affrighted into the hall, down the neighboring stairs, and pulled up in breathless state at the office counter, where he related, in a tremor of nervous excitement, what he had just seen.
He was confident that it was a case of suicide, and to his terror-stricken gaze there appeared to be a gaping wound in the dead man's throat. The night-clerk and the keeper of the neighboring hack-stand, who happened to be present, ran up the stairs as rapidly as the servant had descended them, and were themselves in turn horrified by the appalling sight.
The room was the one occupied by Representative Michael Hahn, of the second Congressional district of Louisiana, who was found lying upon the floor in the manner described. He was in his nightdress, which was deeply stained about the bosom with blood, and in his right hand was clutched a handkerchief. The left was drawn up toward the body, as if to press the side to ease pain. The feet were toward the grate and near the fender, showing that the dead man had stood leaning against the mantel, and in his exhaustion from the loss of blood had fallen full length backward. Further examination of the room told the rest of the melancholy story.
The sick man, finding he w as discharging blood through the mouth, had left his bed and walked across to the mantel. The discharge continued copiously there, as was plainly to be seen, and also after he had fallen exhausted to the floor. The expression of the face was calm and free from pain. The servant's story of suicide and of a gaping wound in the throat was, of course, merely a matter of the imagination. Death had resulted from the bursting of a blood vessel near the heart. Thus died Michael Hahn, who, coming to America a child and friendless, had carved out for himself a notable career, illustrating the possibilities within the reach of every American citizen, whether native-born or foreign, under the liberal and benign institutions of our beloved country.
The deceased was born in Bavaria, on the Rhine, on the 24th of November, 1830. When he was quite an infant his widowed mother, with five children, came to the United States, stopping a short time
