Times Herald from Washington, District of Columbia • Page 38

Who Was PTAemd. Who Tried American Act Dressing Mystery Which Her Poisoned Poodle'Might Have Solved ITTLE BLTE BOY lay stretched out dead in the dressing room. And the faithful little dog's pretty mistress, Miss Peggy O'Neil, very narrowly es. caped the same fate. Who sent the box of poisoned chocolate drops to the attractive young Irish-American actress? Was it the same hand that secretly left these deadly bonbons on her dressing room table in it.

Savoy Theatre, in London. which abs the ruffianly gang which tri. to break up the performance of Miss Laurette Taylor, another American actress, in another London theatre? The detectives from Scotland Yard are trying to trace that box of poisoned can. dies, but the whole episode is shrouded In complete mystery. Miss Peggy O'Neill has been playing as leading lady in "Paddy the Next Best Thing" at the Savoy Theatre in London.

She has always made rather a specialty of playing Irish heroines, and in her last in personation has won a marked success. One night she was missed suddenly by the public from her accustomed place is the cast. It was announced that she had fallen seriously ill and her place had to be taken by another actress. At first her life was in danger, and then she recuperated very slowly. She was obliged to go to Murren, in Switzerland, during her convalescence.

The nature of her illness was not re'realed until she c'ame back to London. Then it was admitted that she had been poisoned by a box of chocolates treacherously sent to her by a supposed admirer. "I will tell you the facts," said Miss O'Neill to a correspondent, "because they may puit some other actress on her guard against a Fimilar attempt. "I am extremely fond of candy, and aiways eat a lot whenever it is offered mn. I uisually eat some before I go on the tstage and each time when I return to my diressing room.

"I was ever so pleased to find that that a large box of chocolatee had beon sent so me at the theatre. They were a t. luscious chocolate creams of the finest quality. I did not bother much to lind out who had sent them or to examine them. "1 was in a hurry and I gobbled up several of the chocolates.

At the same time I gave one to my dear littie doggie-Blue ltoy-wno was as fond of candy as I am. "I thought that they tasted rather ques. as I for the performance. They tasted I felt dizzy almost as soon as the play began and I scarcely knew wlit I was doing. "Mr.

Cotiveneidge rtlhe manager) saw thnt I was stax and euring the interval peir suaded ma t.a rink some brandy. I do not remen-" tnIshink n'y lines. "Dr. Fmnssenne. 16r.

courtneidge's physietan, wats "Pnt for. ouIt could not tell whether or not the poisoning was serious ttntil, on nmy nsking for Blue Boy, they found tying aead under the settee. 1Jtna fino resent from a dar freend. 01 to Kill the Vi' ess in the Lond Miss Pe "I had to 'go through with it' after that, but the doctor --another was called in undoubtedly my life. I swas suffering from arsenic but they did not tell me until long aft.r war1d.e "I wan 'starved for several days and then, unfortunately, contracted pneumonia, because I was so weak.

"I felt so sure that I would never again play in 'Paddy' or anything else that I agreed that the real details should be given by moy relatives. "Now I am wondering who made and who sent such a cleverly concealed death mixture, and, further, how the chocolates camne into my room. My maid does not know. "I did not want to create a at the time, and so my friends promised to say nothing to allyone about it. "Everyone of those candies contained arsenic.

How much the doctors will tell you." Up to the present it has been impossible to find out who sent the candy. Some of the ablest sleuths from Scotland Yard have been working on the case, and while they are extremely reserved concerning their work, it is supposed that they have discorered nothing. The police haves been unable even to identify the person who brought the box to the theatre. It is believed that some man employed about the theatre. to whom everybody was quite accust'meo, stepped into.

tne actress's dressing room when nobody was looking and placed toe candy on the dressing tatge. It is argued that be must have been merely the tool -of some more desperate scoundreL. Chocol racious cn Theatre gy O'Neil, Who Almost Died from Mysteriously Sent to Her Theatre The little dog was in the dressing room 'when the candy was brought in. It must 'iave been brought by somebody he had '-en there before or he would have barked. Perlyaps if he were alive he could be induced to identify the person.

Dogs never forget anybody who has done injury to their masters or to themselves. But this poor dog Is dead. The chemical analysis of the candles proved that everyone had been heavily dosed with arsenic. The work had been done in a most ingenleus manner. "From my examination of these sweetmeats," said the English doctor, "I have come to the conclusion that the criminal cut out the bottom of each one with a hot knife.

In this way he could avoid crumbling or damaging it. With the knife he cut out a small piece of the interior, and into the cavity he placod a dangerous dose of arsenic. Then ho put back the bottom so carefully that only an expert examination could have revealed 'what had been done." The amount of poison placed in each chocolate varied from 1 to 3 grains. On. of these might have been fatal, and a combination of three or four of them would probably hav'e been so.

Arsenic is generally regarded as a slow poison, but in large doses It may be suddenly fatal. Dr. A. Wynter Blyth, a noted English authority on poisons, fixes 6 grains as the amount likely to cause rapid death in a human being, and grains as the smallest amount known to have caused death. It is easy to understand that a small -dog would be quickly killed by the latter dose.

Dr. Blyth, disenssing the symptoms of acute arsentea: poisaning, says: "All Mhose r-ames in which the inflammatory symptoms are severe from the cornmencement, and in which the sufferer dies within twenty-four hours, may be called acnte. Terb commencement ofe EatPredCop usatime Pisfrom Choconty iestohf antour. inThee cass an ards feeighin the throat, with nausea; vomiting soon sets in, the objected matters being at first composed of the substances eaten; later they may be bilious or even bloody, or composed of a whitish liquid. There is coldness of the extremities, with great feebleness, and the pulse is small and difficult to feel.

