The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-02-28
Was the Reason Given Why
John Chalmers Drew Ra-
Zor Across His Throat
CONDITION CRITICAL
Is HOSPITAL REPORT
Kept Repair Man Out of the
Bathroom by Saying
He Was Shaving

John Chalmer ~ 40, granite cut
ter, attempte@ = -ide by cutting his
throat with - n this morning and is
at the Cit ,Iital with only slight
chance . avery. His motive is un-
known = lhen DIR. J. w. Stewart, who
was calk TO the home of John Geals at
5 Bugbee ave, reached there, the man said
he thought death would come sooner" :"
1t is thought that the razor slash sew
cred the mans lugular vein. He bled
profusely and some time must have
elapsed between the time he made the
attempt and the arrival of the physician.
Chalmers was boarder at the Geals
home, where he had resided for the past
seven years. This morning he arose at
his accustomed hour. came downstairs
fully dressed and sat down with the
family at the breakfast table. After fin
ishing a hearty meal he said he had de-
eided not to go to work and would go
back to bed. Shortly afterward Harry
Skerritt, plumber, arrived at the house
to make repairs to leaky pipe in the
bathroom. From the hallway, Mrs. Geals
directed the plumber to the bathroom at
the head of the stairs, but when Skerritt
attempted TO open the door he heard
someone within remark that he was
shaving. Skerritt. said he would wait.
After a lapse of few moments the man
inside told the plumber to come in and
begin work if he were in hurry, but
Skerritt presently retired to the kitchen,
saying that he would wait until the man
had done shaving.
1t was around $3.50 o'clock when Mrs.
Geals heard Chalmers calling her She
went into the hallway and, looking up,
saw Chalmers in the doorway of the
bathroom with blood squirting from his
face and neck. The landlady thought he
had cut himself accidentally, but the
plumber went upstairs and learned the
truth.
Immediately Mrs. Geals summoned DR..
Stewart and then an effort was made to
move Chalmers, who. weak with loss OF
blood, had fallen to the floor. Apparent
ly he was losing consciousness and he
unintelIigble replies when mem
bers of the Geals family attempted to
question him. When the doctor arrived
hurried efforts were made to stop the
iow of blood. Chalmers is said to have
offered feeble resistance to the good Of
ices tie pbh puI Ht was wv
weak to interfere with the work of ap-
plying bandages and afterward when
Jhief Sinclair arrived the man was in
iemi-conscious state and submitted easily
% being carried downstairs and removed
o the hospital.
Chalmers had lately been in the en-
10y of Ross & Ralph. firm doing busi-
Tess in Burnham's meadow. He was
nan of steady habits and even his more
intimate acquaintances are wholly at
oss to account for his deed. He came to
sarre from Scotland in 1904 and had been
mployed here ever since as granite
utter. His wife and five children are in
scotland.
This afternoon the physician attending
'halmers was quoted as saying that the
nan may recover from the wound. After
is removal to the hospital, he grew de-
irious and before noon police head
uarters was asked to send an officer TO
he hospital One of the special police
len was at the patients bedside this
fternoon.
Friends of Chalmers say that he has
nree brothers serving in the British
rmy. They are all on the firing line in
rance and it is stated that Chalmers
ad been brooding considerably of late
yer the possibilities of war adding to
5 victims members of his own family.