Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1915 — AUTOPSY CONFIRMED EARLIER DIAGNOSIS [ARTICLE]

AUTOPSY CONFIRMED EARLIER DIAGNOSIS

Dr. Johnson Says Little Watkins Boy Unquestionably Died From Drinking* Whiskey. Dr. Johnson heM an autopsy on the body of the little son of Lou Watkins, whose death occurred Wednesday morning, and his earlier diagnosis that death was due to acute alcoholic poisoning was positively confirmed. Just how much whiskey the boy drank could not be determined but that he wias perfectly healthy up to the time the whiskey passed into his stomach and that there was nothing else that contributed to the death, is the statement of Dr, Johnson, the attending physician. Mr. Watkins, the father of the little boy, is said to be filled with penitence and while denying that he had given the liquor to the little boy he admits that he had been a user of it and had left it Where the child could get it, thus contributing to the destruction- of the little life. It is probable that a thorough inquiry will be made by Deputy Prosecutor Sands to ascertain whether the little fellow was used to pass a whiskey bottle around to the participants of an affair at the Watkins home the Sunday before the child’s death. This statement was mi&de to Mr. Sands by a neighbor and it was understood that Mrs. Watkins herself had told this to the neighbor. Whether criminally responsible by having given the child the liquor or morally responsible by having set a bad example and then left the deadly drink where the child could get it does not materially alter the case as viewed by the people of this clean and moral community and itjs certainly a most deplorable thing that the life of a healthy child should he sacrificed in suclh a shameful manner. It is a temperance lesson that should not only apply to the father of the Child but to every person addicted to the habit.