after dinner We
sat around and talked for quite a
while before 1 left. The room is in
about the same condition it was when
I left. Apparently nothing had been
moved in the room since I left. It
Is my tneory tnat nOtner smut the 84S
down too much and that they were
overcome by the fumes"
Immediately after the discovery Of
the bodies a city health officer was
rushed to the house to place it under
guard until the coroner could hold an
inquest.
John j. Connors, son-in law, who runs
a blacksmith shop at 212 West Sew
enth street, said that it was the cus-
tom of his wife to go to see how her
mother and father were getting along
every other day at least, but that since
the severe cold weather. he had been
so busy in his shop working early and
late and 1t had been cold. his wife
had remained at home