160

THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.

Mr. I. C. Brewer, of the Toledo division, soughthis presence at his office on Water street, on Sat-urday morning, but not finding him or hearingof him, passed over to his residence, and beinginformed by the colored man in charge that hewas not there, determined to make an examina-tion of the house for the settlement of the ques-tion—whether he was in the house. Upon pass-ing through the house everything indicated orderand quiet, but loneliness, until the bedroom wasreached. Here he found the person of his search,dead, and in the first stages of decomposition,marked with blood, a revolver at hand, withwhich the deed was done, and the handle of an-other just showed from his pillow. The deter-mined purpose that controlled him was shown bythe means for making his destruction sure. Arazor was also found upon the bed. It was foundthat the muzzle of the revolver had been placedin his mouth, and the direction of the ball wasupward through the roof of the mouth, and outthrough the upper and back part of his head.The first shot seems to be the fatal and only one.

“In casting about for a cause for this violentand shocking death, circumstances point to theeffect upon his mind of the bridge accident atthis place. We find that he laid it deeply toheart, and when he first beheld the scene, he wept