| Show SUICIDES IN HISTORY Romans and Athenians Who Set the Example for Boulaiiger SAMSON THE FIRST ON RECORD Great Men to Whom Destruction Was Preferable to Death by the Enemys Sword Boulanger and Balmaceda each of whom played for high stakes and committed sui ide when the game was lost had many noted predecessor From the days of the Roman empire down to the present time men who have staked their all and lost have capped the climax of their defeat by selfdestruction Rather than endure disgrace dis-grace they have acted as their own executioners execu-tioners Balmaceda the would be dictator of Ghiii shot himself when convinced that escape from the victorious insurgents was impossible Boulanger after making a brilliant record rec-ord as a soldier In Algiers and in the FrancoPrussian war and being idolized by his people aspired to overturn the republic and found an empire of which he would be the bead A traitor to his country and branded as a thief he was outlawed When at last the woman who was his companion in exile died ho ended his strange career by shot ins himself on her grave It is only a few months since Prince Rudolph Ru-dolph of Austria and Marie Vetsera ended their liason in a manner that shocked the entiro world In tile days when Romans believed it a disgrace to be killed by a foe in battle suicides were common Cato stabbed himself rather thai live under the despotic re gn of Ccesar and when Ther mistocles was ordered to lead the Persians I I against his countrymen ho took poison j Hannibal and Mithridates poisoned them I selves to escape being niado prisoners Samson was tne heroic suicide of the Scrip tures for in order to bo revenged on his enemies ho pulled down tho temple in which they were reveIng and perished with them Many of the not d suicides of history are due to the philosophy of heroism rather than insanity Zeno the founder of the Stoics lived ntil he was 93 Then when he lell one day and put his thumb out of joint he do ded that he had lived long enough so he repaired to his dwelling and hanged him elf Homer is said to have hanged him self because he could not solve the fisher mans riddle Terrence stabbed himself ecauso he had lost lOS translated come dies Brutus threw himself on his sword L ycurgusitook poison and Nero cut his throat In China suicide has been a line art for several centuries If a Mandarin is guilty of misconduct ho is requ sted to put himself elf out of tho land of the living There is a distinction too in the manner in which the Oriental may die If ho is of exalted rank and entitled to wear the peacock feather he is privileged to choko himself to death with gold leaf This is regarded as a distinguished manor man-or of ending life If the Mandarin is only of the rank that is entitled to wear the od button ho must be content with strang ling himself with a silken cord buch are he distinctions of caste One of tho most remarkable cases of suicide was that of the King of Falaha on the west coast of AfrIca The King was attacked by a Aao ammedan force and finding resistance istance impossible he assembled his family and principal officers and after addressing them and intimating his determination never to accept Moham mcdanism and inviting those who dil not agree with him to go away he applied a light to a largo quantity of gunpowder col ected for the purpose and blow into atoms the palace and all who were ia it Suicides among the aristocracy in Enc lana are rather numerous The suicide of the Duke of Bedford in January last shocked society circles of both continents 3e was ono of the largest landed proprietors propri-etors in England immensely wealtuy and vas 72 years of age Lying on a sick bed from which he had no pro ipott < of immediate immedi-ate recovery he succumbed to the agony of the moment and sought relief in death The fact that it was suicide was cro rulij concealed from the newspapers but the secret leaked out after the body had been cremated Lord Congleton who was Mr Parnells great uncle hanged himself in 1842 In tho same year the earl of Muuster ono 01 the illegitimate sons of King William IV soot himself m the head In 1SG9 Lord Clon I carry tho last of his house jumped from a window and broke his neck I In lb i3 the last earl of Do la Warr drowned himself and m 1S7G Lord Lv tile ton the insane brotherinlaw of Gladstone Glad-stone escaped from his iieepers threw himself him-self off the staircaso of his own bouse and was killed l A story of suicide in which sentiment is mingled is that of Prince Bandouin heir to the throne of Belgium Tho youthful prince loved beneath his station and find ing that loc could nevorbeicahzed sought pouco in the eternal silence of the grave Commercial disaster to any member of the Rothchild family is us great a disgrace dis-grace as crime is to any other Jamily Tins was illubtrated by the recent attempts of Baron Gustav de Rothschild to end his ex isteuce His attempt at selfdestruciion I followed close upon his loss of 40000000 I francs on the London market The attempt was a failure and In that respect resemble his speculation His was not tho lirst nf I fair of the kind in the RothbcLild family Baron James de Roihscnild craze uy ill luck some timo aero blowout his brains in the presence of his mother Only lust May Lord James Edward Shelto Douglass brother of tile Marquis ol Queensbury committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor He had been traveling from Ireland during tho nigh and behaved in such a strange manlier that the railroad officials ordered ono of then employees to accompany him to London Upon arrival in that city Lord Douelas put up at u hotel and when the attend ant was not looking he cut his throat The tragic death of Ludy Brassey who plunged into the sea from her yacht while suffering from fever will oe long remembered She was ono of the most ambitious of women and rmarkabli talentoti When she jumped ovei ooard lust I year her husband dived alter her unl I it i Was with some dilllculty that ho was rescued res-cued from sharing her fate Suicides are common among def ulters as preferable to facing the charge of dishonor and trying to live down the record Pol ticians smarting under ttio sense of defeat I have ended all with a bullet Disappointoi I I lovers by the score ttiko their lives when jilted by the object of their choice and so I tbo category runs Disappointment of every character has prompted all kinds of people to end this brief existence with a I bare oodkiu IVetu Yoilc Rccoid |
