ROXALANA DRUSE HANGED

 

The McGrawville Sentinel, Thursday, March 3, 1887.

ROXALANA DRUSE HANGED.

PAID THE DEATH PENALTY FOR HER REVOLTING CRIME.

She Made a Sworn Statement In View of Exonerating Her Daughter From Preferred Charges.

   HERKIMER, N. Y., Mar. 2.—Mrs. Roxalana Druse was hung here in the jail yard, Monday of this week at 11:48 A. M. for the crime of butchering her husband on December 18, 1884. In the morning before her execution, Mrs. Druse made a sworn statement that her daughter, Mary, who is serving a life sentence in Onondaga penitentiary, is entirely innocent of the crime attributed to her and appealed to the people in her behalf. The Syracuse Herald of Monday contained an interview with Mary in which she lays the crime principally to her mother, and Charles and Chester Gates. Dr. Powell, Mrs. Druse's spiritual adviser says of the interview: "I believe every word of it is true. I saw Mary Thursday, and she told me the same story, and I believed her, as I believe this hanging was that of an innocent woman. The statement in the Rome Sentinel that Mrs. Druse had made a confession to me is a malicious lie."

   An interview was then held with I. C. Terry, superintendent of the penitentiary. He had not heard the confession, but said that Mary had given him a detailed account of the crime, implicating the Gates boys and exonerating herself.

   The story of Mrs. Druse's life and crime as brought out by sworn witnesses and other reliable authority is as follows:

   Mrs. Druse suffered for a crime committed on Dec. 18, 1884. It was no immediate outbreak of passion, nothing in the way of accident or sudden provocation, but a butchery with the most horrible details possible. The woman conducted the slaughter of her husband, a man whom she had met twenty-one years before, and to whom she had been married for nearly that length of time.

   Mrs. Druse, as a girl, was known as Roxie Tefft. Wm. Druse lived alone on a big farm in the town of Warren. It was in the center of a hop-raising district, and the girl came, in company with other similar young women to assist in hop-picking. She had long black hair, a pair of snapping eyes, a taste for gaudy ribbons and was sharp and pert in her behavior. The young farmer was an uncouth specimen of a backwoodsman. He made love to the hop-picker, who was fifteen years his junior, in a clumsy fashion, but could not pluck up energy enough to propose marriage until she did it for him, and then he guessed he did want to have a wife and the marriage took place. They lived the usual life of a country couple on a farm. Hog and hominy was the usual diet. Children came, but there was no love; nothing worth the name of a home-life.

   Mary was the eldest child, and when she became a woman it was evident that her training was not of the best. Mother and daughter remained up after the father and husband had retired, and when he caught sounds of revelry he protested, only to be informed that his objections were for naught and that the two intended to do as they pleased and that they did not please to do right. He grew sour and quarrelsome, but the sprees were held night after night. She boasted to her male admirers of the threats which "the old man" had made against her and they told her to get him out of the way.

   The morning of Dec. 18 came. The father arose, lit the kitchen fire and went out about his work. Mother, daughter and son took breakfast with Frank Gates, a nephew of Mrs. Druse and an inmate of the house. The sixty-year-old master of the household came in and was in bad humor. He sat down at the table and Mrs. Druse told the lads to go outside. They did so, but soon heard two pistol shots in quick succession, and when they hurried in found the old man sitting, seemingly stunned, near the table, Mrs. Druse standing beside him with a pistol in her hand, and the daughter holding a rope and preparing to throw it about her father's neck. The mother handed the pistol to the nephew and told him to fire at the old man. Without a murmur, so far as the evidence of some of the participants may be credited, the fourteen-year-old boy did so, and two more shots were fired at the stunned and dying man, who rolled from his chair, his head striking the floor near a small circular stove.

   The girl to whom the pistol belonged undertook to reload it and so bunglingly that a premature discharge sent a shot close to her brother's head.

   The mother became impatient and insane with the thirst of murder, seized an axe from the corner of the room and brought its edge down upon the head of the prostrate man. He was still able to speak, and a feeble "Oh, don't Roxie," came from his lips. The response of his dying request was a second blow, aimed with better skill, and a savage stroke across the neck sent his head rolling across the floor, while blood spurting from the neck turned the place into a scene of carnage. The headswoman had done her work well. There was no need of a third blow and the blinds were quickly drawn, while the task of disposing of the body was begun. There was fiendish deliberation about it. The fire in the stove was started up with pine shingles and the body cut up into "lengths" to fit the stove. The three young people stood about while the murderess acted as carver. While she was busy at the savage job a knock came to the door. A quiet "hush" as she raised her bloody hand, and the quartette stood silent as statues  while the footsteps sounded fainter and fainter as Will Elwood, a neighbor, left the house, thinking that no one was at home. In five hours the woman had concluded her disposal of the body, and having warned her assistants each to say that "Bill had gone to New York," went-on with her evening orgies.

