THE SHOOTING- OF JAMES FISK JUN. AT NEW YORK.

Colonist, Volume XV, Issue 1501, 13 February 1872, Page 4

THE SHOOTING- OF JAMES FISK JUN. AT NEW YORK.

(Condensed from the San Francisco Journals.) New Yoke, January 6. The following are the circumstances attending the Fisk shooting case: At 4t'3i> p.rn his carraige stopped at the entrance of the Grand Central Hotel. It contained Fisk and a companion. The former alighted and entered the hotel for the purpose of proceeding to his rooms. As he ascended the first step, Stokes came out of an adjoining passage-way, unpereeived by Fisk, unbuttoned his coat, drew out a revolver and rapidly discharged three shots at Fisk. The first lodged in Fisk's shoulder; the second whistled close by his head; the third, with a more fatal direction, took effect in his abdomen, inflicting a mortal wound.

Fisk at once staggered and fell, whilo Stokes cast a look of hatrid on the prostrate form of his victim, and said, in savage tones: —" I have don« for the son of a b this time." Fisk evidently recognised his assailant before falling, but made no remark. Immediately after the shots were fired the employees rushed fo the rescue; while some cared for the wounded man, others seized Stokes, who, seeing escape impossible, made no resistance, and was promptly handed over to the police. Fisk was quickly conveyed to his room, where the surgeon of the hotel was soon in attendance upon him.

Meanwhile telegraphic messages were sent for further surgical aid and friends of Fisk. The sceue at the hotel, after the shooting, was one of extraordinary excitement. Crowds coming from the matinees of the various theatres hearing of the occurrence thronged the corridors of the hotel, eagerly discussing the eveni and making enquiries about "the particulars of the outrage. The officers who arrested Stokes conveyed him to the fifteenth Precinct Station, where he is now lodged in a cell. January 7. A few minutes before eleven o'clock this morning James Fiak jun., expired. All thai unremitting medical skill and attention could do had been done, but was of no avail. It is probable that Stokes was in an excited state of mind, caused by the proceedings at -Yorkville, whore he was witness today in the Mansfield libel suit. For some time he is said to have been in a desperate state of mind evidently caused by the slowness of the progress of the cases against Fisk in which he is concerned.

In June last an award of $10,000 was

made in favor of Stokes, in settlement of a long claim he had against Eisk. With this he was dissatisfied, and had applied to have the award set aside. The case was reopened, and is now pending. Allusion is made in the foregoing to the Mansfield suit out of which arose the shots that terminated the career of James Eisk, junior, and a brief insight into the suit will certainly interest the reader. Helen Josephine Mansfield was for years the mistress of the redoubtable Colonel, the sharer of his joys, his great wealth, and, what was worse for Eisk, his business secrets. There appears to have been a complete infatuation on Eisk's part for this woman, an infatuation which, as we have said, carried him to the greatest lengths. Having control of both his heart and purse, the whims of the fair Helen never went ungratified, and stories of her exploits ardbrilliantextravagancieshaverungtheland. The gallant Colonel was lavish as a Prince, and it is probable that he really entertained for this frail erring- woman a feeling deeper and more earnest than men usually bestow on their paramours. How, when, or by what means it occurred does not much matt:ivbut there came a time when the tie which bound these twain was snapped asunder, never to be restored again. There was a public scandal, a separation, and then the matter died out and people ceased to gossip about the differences of the pair. It appears, however, that at the time of this separation Eisk had in his possession—so at least the fair Helen alleges-some $30,000 or $40,000 of his mistress's money deposited with him to be invested for her account. The refusal of Eisk to give up the mount brought about the now famous litigation. Mrs. Mansfield, forswearing the Colouel, took to her arms a certain Edward S. Stokes, a broker of some sort in New York, and the two made common cause against the recalcitrant Eisk.

This suit has been in progress now for near two months, and has attracted a great deal of attention. Mrs Mansfield's appearance in the Court-rooji as a witness created no end of sensation, the reporters describing her beauty in glowing and rapturous terms. The suit possessed a peculiar, albeit adventitious, interest for the whole nation, because the beautiful Mansfield threatened constantly to startle the public with such revelations of Fisk's affairs and operations as should shake the country to its very centre. In these threatened disclosures it was said that Tweed, Sweeny, Hall, and the Tammany Ring, together with those concerned in the Erie corporation would play the most conspicuous part. [Meanwhile Eisk is dead, shot by the new lover of the woman on whom he had lavished so much, and whose moneys he refused to return!]