Show OUR CHICAGO LETTER during the last few woo week a series of most kli sickening and sensational suicides ideO have occurred in this ity city in 02 case a well dressed man entered to reporters room in the city hall halian 9 d drank a bottle of carbolic acid in I 1 another a man climbed to the to top of and jump jumped w to a four story building the pavement below in case a man visited a house of 0 r fame remained there for se days then drank poison which 1 aft had in his possession all the thaw every paper one takes up contains container headline tragic suicide eg suicide A 1 demic of mania or some such sensation jow caption here is an article frola the chicago times on this crime during the week just coed there were in chicago five suicide in a single day there there were 0 throughout the country april 1 and over since hev years yearns the suicide manla mania is w deed appalling let the tott U s continue at at its present rate through out the year and the number numbers 0 sui suicides C ide a I 1 in n th the e ca country U at large largO W wo reach 2600 2500 this will be ne nett double the number in 1888 reached 1487 of 0 the increase of the crime of self destruction through a S series aries v years is startling in 1881 the DUO antt ber was the increase has boo belp steady since that time A what is the cause of it morale and humanitarians will ask ahw VV is this thing going to end there is an impression in BOW 10 j quarters that death by suicide confined chiefly to unknown 2 aln to worthless chara characters C te rs but WS not true or at least not true to baill great extent what does the W tho and ghastly record of the last wf months disclose that the of prominent and wealthy peo have been alarmingly nu wae merot among those who have voluntary volunta rw shuffled off the mortal coil and andew a leap in the dark are three olera chere el men three bankers three one s three mayors tb three ree postmasters postmaster sou 3 tw journalist one army officer rafi food capitalists two artists four wa officials six doctors seven offa holders and twelve well to doc do ow 0 chants what a variety of reaal W these people must have had I 1 a ta tw I 1 on only jy last sunday the quiet WO of st louis you will remember W thrown into a tremendous 00 ment by the suicide of sohn john J 00 son a prominent cit citizen lizen W ji name had been connected many business efterp enterprises whose fortune was estimated at go eral millions he wrote a ahrea wy W note to a friend saying to wheat has beaten me you cat can V go the cherest th erest rest aa there was the pc poor old m W final confession may fmay abea beaten me then he we went ut JV HY and alone to a dingy little office ili in a grain elevator like old ralph iok leby to his garret and was i round the next morning hanging by u neck dead may wheat has cored one more triumph you can MRS 8 the rest his family was left anost without a penny what chicagoan does not remember member the sensational suicide of iunker anker W F coolbaugh on the cops of the douglass monument a azen doben years ago he was president w ot the union national bank and ag a millionaire many times over being rated as one of the great financial kings of the city what drove man baan so fortunately situated to a deed jedof of deslar desi air he had not lost bis fortune by speculation like akson jackson of st louis he had bad a ily ahe the members of which were OW nent in society and all his bis soundings oun dings were to the outward orld of the happiest character aut 5 there was a skeleton in the thelam fam y closet it preyed on the million tte ift ban bankers banterla kerla mind till his reason was dethroned dethroner his millions were of so no avail afie he was less happy than omar ayam hay yam who asked bothin nothing to yke him happy but a flask of red ed ule a book of of poetry a moment of ate Y kite in life and half a loaf if fsr ith that dat I 1 might K dear one dwell with ith thee in some desert place it abild be happiness preferable to a happiness gatans wt an s in his is realms realm poor dis d is acted coolbaugh turned his back 04 sis ilia home his family and his 4 billions lions and sought relief in self in acted death the spot in which he be to die was vas a historic one and ore re he sent the fatal bullet into his awn wain cc lyman blair another wealthy baier anker was found dead in his ele alt residence at peck court and michigan avenue one day in sep bep ce aber 1883 the top of his head g blown off with a gun some baad that it was all an accident but the he accident was never clearly a ined blair was a prominent SS gare in the financial world he had aa every but there luxury was a fail te secret at athis his heart he had desperation d than hamlet and S involved IvOl ved to quit his ills whatever y were and fly to others that he be 3 not of who can imagine 4 i a story of wretchedness and ir this rich man might have john uhn M rountree was a tall csome gladsome lawyer with a lucrative and apparently nothing to rb the equanimity of his life beven e even loved outdoor sports and ana went for recreation with rod gun one