SUICIDE IN A HOTEL
LIQUOR SALESMAN OF CINCIN-
NATI DRINKS CARBOLIC ACID
STOCK MARKET LOSS BLAMED
SEALED LETTER TO WIFE AND
NOTE TO FRIEND HERE.
Walter Jacobs, to Whom It Was Ad-
dressed, Offers Only One Ex-
planation for Death of S. B.
Horwitz -- Kansas City
Not His Territory
Samuel B. Horwitz, a liquor salesman of Cincinnati, O., committed suicide at the Kupper hotel yesterday afternoon by drinking carbolic acid. The body was discovered at 7:45 o'clock. Two sealed letters were left, addressed one to his wife, Mrs. S. B. Horwitz, 727 South Crescent avenue, Avondale, Cincinnati, and the other to his father, B. T. Horwitz, Middleton, O. An open note on the writing table read:
Notify Walter Jacobs, care of May, Stern & Co.
Below on the same sheet he wrote:
Walter: Notify the folks in Cincinnati. My name is Sam B. Horwitz.
Walter Jacobs, who clerks at May-Sterns's local store, was found at the Alta Vista hotel, at Eleventh and Washington streets. He was unaware that Horwitz was in Kansas City. He said:
It has been a year and a half since I saw Sam and that was back East. He wasHorwitz appeared at the Kupper hotel Wednesday forenoon about 11:30 o'clock. He carried no baggage. His manner was nervous, but did not excite the suspicions of the clerk, Sam Wilson. Later in the day, Wilson observed his nervousness as he would go through the lobby and remarked that he should have to put a man in a more remote room who has light baggage and took a room for only one day. Yesterday forenoon the clerk on duty, J. C. Boushell, needing the room, sent to see if it had been vacated. The door was open and a collar and tie were on the dresser. It was thought that the guest was in the bath or out of the house. When he left his key is not known, but two hours after noon he called for it and went upstairs. That was the last seen of him alive.
traveling for a liquor house, but I do not know the name of it. I know,
however, that Kansas City was not in his territory and I had no idea he ever came
here. He is a brother-in-law of my brother, A. Jacobs, in Cincinnati; also of
Manah Bower, one of Cincinnati's iron masters. I can conceive of no motive for
the suicide, unless Sam may have been losing money on the stock market. He
always speculated some. His family consisted of the wife and one child, 9 years
old."
After 7 o'clock the clerk called his room on the phone to ask if he would stay over the night.
Receiving no answer, the key was twisted out of the lock. Horwitz was lying on the bed, dressed in a union suit. A bottle unlabeled, stood by a drinking glass, which contained acid. The man's suit of clothes hung in the closet. There was not a single coin in his pockets nor anything of value. His bunch of keys lay on the table. Aside from the notes left there was nothing in the room but a magazine and a Cincinnati newspaper.
Deputy Coroner O. H. Parker, who viewed the body, sent it to Freeman & Marshall's morgue and the family was notified by wire.
The absence of any baggage suggests that some misfortune may have been encountered in which his personal belongings were lost. The signature he put upon the hotel register was "S. Goldstein, Cincinnati." The bellboy who showed him to his room found the former occupant's baggage still there and was starting downstairs for a change of room, when Horowitz, noting that room 223 was unoccupied, said, "I think I should like this room." His request was granted by the clerk.
Mr. Horowitz was about 38 years old, and his appearance was that of a prosperous business man. Mr. Jacobs directed that the body be prepared for burial, and held until either the wife or some of his relatives are heard from. In case they do not come to Kansas City for the body, Mr. Jacobs will direct its removal to Cincinnati.
