ASSASSINATION OF THE MAYOR OF CHICAGO.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 18

ASSASSINATION OF THE MAYOR OF CHICAGO.

OuvUt H. Harrison, Mayor of Chicago, a l>.mUou to which ho had been elected five tuuett, wivH assassinatod at his home, South AwhUuul avenue, ou Ootober 28, at 8 o'clock vm. The murder was committed by Eugene l\\trlck Prendorgast, a newspaper carrier, who,

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had declared that Mayor Harrison had promised to make him corporation counsel and had not kept his word. Thip, he said, was the sole reason for committing the crime. The assassin discharged three bullets into Mr Harrison's body, each one of which would have caused the unfortunate man's death. The only person in the house at the time of the shooting besides Harrison was his son, William Preston Harrison, aged 25 years, and the servants. Shortly before 8 o'clock the door bell rang, and when May Hanson, a domestic servant, opened the door she was confronted by a man about sft sin high, smoothly shaved, with clean cnt features, lit by a pair of dark eyes. "Is Mr Harrison in? "he asked in a quiet, plea«ant voice. "Yes, sir," replied the girl, opening wide the door to admit his entrance. " I would like to see him, please," said the man, as she walked towards the back end of the hall. The mayor (Mr Harrison) wa3 in the dining room, which opened into the rear of the hall, and had thrown himself on a lounge to take a postprandial nap. Hearing the entry he roused himself, stepped into the hall and walked towards Prendergast. Without saying a word, the murderer drew a revolver and commenced to fire He pulled the trigger but three times and every bullet hit its mark. One shattered his 7ictim's left band, the second passed into the lower right side of the abdomen, making a wound that would have resulted fatally in a few days. The third entered his chest a little a^ove the heart. This wound was the immediate cause of death. As soon as Prendergast commenced to fire Harrison turned and walked rapidly towards the dining room. He passed through the room and into the butler's pantry, where, weakened by the loss of blood, he fell to the floor. Prendergast did not follow, but placed the pistol in his pocket and moved deliberately towards the front door. Just as he was passing out the son of the expiring man came tearing downstairs, and the family coachman ran into the 'rear end of the hall. The cries of the girl Mary Hanson directed youug Harrison to where his father lay. The butler had a revolver in his hand and started afcer Prendergast, at whose disappearing form he fired two shots, bu^ both went wide. The firat outsider that reached the prostrate mayor was W. J. Chambers, a neighbour from over the way. " Are you hurt ?" he asked, as he assisted the son to raise his father. " I have got my death chambers," was the reply. " I'm shot in the heart ; I'm a dead man." A moment later Harrison said, with a voice that was rapidly losing strength, " Unbutton my vest ; there's where the trouble is." By this time the stricken man had been borne to a couch in an adjoining room, and as he spoke Chambers gently opened his waistcoat. The front of his shirt was soaked in blood which welled rapidly from the wound. " It's through the heart." said the mayor, his voice b^ing scarcely above a whisper. A moment lafcor he sank into unconsciousness, and 20 minutes after receiving the wound Carter H. Harrison was dead. The death of the mayor under such circumstances created a most profound impression. He was well liked, and popular expressions of sorrow were heard on every side. It had been " Mayor's Day " at the Chicago Columbian Exposition, and Mayor Harrison had fatigued himself in entertaining the chief magistrates from the sister cities as well as by speaking. There were threats of lynching the murderer, and the police were apprehensive for some time they would not be able to hold their prisoner after arrest, but it was soon evident to every reflecting person that the wretch was hopelessly insane. One feature of the tragedy was peculiarly sad. Harrison was under engagement to marry Miss Annie Howard, and the wedding was to take place in a few days. She is a woman of great wealth and charitable impulses. Her sorrow for the death of her fiance is not demonstrative, but it has the inten&ity of despair.

CLOSE OF THE GREAT EXPOSITION.

The World's Columbian Exposition afc Chicago was closed on the evening of October 30. The event was to have been one of dazzling brilliancy, bufc the awful and untimely death ot Mr Carter H. Harrison, the mayor of the city, changed all the arrangements, and appropriate action was taken at a memorial meeting in the Festival Hall in memory of Chicago's chief magistrate, all the other ceremonies being abandoned. The last day opened with beautiful weather, but a pall hung over the great exposition and its myriad of flags floated at half-mast. President Palmer, of the National Commission, presided, and after an address and the passage of resolutions of condolence with the late mayor's family, a salute was fired, the flags were hauled down, and the closing of the exposition was officially declared. The total attendance from the opening to the closing was 21,4-58,910, the total free admission being 5,953,878. While this grave and official ending of the great exposition was being made at the memorial meeting in the Festival Hall there was quite a different scene in the midway plaisance. There all the barriers were broken down, and riotous revelry ran loose. Men and women alike seemed unmindful of decorum, and it was made a carnival. Both sexes marched up and down the plaisance tooting horns, and the women indulging in "high-kicking," to the delight of half-dranken spectators. Crowds of revellers swept everything before them. They took people off their feet and trampled over them unconcernedly. Protestations were met with laughter and drowned by horns, rattles, and the beating of improvised gongs and cymbals. As the night grew the fun became more fast and furious. Signs were torn down and used as banners, awnings were ripped from rafters and formed into robes, with which men aud women draped themselves. The tumult was the wildest ever known in the city. A tremendous fighb between the revellers and the foot guard varied the proceeding". In the midst of all this hullabaloo an alarm was sounded from the treasurer's Gffice. Guards and clerks rushed out armed, and at first it was thought an attempt had been made to rob the treasury, but after all it was found the fright had been caused by the accidental touching of an alarm button.

CORNELIUS HERZ GOING INSANE.

Says a Paris despatch of November 11 : — •• Even if the English Government grants the extradition of Cornelius Herz, which appears improbable, there seems little chance that he would be convicted. He is accused of having corrupted deputies, and the charge has already been declared outlawed by the lapse of time in the cases of other persons, but his trial would give an opportunity to revive the whole Panama scandal. The most recent news is that his tendency to despair ha 3so interfered with his very insufficient sleep that unless relief can be brought to him by a Fpeedy settlement of his case he will probably lose hi 3 reason, if nob his life."