The Telegram. — 1893-06-20 (Weymouth, Dorset, England)

SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN KENT. A ROMANTIC AFFAIR. REMARKABLE LETTERS.  Mr. Herman thorn, a German poet, with his wife were found dead on Friday in CA:kering Wood, Canterbury. The bodies were in clue. contact, the Imenand's face caressingly approaching that of the wife, who lay full leugte with her acme calmly folded. The hats, umbralla, and walking stick were laid together, and a bunch of wild flowers, tied with crape laid upon them. Mr. Steer hold a eix.chambered revolver in bus hand ; there was a revolver wound on the left aide of the wiftee head and on the right side f the husband's. Front letters the latter had deepatelied it would appear that he had contemplated suicide. Letters in German were found upon his body, and these haying been translated tend to show that several stage playa, of which lie was the author, bad been rejected, and that in some inetauces manneciipts were returned to bins unread. There is also reason to believe that his worldly affairs were nut sufficiently prosperoun to satisfy hiin, and the court,* of love appears to have been anything but smooth. Mr. Stuer was educated in Germany, where he appears to have met hie young lady coinpanion eon, time ago. He propu,ed niarr,ge to her, but her family objected, and this appear+ to have cued the deceased a good deal of pain and disappointment. About a month ago the young lady told her mother that Hermann was ill, and ahe must go to England to see him. Objeclione were rained by this family, but nest day the girl iniiSted upon going to her lover, and at last conseut was given. She left her Canterbury address with her friends, and arrived in that city the day after Stoer had come down and engaged apartments. Pheir life in Cantebury during the pact month was apparently a very happy one. The day following the tragedy was the young lady'e birthday, and on the morning a letter arrived at her Canterbury lodgings from her mother wishing her happy returns. At this time she was lying dead in the wood.  The following letter was received by Mr. G. W. King, of Leeds, from M. Stuer : " I ant dead. I shot myself on the 9th June here near Canterbury, in a wood on the west side of the town. I bad been four weeks in this place with my wife, who came on purpose from Germany to die with rue. I leave proofs enough behind me to testify that I am no murderer. Letters in German, winch will be found on my Poly, and her family will also be obliged to acknowledge the truth. We lived under the shadow of death happily together from the 12th May, the day before my birthday, until the 9th June, the day before her birthday, the time that fate allowed. We lived joyfully and peacefully ; for we dwelt in the bosons of Nature, mid separated from the stupidity, cupidity, and madness of mankind. Our pleasures were woods, birds, tieitin, and wild flowers. The hawthorn 1/10/ISOIII and the bluebell were with us at lint; then honey suckle and the wild ruse. Music and song were our occupation, with merry and earnest conversatious. In stir little lodging we were a harmony together, a tender and sublime accord. An the mountain stream meets his sister in the valley, we united and flowed together towards the same sea—the sea of freedom, truth, justice, that to a rtaine and a nothing on earth. Never was there a woman so noble as my wife, never has her sec known a character so high and so purely human, never was sweetness so softly mated with greatest strength. We are not dead of bodily lust or despair, but of fate and conviction. We never despaired, and we died calmly. The reason for the act will he found ill my words and her letters. :She understood Inc, and lived in arid through me. Tile only papers I have destroyed were plans for poems and plays, dee. I leave what remains of rue in your banda, considering you as the best and fittest person for the trust, remembering your friendship for myself and some adniiration for certain of the said works. Above all I write tic an honest man to an honest man. Yours I was in friendship.  'From death to life, from star to star, My earth was here, uty :pirit far:"  Au inquest was held on the hoary.) on Monday, when Superintendent Farmery, of the Canterbury police, said there was no sign ut a struggle. The woman appeared very carefully arranged ; her dress was laid straight, and she lay almost as if asleep. At the apartments they had occupied in Canterbury were some 200 envelopes, which had con, siued letters written by Mr. Stuer to a girl in germany. There was no money upon the bodies. Mr. Stoer warn wearing a lady's gold watch. His wife had nose, but was wearing four rings, including a wedding-ring. Simi. Wood, Kent County Constabulary, stated that the deceased had not been married in Cauterbury. Moreover no marriage certificate could be found. _ _  Mr. Oscar Stoe r said his brother hinted to him about tines months IlftU that ho and his wife would die. Wituess's father had been confined in a lunatic asylum in Germany fur the pies 14 yetrs. •  - 'Dia jury teiurtied a verdict that Hermann Stoer committed suicile while of 11148011111,1 mind, and that Elieaneth Stoat, 22 years of Aire, Ms wife, died from a Millet shot iiiinn head Mulcted he her  A letter, of which the following are extracts, was found upon the deviated :—" Jy my side rests the sole heing of my kind who knew my genius and loved it, end who without it saw the earth a desert and Ida a continual hunger and threat So art a stranger from a foreign land, my countrymen, she came to the field of oar pleasant birthplace to die there She died lace a bride who learns her home and trienthi for and with her husband, and ye have compelled me to take this life that was loved by all who watched the blossom of  senfi,r and nada 'mann+ that !rated hypoer—ii; and mtanness."  The bodies Of Mr. He•rl3lsl3 Stoat and his mos vette buried on Wednesday afternoon in the little churchyard at Milton, near Canterbury, within a few minuses' walk of the scene of the tragedy. Herlearours were made to conduct the ceremony as privately as possible, but there were about 200 persons present, and as a consequence there was conic unseemly crowding in the chapel. In accordance with the well•known tastes of the deceased, all the wreaths deposited on the coffins were of wild flowets.