bright april morn jag n 1886 the newsboys were cry Q 0 a new and exciting 0 tragedy 0 o in streets streeta cihat Wha was it cawyer lawyer rountree had bad gone so se esy stora into a madison street gun wl where here he was a frequent and ta 10 visitor aitor asked to see a new biver olver told the le clerk to load it mw md not put it to his temple and fired 11 word can ayt alvi of explanation 4 picture his thoughts as waa T were when he went into that TO store was he silently bidding M to the world and then there was charles H curtis the prosperous and wealthy real estate dealer what particular reason had this man for shirking his responsibilities ties and shuffling himself rear al 81 out ut of this world he had a wife and family of grown children who needed his counsel and guardianship dian ship but he stand the loss of money some said it made him crazy the cheltenham beach enterprise was a losing investment for curtis and the only way he could see out of his troubles was to throw himself into lake michigan it was jan 3 1886 when curtis quit the earthly shore A cold day for a man to seek after rest and comfort under the waves that can not be still and think of that dramatic suicide of the popular manager of the boston oyster house seth M was his name he had a line fine position a good salary was popular and well liked by almost everybody yet he was not happy something was wrong around the domestic hearthstone so one day in may 1887 went up to the top of the tall building occupied by his employers pl at the southeast corner of clark and madison streets stood near the edge of the cornice on the roof and shot himself in the right temple down he came tumbling through the air like a bag of sawdust and alad lay sprawling on the pavement dead he fell where thousands of people would pass within a few ining minutes tes and see him but none of them knew the true story of why life was undesirable and nd bitter for him his wife was a fine handsome appearing woman she soon found another husband and put aside her weeds wm S hartwell freight auditor of the chicalo northwestern railroad sat down in a bathtub bath tub and shot himself to the heart in march 1888 he was so thoughtful about it that he did not want to soil boll the carpet of his bedchamber bed chamber and sought the bathroom bath room his wife wept and said to the reporters that she knew of no reason why he should go down to death in that horrid way but the reason became apparent the next day or two A young manicure mini cure in the Ja japanese building on state street confessed that she was in love with hartwell and that hartwell was in love with her then she swallowed a dose of poison and joined him in another clime there are women who will justify the course they took in january 1886 charley clowes the rich young distiller made the sensation young of t the e hour by spending the night at a notorious notorious house the next morning two sharp pistol shots were heard and they who entered the chamber of death found clowes and his mistress dead A weak vain and worthless man he had grown weary of the lite of a rounder and of being a faithless husband the news of his end was carried to a heart heartbroken broken young wife on the west side john W miller the large tall handsome circulator of a morning paper overworked himself for a few years drank liquor and absinthe to steady his wasted nerves till one day in july 1888 he walked down to the lake shore at sixteenth street and shot himself in the head the waves lashing themselves into fury so near his resting place were not more turbulent than was his disordered mind mi nd frederick W Bidwell the agent and traveler for large paper concerns only last january engaged a room at the hotel grace and without so 80 much as making a complaint compla lut took a razor and severed his head almost from his body he took his grievance sri evance whatever it might have been to the grave with him walter 9 S bradley at the hotel portland in february was not prepared red to shoot himself until he ee had j shot hot his wife jealousy prompted his deed aers Barot hythe romantic young hungarian who was found lying on the lake shore drive with two bullet holes in his breast in Sd 90 ember 1888 was supposed to have bave been crazed by love for his half brother wife but the story afterward came out that he had drawn a black hall ban in a quarrel with an army comrade in europe and in accordance with agreement preserved his honor by ending his life on a certain day one day about el eight years ago a despondent young german tourist climbed with laborious effort to the water towers to aers top there he enjoyed a birdseye birds eye view of the greatest of modern cities having seen which he be was content to die he threw himself to the pavement feet below the vices of the spendthrift and roue might be named as aa the causes that drove john sidney walters the wellborn well born young yo englishman E 11 una to suicide at the hotel otel richelieu last wednesday evening H H angell the oak park coal dealer had poor heal health and found the struggle for existence exi nee too