OCR Text |
Show HE KEEPS HIS WORD. Benjamin Berndt Commits Suicide as lie Often Threatened to Do. "A MAN WHO GETS DRUNK IS A D FOOL." After a Protracted Spree He Staggers I'p City Creek Canyon and in a Sequestered Se-questered Spot Speed a Ballet Throng,!! Kis Temple His Life and History. Tired of life and crazed by liquor, Benjamin Benja-min Berndt placed a revolver against his right temple and blew out Lis brains. Death was instantaneous. The bullet entered en-tered the head near the lobe of the right ear, passed through the brain and lodged immediately under the skin of the left temple. The 6elf-murderer selected a place propitious to the cowardly act be had decided de-cided to commit. In a dreary spot in City Creek canyon, about half a mile above the first supply station, and under the shade of a giant bouldsr, Berndt destroyed his life, lie used a 44-caliber American model revolver. re-volver. There were three cartridges in the weapon before he turned it against himself. The deed was done Friday uight or Satuaday morning, as the body had begun to display evidences of the decay of nature. The discovery of the body was made by Mr. W. G. Koylance of this city late yesterday yester-day afternoon, lie hastened to the city and notified the authorities of his ghastly find. The dead watcou was sent to the place indicated indi-cated by Mr. Koyiance and the body was brought to the city and placed on the slab in the dead chamber of the Utah undertaking parlors, where bo many self-murderers, male and female, have been placed before this last victim to the suicidal mania. The dead man was rU years of age. He was a Norwegian and a wluower. For eighteen eight-een years he had been on the Pacific slope, eight year of which had been passed in Utah. Berndt was a sailor and had visited all corners of the globe on various kinds of vessels. He understood the art of rope making mak-ing and was considered an expert at his trade. He had been employed in the mines of the Tintic district at his trade for two years uast. Berndt was a periodical drunkard. He would remain sober for several months. Then he would decide to "have a time," as he expressed it. He did not start on a drunk in an uncertain manner. His sprees usually covered a period of three or four days or a week. When in his cups Berndt would frequently remark: "What a d d fool a man is to get drunk! I had ought to get a gun and blow my bead off." Hundreds of men who are slaves to the drinking habit have made the same remark, but the only consolation vouchsaf el by their friends was" to the effect that "it would be a srood thing for the community if they did." Nothing disturbs a would-be suicide so much as to have his friends make light of his weakness. Few men get .drunk without saying foolish things which in. the light of sober sense would sound silly and childish. So when poor Berndt proclaimed in his maudlin tones that he "had ought to get a gun and blow off his head,", his friends laughed at him and jocularly called the white-aproned attendant to "fill 'em up again." But Borndt carried out the threat he made so often against his own life. He started in on his last spree on the 10th of the present mouth upon his arrival in Salt Lake from the Tintic mining district. Berndt had been sober for several months and when he ar lived in Zion one of the first things he did was to deposit $100 with a Second South street saloonkeeper. Saturday week he drew $00 and went to the hot springs for "a time." On Friday last Berndt drew the remaining 40. He had been drunk for a week and he continued his debauch. It is probable that he began to reflect, in a drunken way, of his condition, and decided that death should end all. He must then have procured the revolver and staggered up City Creek canyon can-yon till he reached the fatal spot, when he sank down upon the ground and placed the weapon against his right temple. In the still air of the canyon the report of a pistol rang out, and Berndt emphasized his oft-repeated oft-repeated assertion that "a man who gets drunk is a d d fool." The coroner's inquest will be held tomorrow. |