ENGAGEMENT TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 1 August 1907, Page 4

ENGAGEMENT TRAGEDY.

! MOKPIIIA VICTIM'S SL'ICIDE TO | SAVE lllS FIANCEE. | _ New York, June !>. further revelations in connection with the suicide of Lieutenant .Mack Richardson. who was lielieved to have taken poison rather than marry the girl to whmn lie was engaged, present the case in a new light. Ihe man is said to have been a confirmed victim of the morphia habit, and his friends declare that he jilted his tianeee rather than drag her into an alliance when he recognised that his drug mania was beyond cure.

Lieutenant Richardson had Ik'oil stationed with the 2tith Infantry Regiment for some time at Fort Sam Houstan, Texas, and there became engaged to the daughter of Major Kelly. The wedding was fixed to lake place at Brownsville, Texas, but on the day appointed Richardson did not appear. He wired that he was ill, and another day was arranged. He arrived three hours late, to find that Miss Kelly and her father had already gone to Washington. His conduct brought on him the strongest disapproval of his brother officers, and he was forced to resign his commission. This was accepted last Thursday, and in the evening lie took pnissic acid and morphine. He was taken to the hospital, where lie died the following evening.