   Suspicion was allayed for a month by this announcement that Druse had disappeared and by the apparently vigorous and earnest efforts made by the family to find him. Then rumors began to spread that all was not as it should be in the Druse household. Whispered suspicions gradually changed to open accusations, and then the boy Gates confessed the crime, declaring that Mrs. Druse had forced him to fire at his uncle under threats that she would kill him if he did not. The whole family was arrested and brought to trial. Mary Druse, the daughter, confessed to her share in the murder, was sentenced to imprisonment for life and is now serving out her punishment. The boys were discharged. Mrs. Druse was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged in November, 1885, the jury apparently having no sympathy for her because of the horrible details of the crime. Appeals were made and the execution was delayed. On July 1 of last year, the general term having rendered a decision adverse to her appeal, she was resentenced to be hanged on Aug. 19. Further postponement was secured, but finally, on Nov. 8, Judge Williams resentenced her to be hanged on Wednesday, Dec. 29, and then Gov. Hill, not wishing to mark the holiday season by a hanging, changed the date to Feb. 28.

 

Burned to Death in Their Dwelling.

   ELMIRA, N. Y., March 1.—Mr. and Mrs. Barber Dunn were burned to death in their dwelling in the town of Big Flats near Horseheads, Friday morning. No one knows how the fire started. Their bodies were found by neighbors in the cellar. They were about fifty years old.

 

Suicide at Waverly.

   ELMIRA, March 2.—Addison Watrous a prominent dry goods merchant of Waverly, N. Y., committed suicide yesterday morning by shooting himself through the heart. There is no apparent cause for the deed.

 

 

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

   ABOUT the only spot in the Riviera that seem to have escaped entirely from the recent earthquake visitation is Monte Carlo, the most notorious gambling-hell on earth at the present time. This seems rather strange and unjust, but the Castle of Chance is built on a very solid rock, and as a consequence the hotels and boarding-houses there are now thronged with frightened people. Altogether the earthquake seems to have been a windfall for the wicked principality of Monaco, and as there was not another deterring shock, gambling was resumed Sunday.

   "CONSISTENCY, thou art a jewel." It is alleged that poker-playing prevails to a considerable extent among the students of Yale college, and that some of them frequently sit up all night to gamble. As the charge is pretty extensively advertised, it cannot very well help reaching the ears of the faculty, who will doubtless take pains to mitigate the evil. It is quite important that this should be done. If the Yale boys are to retain their boating and football reputations and to make any advances in the baseball field they must be restrained from losing their natural rest and be made to take care of their constitutions. And if they are permitted to lose all their money at poker they will have none left to bet on the regular races and athletic games at the proper season. The demand for giving the subject attention is pressing.

   THE Syracuse Journal reverberates the chord of the public mind in saying that the death by hanging of Mrs. Druse, the murderess, at Herkimer, was truly a horror—such as civilized people may well pray to be saved from. The event has cast a gloom everywhere in the communities where a knowledge of it extends. The crime of the woman was terrible and unrelieved, and yet the death of a woman by the hand of the public executioner, with all its details spread before the people and eagerly devoured, is a revolting incident. There may be said to be sentimentalism in the recoiling from the meting out to a woman of the same punishment that man receives for capital crime. Be it so; the feeling is in every person's mind, that it is barbaric and revolting. While it may not be answered why a woman should not be treated as a man is, for the same offending, still the fact remains that enlightened people stand aghast that the law bears even sway against the sexes. Mrs. Druse has had all the sympathy she deserved. Her crime was enormous, and by it she came within the just scope of the law's extreme penalty. Every effort was made in her behalf that human, kind-hearted people could put forth, and all in vain. The executive could see no reason for interference with the law's course; but, in order that what was possible in her case should be done in good order, he invited the legislature to pass upon the existing law in the light of this and similar instances. The legislature refused to change the purpose or effect of the law that prescribes the extreme penalty tor the greatest of human crimes. Thus Mrs. Druse went to her death, an ignominious end upon the gallows. It is the penalty prescribed by Divine command, which the highest human wisdom has enforced. Nevertheless, the scene in the Herkimer jail Monday was most revolting, and its effects are sickening and demoralizing rather than wholesome and cautionary. Would not imprisonment for life, irrevocably—making the criminal really dead to the world—be a far better penalty?

 

EDITORS' EASY CHAIR.

   —L. A. Dibble of Killawog was in town Wednesday.

   —Mrs. Well Dibble has been quite sick for some time back but is now convalescent.

   —Zopher Smith and bride of Breesport, are in town the guests of F. G. McElheny and John Kenfield.

   —Col. Daniel S. Lamont of Washington, D. C., was the guest of his parents in this place over Sunday.

   —Arthur Bolster, wife and children of Groton, visited at H. V. Beckwith's and Albert Wheeler's in this place last week.

   —Four dollars and sixty cents were taken in at the W. C. T. U. exercises held at Arza Chapin's on Monday evening last.

   —A new advertisement for M. C. Bingham appears in to-day's paper. We refer the reader's attention to it. It will interest you.

   —A very large and appreciative audience greeted the Auburn Seminary glee club last Friday evening in the Presbyterian church. The receipts were over seventy dollars.

