DOMESTIC TRAGEDY IN NEW YORK.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1751, 16 March 1874, Page 4

DOMESTIC TRAGEDY IN NEW YORK.

(FROM THE NEW YORK HERALD, NOV. 19.) Another of those unfortunate occurrences which unearth family skeletons, and drag from the seclusion of a limited circle of friends and acquaintances the real or imagined greviancea under which two parties under the mairimouial yoke have long suffered, occurred on Saturday morning on Eight Avenue, near Four-teenth-street. The city was on Saturday treated to one of the most characteristic and sensational shootings, which failed of murder from no good intention of the principal actor in the affair. Duncan T. Templeton about three years ago married in opposition to the express wish of the lady's parents, Mrs Ida Babcock, daughter of General Babcock, the private secretary of the President. The young bride was scarcely 16, and encountered the matrimonial future with some ideas which do not appear to have coincided with those of the man whom she had promised to honour and obey. The marriage was not a happy one and, after much suffering and (it is asserted) some privation and ill-treatment, a separation took place. This was several months since. Mrs Templeton took board at Mrs. H. W. Kenney's, No. 238 West Fourteenth street, near Eighthavenue. Templeton, whose life has been rather irregular for more than a year, took up his lodgings at No. 38 in the ■ame street. The young wife had resided at her new home only a few days before she was called upon by her husband, and upon her declining to return to his home she was threatened with violence Some of the persons in the house even assert that they have heard Templeton threaten to take his wife's life. These calls have been more or less frequent ever since Mis Templeton was in the house, and so vexatious had they become that she refused to see or speak with her recreant husband. It has been very seldom that the lady has ventured out of the house. On Saturday morning, about 10 o'clock Mrs Templeton was out on Eighth-avenue, only a few steps from home, when she was accosted by Duncan T. Templeton, and upon refusing to again take up her abode with him she was seized by the wrists. Her screams brought a policeman, who arrested Templeton. As the prisoner was being conveyed to the station-house he suddenly turned round, drew and fired a pistol at his wife. The shot took effect in her neck, passing through and lodging in the opposite cheek. The prisoner was locked up. The wounded woman was taken to her home. Such, briefly, are the facts oi the last shootiug affair. There are two stories about the events immediately preceding the shooting, but the reporter has accepted that which come from the police. Officer Gallagher, who made the arrest, gives the following statement of what he saw of the shooting : — " I was attracted by a woman's cry on the east side of Eight avenue, near Fourteenth street. She was calling 'Police, police !' I at once rushed to the spot and found a young woman struggling with a man. Both were well dressed, and had the appearance of respectability. There were one or two other ladies near at hand, who appeared to have been in company with the young lady who was held by the man. lat once took hold of the man, and, telling the lady to consider herself under arrest and to accompany me, I started toward the stationhouse with my prisoner. The man released his hold upon the young lady, and, although terribly excited, appeared to submit quietly. We, that is the prisoner and I started up Eighth avenue, and the lady was preparing to follow. We had only taken a few steps, however, when the prisoner, with the rapidity of thought, before I could either guess his intention or interfere, drew a small pistol from his hip pocket, and whirling around, fired at the lady. It was all done in much less time than it requires for me to tell you. The lady staggered, and I felt sure that she had been hit. I did not lose an instant to disarm the would-be murderer, and hustled him along to the stationhouse. The lady was at once cared for by the other officers who had arrived, and I believe was conveyed directly to her home." Captain Cherry, of the Sixteenth precinct, makes the following statement of the conduct of the prisoner : — " I never saw the man before to my knowledge. When he was brought in by Officer Gallagher he was only slightly flushed and nervous. He appeared utterly indifferent regarding the result of the shooting. Be submitted to the searching of his clothes and said very little for a while. After the usual formula was gone through with — taking his name, address, and age — he said to me that his wife had left him, and that he had repeatedly asked her to return, but that she would not do so. He had repeatedly called to see her, he said, at No. 238 West Fourteenth street, but she had either denied him an audience, or, if she had seen him, rejected all his offers. He made general charges against the character of the house, which, he claimed, rendered the place an improper one for his wife to remain in. He asserted that he had determined to have her despite all opposition. Further than this he did not offer any justification. He re-asserted that his wife bad gone to be an inhabitant of a house of bad character, and that he could never stand such a proceeding. He industriously avoided saying anything about the shooting." "Was this assertion regarding the house a mere slander, or is there any foundation for his statement?'' aaked the reporter. "As you know, the house is in the Ninth precinct, and I do not, therefore, know much about the premises. But from experience I am convinced by what I saw that the story is only a base slander upon both the family and the lady herself.. It is I should judge, a respectable boardinghouse. A man and his wife and their grown-up daughter occupy the house, and are to my mind good guarantees of its respectability. I did not see anything to justify even a suspicion against the character of the house." Mrs Ida Babcock-Templeton is very small and light in figure. She certainly possesses great personal courage, for although she was suffering intense agony all Saturday afternoon, she did not manifest it by any cries of pain. To use the words of an enthusiastic detective officer, ' ' she bore it like a little hero." The ball entered the throat just forward of the main artery, crossed through the mouth, breaking the under jaw on the right, and lodged in the fleshy part of the right cheek, where it still remains. The wound is a ghastly one, and the hemorrhage has

been very profuse. The sufferer was very weak from the loss of blood, but the shock to her nervous system does not appear to be very great. The physician's statement is that all immediate dang er is past. The lady has recovered from the shock in a wonderful manner. She is perfectly conscious, although unable to speak. The ball is yet in her face ; it can be distinctly felt on the right side, but its extraction at present would be very dangerous, and chances are ninety-nine nut of the hundred that the pain would be so excessive as to prove fatal to her life. The lady will either wholly or almost wholly suffer the loss of her voice.