The face, at first very pale, takes a bluish tint, the temperature falls still lower; the pa tient sinks in collapse, and death takes place in' from five to twenty hours after the taking of the poison. "There can scarcely be said to be any clinical feature which distinguishes the above description from that of cholera; and supposing that cholera were epidemic, and no suspicious circumstance apparently present, there can he little doubt that a most experienced physician might mistake the cause of the malady, unless surrounding circumstances give some hint or clue to it. "in the acute form the patient may die, as it were, from This was probably the cause of death in a case relatef by, Casper, that of Julius Bolle, poisoned by his wife. HeI took an unknown quantity of arsenic In solution at seven in the morning, and in about three-quarters of an hour afterward suffered from pain and vomiting, and died in little more than three hours. There were no signs of inflammation in the stomach and intestines, but from the contents of the stomach were separated .0132 grn.

of arsenious acid, and .00613 grm. iron pieces of the liver, spleen, kidneys, lunag, and blood, The dose actually taken is supposed not to have been less than .388 grm. (6 grains)." The amount of arsenic that will cause ath is very unertain, a the poison has F9 f4 4 04 a very different effect on different persons. Morever. a person who takes habitually a small quantity becomes im.

mune to its effects. A man who had taken arsenic all his life is stated to have arrived at a point where he could swallow four grains without showing any obvious ill effects. Although the word "arsenic" is commonly used, the substance is seldom obtained in the pure form, but in the form of different chemical combinations. These are widely used in medicine and in the arts. ande hence the oppor-.

tunities for employing these substances as poison occur very generally. Arsenic has, in fact, figured in the most battling poison mysteries, as its effects are often hard to trace. "Slow poisoning," says the authority already quoted. "has been caused accidentally by arsenical wall-paper, in the manufacture of arsenical pigments, by the admixture of small quantities of arsenic with salt or other condiments, and repeated small doses have be'n used for criminally producing fatal illness intended to similate disease from natural causes. The illness produced by small intermittent doses may closely resemble in minilature, as it were, those produced by large amounts; but, on the other hand, they may be different and scarcely to be described as otherwise than as a general condition of illhealth and malaise.

In such cases there is loss of appetite, feebleness, and not unfrequently a slight yellowness of the skin. A very constant effect seen, when a solution of arsenious acid is given continuously for a long time, is ani inflammation of the conjunctivas, (of the eyes), as well as of the nasal mucous membrane-the patient complains of 'always having a This inflammatory action also affects the pharynx, and may extend to the air-passages, and even to the lung-tissue, "At the same time there is often seen an exanthem, which has received a specific name-eczema Salivation is present, the gums are sore, at times lacerted. In chronic poisoning by arsenic symptoms are almost constant and exabit great variety; there may be numbness or the opposite condition, hyperaesthesia, In the extremities. In certain cases fainting, naai. and smetimes 1 5 tit Miss Laurette Tayle.

convulsions occur; toward the end a sort of hectic fever super. venes, and the patient dies o0 exhaustion." From these facts it appears probable that Miss Peggy O'Neil was the victim of.W most dangerous and subtle poisoning plot. Why she should have bepn thus selecte4 is hard to explain. Her mother was a woman of an aristo cratic English family who made a runae way marriage with a young Irishman. They went away to America, where the father died young.

Miss O'Neill went on the stage in order to support her mother. Her first great success was in "Peg o' My Heart," which was based largely on he; own life. She also made a hit as another Irish hers oine, Lady Patricia O'Brien, in neen." This was an historical play of the time of King Charles and Lady Patricia placed herself in an awkward predicament by repelling the advances of that notorious royal reprobate. Some observers have suggested that there is a connection between the plot againr Miss O'Neill and the demonstra. tion against that other American actress, Miss Laurette Taylor.

Miss Taylor made her debut at the Gar. rick Theatre in London last Spring in "A Night in Rome," by her husband, S. Hartley Manners. A crowd of ruffians in the audience completely broke up the pere formance by their outbreaks. There were persistent anud continuous outcries and catcalls from the start.

The demonstrators were armed with "stink bombs" and "electric sneezing No such scene had been witnessed in a London theatre in modern time. There was a slight mishap in 'he staging. but this was not the real cause of the trouble. The scenery was not high enougla to reach the top of the stage, and to rem. edy this defect the curtain was raised only about two-thirds up.

Some of the audience in the gallery called out that they wanted the curtain raised all the way so that they: could see everything. Miss Taylor went out during the inter. mal and tried to that the trouble would be remedied, but her remarks were drowned by cat calls. Manager Cochras then went out and endeavored to apologisq for the scenic defect. Then occurred a significant episode, fe4 someone in the gallery called down: "It isn't the scenery, Mr.

Cochratt, There's an organization up here to spoil your show." On the following evening some of thi most distinguished persons in London, in. eluding the American Ambassador, the Duke of Rutland, the Earl of Lathom an4 many others attended Miss Taylor's pew, formnance. Everything went off smoothly. The Ambassador presented her with a magnificent bouquet and congratulated her. The fact that these distinguished per, sons felt it desirable to attend in a body showed that they regarded the outbrealc of the previous evening seriously.

What is the organisation that makes such malevolent attacks on Amercan ac. treses in London? What wilt it do nat.