The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-15
POVERTY STRICKEN FATHER NEAR
DEATH. CLYDE KARRER'S WIFE IS
NOW BEING SOUGHT AS FUGITIVE
Parent of Lawyers Mate
in Hotel to Be Torn
Down Monday.
NO HOPE, SAYS DOCTOR
You Don't Look Sick to
Me- Is Statement Laid
to Daughter.
By Times Special

d. tHttS special
SHELBYVILLE, June Is.
George Thomas is dying in
a hotel room in a building that
the state of Indiana has said
is not fit for human habitation
and has ordered torn down.
Two weeks ago, more or less, his
daughter, Mrs. Marie Karrer. wife
of Clyde A. Karrer, attorney who
frequently is judge pro tenn. in
Criminal Judge Frank P. Bakers
court, called on her father in his
miserable room in the condemned
American Hotel.
He said she exclaimed: You don't
look sick to me" and then left. Now
she is a fugitive from a warrant
ordering her arrest for failing to
provide for her father. The war
rant, is signed by l.. E. Webb, Shell
byville mayor.
Human kindness has provided, in
a way, for Mr.. Thomas in the last
19 weeks of pain and complete in
validiSm of this, his Sixty-ninth
year.
Cared for by Inns Owner
ballard L. Payne, who ran the
hotel that the state condemned,
cared for him, fed him and put
the $6 a week board and room on
the books.
Ever since that night 10 weeks
ago when Mr.. Payne heard Mr..
Thomas in distress in his room and
went in to find him in the throes
of stroke of apoplexy, Mr.. Payne
has taken care of the old man.
Some one had to. He couldn't
leave his bed and he needed con-
slant attention. Mr.. Payne says that
Mr.. Karrer, summoned at that time,
agreed to pay board and room for
the old man during his illness.
Now Four Weeks in Arrears.
He paid, Mr.. Payne says, $72 and
will on next Tuesday be four weeks
in arrears if he doesn't pay before
that. So there was nothing to do,
Mayor Webb says, but for him to
issue warrant charging Mrs.
Karrer with neglect, because ner
father had become a public charge.
Police Chief Earl Trees made the
complaint.
Because Mr.. Thomas is bedrid-
den, he can not be admitted to the
County Infrmary. There is no pub
lie relief fund for which he can
qualify.
DR.. Sam Kennedy, Mr. Thomas
says his patient has
taken to his bed for the last time"
But if the old man lives until Mon
day his dying days will be i'm
complicated.
Workmen are due Monday to tear
down the hotel. Already the lobby
is dismantled. and most of the furni-
ture is moved out. The state fire
marshal branded the building fire
trap and ordered it demolished, and
demolished it will be, starting day
after tomorrow.
Now Completely Impoverished
But Mr.. Thomas has no place TO
be taken to. He has no money to
hire room and board with. He has
no clothes. He has nothing but
debts. If he could find a place to
move to, they would have to wrap
him in a blanket and carry him.
Once wealthy enough to give Mr..
and Mrs. Karrer a 40-acre tract of
land as a gift, he says, Mr.. Thomas
today is completely impoverished.
Frequently he says, as he tries to
comprehend his own pitiful circum-
stances:
I'm in very bad shape. Things
are very bad"
Monday, George Thomas faces
another climax in his life-perhaps
the last.
He also is fugitive-a fugitive
from death!