MADDENED BY LOVE
CRAZED SUITOR THREATENS THE
LIFE OF MISS PEARL SMITH.
FORCES HER TO LEAVE HOME
AFTER DRAMATIC EXPERIENCE
SHE MANAGES TO ESCAPE.
Clay Fulton, the Lover, Is Arrested,
and His Sanity Is to Be Investi-
gated -- He Is a Printer and
Has Had Trouble.
Through fear of immediate death from a pistol in the hands of a half-crazed suitor, Miss Pearl Smit, daughter of Dr. E. O. Smith, 212-14 Wabash avenue, and well known in local society, was compelled to leave her father's home and walk twelve blocks in the cold of last Friday night before an opportunity of escape presented itself. Even then she was forced to seek refuge in a stable and hid in a wagon for over an hour lest the defeated suitor should be in hiding outside and shoot her upon sight. Clay Fulton, the man in the case, has been placed under arrest and has admitted to police his share of the weird affair.
The young woman was for two days prostrated from the nervous shock, but recovered sufficiently yesterday to tell of the remarkable experience she had undergone. In the presence of her father, Dr. E. O. Smith, she told the story graphically too newspaper men.
Fulton and the girl had been acquainted for several years. The young man had repeatedly paid court to her. Finding his advances were not encouraged, it appears that he brooded over the matter and Friday night determined to take things into his own hands. He purchased a revolver in the afternoon, and that night went to the girl's home without warning her in advance of his intended visit.
The home of Dr. Smith is a large double house fronting upon Wabash avenue. One side of it is the family residence, while the other is used by the physician as his office. When Fulton appeared the girl was in the office, while her family were in the residence side of the house. The man rang at the office door and Miss Smith went to let the visitor in.
WANTED TO MARRY HER.
According to her story, she did not know it was Fulton until he was incide the reception hall. He was wearing a heavy overcoat, with his hat drawn down over his eyes. No sooner had he entered, she avers, than he drew his revolver and pointed it at her.
"Don't make any noise," he is said to have exclaimed, "or I will shoot. I am tired of being put off and I want you to go with me. I want you to marry me. If you make any alarm I shall kill you."
"I was too astonished and scared to scream," said Miss Smith last night. "I believed he was desperate and would do as he said. So I tried to temporize. I told him I had no wraps, and asked him to let me get a cloak. He was excited and refused to allow me out of his sight. I thought it best to go along wiht him and take my chance to escape. I believe he would have killed me if I had cried out there in the house So I went out with him."
"I was wearing only a light house dress, which had short sleeves, and a thin pair of shoes. It was pretty cold out on the stret, and I began ot suffer almost as soon as I was outside. When I wished to go into some place and get warm, the man refused me, saying he would not let me go into any place in that part of town where he was unknown for fear of outside interference. He talked wildly about my refusing to marry him, and said I would have to marry hinm right away. He warned me repeatedly not to make any outcry. We walked on Wabash avenue to Ninth street and then turned west. I kept asking him to let me go into some place and get warm, but he insisted that I wait until we should get to Twelfth and Paseo, where, he said, he was known. At Garfield, I persuaded him to go into a restaurant and telephone to his sister to bring me some wraps, telling him I would be gettin gwarm while he did the talking As son as I saw him busy with the telephone I ran out of the place and went to Newcomer's undertaking rooms.
HID IN A WAGON.
There I found David Newcomer and Mr. P. M. McDaniel, whom I knew, and I asked them to hide me. I felt sure the man would come looking for me and would shoot me if he found me. The men at Newcomer's led me into a shed adjoining the office and I climbed up into a wagon and lay there until I was sure there would be no further danger. Then I went back home in a carriage. I think I must have been in there an hour, and," smilingly, "it was the longest hour I ever passed."
Immediately the police were notified of the affair and Detectives Oldham and Boyle were detailed upon the case. Yesterday they arrested young Fulton and locked him up in a cell at police headquarters. When questioned about the matter by Captain Whitsett last night, he gave a rambling, incoherent account of troubles which led him to the action he took Fridaynight. He frankly admitted that he had threatened Miss Smith with a revolver. Asked if he would have shot her had she refused to accompany him, he answered simply: "I do not know."
Young Fulton lives with his mother and two sisters at 1438 East Fourteenth street. He has been employed as a printer in a number of shops about town. About three weeks ago he left the employ of Hallman's printing establishment in the Gumbel building at Eighth and Walnut streets. It is the theory of the police that the man has been brooding over troubles, real or imaginary, until his mind has become temporarily disordered and that his strange deed of Friday night was the result. An attempt will be made by the girl's father, Dr. Smith, to have his sanity investigated today.
