The Ohio Democrat

FAMILY POISONED.

Three Girls Die, and the Mother Expected To—An Outrageous Crime in Tennessee.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 19.—The family of Mrs. Melrose, consisting of herself and five children, David, Robert, Minnie, Mattie and Katie, were poisoned Thursday night at supper. The accident was thought to be slight to each until Friday morning early, when two of the girls, Mattie and Katie, aged respectively seventeen and fifteen, died, and in the afternoon Minnie died. The mother is expected to die at any moment. Robert Melrose, the son and brother, a hardened young tough, who is under arrest, is also unconscious. The physician testified that he found five of the family sick Thursday night, but there were no indications that the boy Robert was sick. It is believed that the boy awakening to the awfulness of his crime Friday morning took a heavy dose of arsenic to escape arrest and punishment. The coffee drank by the family had been dosed heavily, and the boy Robert, who was a habitual coffee drinker, refused to touch it Friday night. The coroner's jury still has the case in hand and will use every means to trace the heinous deed down. Another theory advanced was that, as the coffee had been borrowed from a neighbor, this might exculpate the boy, but the fact that he had drank the arsenic with the intention of suicide is evidence against him. He is a wild, rowdy youth, given to excessive drink, and if he recovers and the deed is fastened upon him, he will probably be strung up without trial.