   —There will be a lecture given by J. H. Jacobs in Association hall next Friday evening at 7 o'clock; subject, "God's promise to Abraham and its benefit to Adam and his race."

   —Henry Owen has traded his farm on Academy street for the house and lot formerly owned by Henry Hammond on Washington street. Mr. Hammond took possession of the farm on Tuesday last.

   —F. G. McElheny announces his determination to commence the 1st of April, selling bakery goods and groceries for cash only. He gives some very good reasons in his advertisement elsewhere, and it will pay everyone to read it.

   —Rev. Dr. Helmer delivered a very interesting discourse in the Presbyterian church last Sunday evening, concerning the future government of earth. Dr. Helmer and daughter were the guests of N. W. Smith the latter part of last week.

   —Oscar Warren of Solon, recently a scholar in the McGrawville Union school, preached very acceptably from the Baptist pulpit last Sunday evening. He is a lad of about eighteen or nineteen years, and after a course of ministerial schooling promises to do good work as a preacher.

   —The many friends of George Tubbs, now clerking for Messrs. Mager & Walrad, Cortland, will find him on and after March 14, located in the dry goods store of Watkins Bros., in the Second National Bank building, who have a change in their advertisement in another column.

   —The walking match in Hammond's hall last Saturday evening was anything but exciting. In the three mile race between Clate Gardner of this place and Fred Hilligus of Cortland, the latter, who claims the championship for Cortland county on three mile races, left the track after running about a mile and a half, saying, "It's no use, I might as well give up the race." Gardner was then a lap ahead. Ed Healey won the mile race over Will Waters by about half a lap. The two mile race between Frank Wildman and Macumber was not finished, Macumber having to leave the track for want of breath.

   —Enoch Rood, a man of some sixty years of Brewery Hill, Homer, in company with a girl of "sweet sixteen" and her mother, drove into town Tuesday, with the ostensible purpose of having a marriage ceremony performed. The girl to whom the old man was to be married did not seem to favor the prospective union and raised forcible objections by attempting to run away. Rood drove the horse under the sheds south of Main street, leaving the girl and her mother on the sidewalk. The girl, finally seeing a chance to take "French leave," ran down between the barber shop and the Kinney & Seymour store, turned to the left, crossed Clinton street, went through J. W. Gilbertson's yard and disappeared. The Homer livery man came into town about that time and ordered Rood and the old woman to start for home with the horse inside of fifteen minutes, which demand they honored. Thus is recorded "another slip 'twixt cup and lip."

 

CORTLAND ITEMS.

   Fred and Andrew Carpenter were arrested for intoxication and taken before Justice Squires Wednesday of last week. Each was given his choice between paying a fine of eighteen dollars or going to jail for thirty days. They decided to go to jail.

   Everglade Oil Jim and his employee E. J. Foss had quite a high time here at the Dexter house last Saturday and Jim discharged Foss. Then on Monday Foss took the paraphernalia belonging to Jim and put it in his own room and refused to let Jim have it. Jim then went to Justice Squires and procured a search warrant and obtained his goods and left on the 10:10 train south. Foss was languishing about town yesterday sighing for some one to pay his hotel bill.

   James B. Hunter, general agent for the Weedsport Brewing company, got attachment papers from Justice Squires last Friday and Officer Brown attached the property of Frank E. White in the Townley saloon. The matter was all settled the next day when Officer Strowbridge made a levy on a judgment which stands yet. Tuesday White's bondsmen notified the excise commissioners that they would not be responsible any longer and gave the said commissioners notice to annul the license of said White which the commissioners proceeded to do and the saloon was closed Tuesday.

   Last Sunday morning about 8 o'clock the foundry belonging to the Hitchcock Manufacturing Company was discovered on fire. The bell rang the firemen there and it was controlled after about three-quarters of an hour of hard work. The inside of the foundry was nearly all burned out and the fire did some bad work in the brick building in front of the foundry building. About quarter past nine the fire was all out. Some damage was done the Monitor office. Their damage is estimated from about $500 to $1,000 and the damage to Hitchcock Manufacturing company about $5,000. They were fully insured.

   While some were at church and others at dinner and still others lounging on their couches near the fire, about 1 P. M. Sunday the fire bells rang out wildly again. This time it was the dwelling house of Colonel Frank Place. Before there could be a stream poured onto the fire much headway had been attained and the house was burned, though some of the parts are standing, yet it is a ruined house. Quite a good deal of the furniture was saved from the first floor but scarcely anything from the second. Mr. and Mrs. Place were at church and did not know of it until the fire was nearly out. It is claimed that Colonel Place was insured for $2,200 on the house and $800 on the furniture and barn. He intends erecting a new house as soon as the weather will permit and says he shall not be long in building a new one. Some say that the stove on the second floor tipped over and let the coals out on the floor, is the way it caught. We wonder what the Monitor [Hitchcock newspaper] will say about the necessity of the water company [Hitchcock Hose Company] now.