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Show Since Guiteau's crime, he has had several imitators. Threats that had reached President Arthur's ears shortly after his taking the oath of office led him to surround himself with detectives, while traveling to Washington from New York, and other prominent men in the country have received warnings from individuals claiming to hold a divine commission to slay them. The latest development of this kind is the case of Jay Gould. On Oct. (October) 15th he received a lengthy letter berating him for his alleged crimes, and charging him with having committed wholesale robberies on rich and poor, the widow and orphan alike, in his financial schemes. The writer declared, that in a dream, God had commanded him to slay Jay Gould, and gave warning that he should certainly do it within six days if possible, or as soon as he could get an opportunity. This letter was placed in the hands of detectives who succeeded in discovering and arresting the writer. He was a tall well-dressed man about 50 years of age and gave his name as Col. (Colonel) J. Howard Welles. It is not stated whether or not he exhibits any symptoms of insanity, but he is said to have been so much distressed by his arrest that he had to be watched to prevent his committing suicide. The delusive spirits, who were to do a work in these last days, have begun it, and we may look for an increase in the manifestations of their power, rather than a decrease. It is horrible to reflect, though, that, as soon as a man attains to prominence, power, wealth or influence, he is liable to be the object of the hallucination of some demonist; who deems himself divinely commissioned to slay him. |