OBIT: David C. POWELL, 1893, Altoona, Blair County, PA

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DAVID C. POWELL
Drinks Laudanum and Arnica for Whisky and Dies.

  David C. Powel, aged 23 years, until February 11 was employed as a 
brakeman in Master Mechanic Strattan's yard.  On that day, while 
coupling cars, he had his left hand crushed so badly that he was 
obliged to quit work.  On Tuesday night he drank pretty freely, and 
between 2 and 3 o'clock yesterday morning, while much intoxicated, he 
went to a resort kept by Lil. Harris, or Winebrenner, 1516 Seventeenth 
avenue, and was admitted and allowed to lie down on the floor by the 
stove.  The Harris woman left the house soon afterward, going to 
Pittsburg on the 4:10 train and not returning till 6 o'clock last 
evening.  When Pearl Lindsay, a girl who lives at the place, went down 
stairs about 9 o'clock yesterday morning, Powell was still lying on the 
floor and breathing heavily, with a pint flask about three-quarters 
full lying at his side.  He woke up and the girl gave him some coffee 
to drink.  About noon the girl discovered that he was in a stupor, and 
also noticed that the stuff that had been in the bottle was nearly all 
gone.  She tried to get him up, but, as he was unable to stand, she 
became alarmed and sent for a physician and also for the police.
  The messenger didn't move very rapidly as no physician arrived and 
Officer Roe was not notified till 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  He 
arrived there at 2:50, but Powell was then dying, his life going out 
with a convulsive gasp.  At 8:10 o'clock Coroner Poet was notified 
immediately, and went to the house, accompanied by Dr. C. C. Miller.  
The doctor examined the liquid remaining in the bottle and found it to 
be a mixture of laudanum and arnica, which Powell had been using on his 
injured hand.  He had evidently drank the poisonous stuff thinking it 
was whisky.  A jury heard the story of Pearl Lindsay and then rendered 
the following verdict: "That the deceased came to his death by taking 
in mistake for whisky a poisonous mixture, while recovering from a 
spree, the principal ingredients of which were laudanum and arnica, 
intended for his injured hand.
  The body was removed to Undertaker Lynch's rooms where it was 
prepared for burial and afterwards taken to the home of the young man's 
parents, 2005 Fourteenth avenue.  The deceased was a son of E. C. and 
Catharine Powell, and was born in this city November 15, 1869.  He 
boarded with a cousin, Rube Bowman, on Sixth avenue between Twenty-
first and Twenty-second streets, for the past two months.  He is 
survived by his parents, four brothers and three sisters.  These latter 
are Hugh, James, Eph, Frederick, Katie, Mattie and Mary.
  The funeral will take place at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon.  
Interment in Fairview cemetery.

Altoona Mirror, Altoona, Pa., Thursday Evening, March 2, 1893