The Seward gateway., 1916-09-30
Cuts On Foreman
 In Several Places
Gruesome Tragedy Told al Inquest
 in Seward This Morning.

That Bert Foreman who committed suicide last Sunday on a mountain peak over Portage glacier cut himself in several parts of the body was shown in the evidence at the inquest in Seward this morning In addition to cutting the arteries of the left wrist Foreman also stabbed himselr four times near the heart and also in the temple. The story as told in court by B. G. Eaton, who was with Fore man at the time, presents one of the most gruesome tragedies of the Alas ka trails.
 Foreman and Eaton left Anchorage at a. m. on Saturday on the way to Portage bay. Eaton works in the Granite mine and Foreman was on his way to work at Bettel's bay. They camped out by a fire that night at Mile 63 and left for the glacier at daybreak next morning. Arriving at the glacier they found it raining heavily and as the crevices looked dangerous they decided to go over high butte to the left. This butte was precipitous and rocky and they found themselves in a serious position. The rain had turned into sleet at that elevation and the difficulty of making headway was very great. Several times Foreman expressed the belief that they could never get out of there. After a time he slid down a steep in- cline and got on the bench below Eat vn but was not in Eaton's sight as a rock point intervened. Eaton called to him when he was probably 150 'eet away but got only one answer Fin ally Eaton slid down the same incline in fifteen or twenty minutes and found Foreman crouching and staring out over the edge of the bluff while blood streamed from his writs and spread over the snow. Foreman was half standing. He was not lying down, rather, but was stopped and trembling like an aspen. Were going to freeze anyhow" said Foreman and after wards he repeated several times a re- quest to tell Ed and Henry" Eaton exhorted him to "buck up' and told him he would go to seek aid. He was too far gone at that time, Mr. Eaton says, to stop the blood flow or save him and he started back for aid. After coming up to Foreman the lat ter offered him his knife and asked him to finish off the job," In his testimony Eaton says Foreman seem ed all right on the trip. He was in good humor and joking on the night before at the camp fire. He said nothing at any time worth remember ing about his wife who had committed suicide a few days before at Anchor age.
 Al Chamberlain who was at the head of the four men sent out to bring in the body testified that he found the remains lying about forty feet away or so from the place where the act had apparently been committed. It lay in Q natural position on it's back against a steep decline and only ten feet away from frightful precipice. The heels were dug into the ground as though Foreman were trying to prevent himself from sliding over the brink. In bringing the body down the mountain they had to slide it over rocks and gulches and all sorts of ob- stacles. It was also fclnd that the head had been cut in places but this probably happened after Eaton had left him.
 Dr. Romig testified that the cut on the wrist was sufficient to cause death. Both arteries had been sever ed. It was shown at the inquest that the first story about Foreman falling into a crevasse was not we'll founded The verdict of the jury was in ac- cordance with the evidence. The jury was composed of H. E. Ellsworth, John Gilpatrick, H. H. Hildreth, Frank Skeen, Wm. Dewitt and John