CRUSHED TO DEATH
PARTICULARS ARE GIVEN OF THE DEATH OF ADELBERT S. HAY BY HIS TERRIBLE FALL.
CAUSE IS A MYSTERY
IT IS SUPPOSED THAT HE WAS SITTING ON THE SILL, DOZED OFF AND FELL OUT.
CLASSMATES ARE HORRIFIED
THE MANGLED REMAINS ARE INSTANTDLY IDENTIFIED BY HIS FELLOW-STUDENTS OF YALE.
New Haven, Conn., June 23.---Adelbert Stone Hay, former Consul of the United States at Pretoria, South Africa, and eldest son of Secretary of State John Hay, fell from a window in the third story of the New Haven House in this city, shortly before 2:30 this morning and was instantly killed.
The dead man was a graduate of Yale, of the class of '98, and his death occurred on the eve of the university commencement, which brought him here yesterday, and in which by virtue of his class office, the young man would have been one of the leaders.
The full details of the terrible accident will never be known. It is generally supposed that after going to his room at the New Haven Mr. Hay went to the window for air and, sitting on the sill, he dozed off, and, overbalancing, fell to the pavement below -- a fall of sixty feet. The fall resulted in instant death and within fifteen minutes the body had been identified as that of young Hay.
Repeated efforts to local Secretary Hay by wire were futile until the early morning, when a request from the father reached Seth Mosely, the proprietor of the hotel, to take care of the body until the members of the family could reach town. Meanwhile the sensation occasioned by the tragedy continued. Every movement of young Hay was traced in an effort to penetrate the uncertainties of the awful affair. It was learned that the young man on May 29 left Washington with his mother and two sisters for Newburn, N.H., the summer home of Secretary Hay. Last week he left New Hampshire for New York, where he spent some days. He arrived in New Haven last evening in time for dinner and went immediately to the New Haven House, where he was assigned to room No. 47, third floor, front, directly over the Chapel street entrance to the hotel office.
Young Hay was one of the vanguard of the academy class of Yale '98. He had come to his old college town as a member of his class triennial committee and arrived early to assist his colleagues on the committee in preparing for the festivities of commencement week in general and for the class supper in particular. He took dinner with some of his classmates and at 8 o'clock hurried to the Hyperion theater, where he witnessed the evening performance. He spent a quiet hour in the hotel corridor and smoking room after the theater and shortly after midnight retired to his room, remarking to the hotel clerk that he was sleepy and leaving a call for 9 o'clock this morning. He was not seen again until his body came whirling through the air to its destruction two and one-half hours later. A laborer on the city streets saw the form of a man falling through space. An instant later the body lay directly in front of the main hotel entrance. The horrified laborer rushed to the spot and his shouts brought others. The usual crowd gathered. In it were several belated Yale graduates. They bent over the body. One of them, Julian Mason, son of the late Edward G. Mason of Chicago, and a classmate of young Hay, drew back and horror-stricken, cried:
"My God, it's Dell Hay."
By this time the hotel clerk had reached the scene and made the identification complete. The body was clad in pajamas. On the window sill of the room occupied by young Hay was found a partly consumed cigarette; on the floor near the window was a ring worn by the victim. His clothing had been neatly arranged and the bed clothes were drawn back. The bed, however, had not been occupied. Here the mystery becomes intangible. The popular theory seems to have it that the young man, having prepared for bed, thought to indulge in a "good-night smoke," that he chose the cool of the window, possibly dozed, lost his balance and fell from the window. The presence of the ring on the floor, however, gave rise to the fancy that possibly while toying with the ring it dropped and that in an effort to recover it the fall resulted. However it happened, the facts seem to make it conclusive that it was all a frightful accident. Young Hay, it was remarked, was in particularly good spirits and had planned with unusual enthusiasm to participate in many engagements this week. In the harbor lies a yacht in which, with a party of his friends, he had promised to join in a trip on Wednesday to New London for the Harvard-Yale boat races on Thursday.
In the college chapel at the morning service President Hadley in addressing the members of the graduating class, eulogized young Hay.
[One line apparently missing] his son Adelbert, within an hour and a half of the tragedy through Secretary Cortelyou.
Mr. Hay appeared to be for a moment completely crushed, but rallied and set calmly about preparing for his departure for New Haven. The family had gone to Newburn, N.H., on the shores of Lake Sunapec.
President McKinley and the Cabinet officers sent messages of condolence, and will attend the funeral of young Mr. Hay if possible.
Adelbert S. Hay was the eldest son of the Secretary of State, and was born while the latter was living in Cleveland, Ohio, about twenty-five years ago. At Yale Adelbert gave much time to athletics and thus splendidly developed his naturally robust frame, so that he stood at 21 full 6 feet high, with chest and limbs of corresponding proportions.
The situation in South Africa had attracted his attention, and it was his own impulse that led him to volunteer to go to Pretoria to replace Consul Macrum. He left South Africa last November. SOon after reaching Washington he tendered his resignation as Consul at Pretoria. It had been for him an expensive employment.In a year he had spent his father's salary and his own. Of course much of this disbursement was in the way of private charity. By the irony of fate, there had just come to him a golden opportunity when his untoward end came. It had been the proudest recollection of John Hay's life that he had served Abraham Lincoln as his private secretary. So it was to be the lot of Adelbert Hay to serve William McKinley in a like capacity. He had been offered and accepted the position of assistant secretary to the President, a place now held by Major Pruden. The latter, after many years' service at the White House, has been made a paymaster in the United States army. He was under orders to report to the Paymaster General Jan. 1 next, when Mr. Hay would have succeeded him.
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SECRETARY HAY ARRIVES.
He is prostrated by the tragic death of his son.
New Haven, Conn., June 23.---Secretary John Hay, worn by the trip from Washington to New Haven, and nearly prostrated by grief at the untimely end of his eldest son, Adelbert S. Hay, here this morning, reached this city at 5:45 o'clock this afternoon. The Secretary was driven in great haste to the residence of Seth Mosely, 36 Wall street. In the drawing room of the house reposed the remains of the dead son. In the presence of the beloved dead, Col. Hay utterly collapsed. Dr. Samuel D. Gilbert was summoned and administered to the patient. Scarcely more than an hour passed before Miss Helen Hay, a daughter, well-nigh prostrated by the shock of the sad news, was at her father's bedside. Other relatives also arrived.
This evening dispatches were received that Mrs. Hay and Miss Alice Hay are en route from Newburn and will reach New Haven tomorrow morning. Clarence Hay, the younger son, is expected late tonight or tomorrow morning from Simsbury, Conn., where he has been at school. Tonight Dr. Gilbert announced that the indisposition of Col. Hay is not serious.