hard to prolong it mrs caroline bruckner bruckler had some reason for wanting to take lake her daughter with her heron on the long journey so she generously divided her poisonous dose with the maiden the methods of suicide are various the reasons are many where wili will it allend all end even the term suicide itself is a puzzle to philologists trench says that till the middle of the seventeenth century the word had nat apt established itself in the languages self homicide was used instead the abbe Des fontaines is credited with its invention or construction st it is trued traced by biats to the latin sui genitive of so se and aado to kill one writer named philips maintained that there was just as much reason in tracing it to sus a sow as to ad of oneself one thing Is certain no national homegrown home grown appellation exists anywhere for the act a ct usually designated self murder or suicide in no language is it a pure national substantive it is always a manufactured mixture it is an outcast from speech no tongue has cared to hatch a local designation for it even in those days when men heroically killed themselves saying let us make death proud to take us there was no local name for it perhaps this silence of language is the most cogent argument against the im impiety bety and unnaturalness of the act act in law suicide is denominated felo chese de w a low latin phrase for a felon by himself blackstone dennes defines it as one that deliberately puts an end to his own existence or commits an unlawful malicious act the consequence is his own death as if to kill another he runs upon his antagonists sword or shooting at another the gun bursts and kills himself the party must be of years of discretion and in his senses else it is no crime the law of england treats suicide as a felony the punishment formerly inflicted consisted of ignominious burial by the highway with a stake driven through the body and without christian rights the legal consequence was forfeiture of the goods and chattels to the crown the punishment in our day is comparatively natively rat ively nothing owing perhaps berha 3 C to the charitable belief that the seg self murderer is insane otherwise the fielo feao do de ee is still subject to forfeiture of goods and chattels and to the deprivation of christian rites and to midnight burial buckle says that suicide is merely a product of the general condition of society that in a given state of society a certain number of persons must put ut an end to their own life queue elet t says that it is society which prepares the crime the guilty man is only an instrument of execution pascale sa says 8 happiness is the object of all ake the actions of all men e ven even of those who kill themselves cicero says that the deity which exercises a sovereign power over us does not allow us to quit life without his permission but awakens in us a just desire for eath death then the truly wise man maan ought t to paw pass with pleasure from these shades to celestial brightness seneca says if I 1 suffer from disease I 1 should not kill myself to escape from pain for that would be an act of ca cowardice wal tc but if I 1 perceive that my disease is Incura incurable bleI should end my life because the disease de would deprive me of all which can render life worth having it is cowardly to the die to escape suffered suffering erlD g it is stupid to live in order to suf suffer fier 11 1 1 even plato and socrates regarded suicide as a c question tiou of opportunism in the boman IVee oman empire mori imori bicet cul cui non was the fashionable maxim for wherever life has haa not charms for him it is lawful to die china still respects and practices suicide japan has abandoned it as an officially organized institution within the last few years only the old germanic and celtic rams races were all full of it but the celts belts were imp impelled im ellel by religious motives they burned themselves in an osler osier idol the mat themselves under the car of juggernaut the romans when tired of life threw themselves on their swords the greek islanders as soon as sixty were willing took poison together so as to leave sufficient food for the younger ones revelation Be says thou not kill there are many who hold that this command does not comprehend suicide if this is not a command of nature and of god then why have we not in some language a local term for suicide why ki has every tongue and every race placed this stigma of non upon it why is it self murder or self homicide or self slaughter simply because the command includes murder of self as well as of fellow man josephus distinctly states thatis that it was contrary to law we need only read the book of job to find out what the old hebrew could suffer before seeking self slaughter critics of the secular kind maintain that there is no special punishment mentioned in the bible for self mur der and that consequently it was not criminal among the ancient jews then why does job call on god to end his pains by natural death when he himself job had the means within his reach to end life with a bare bodkin perhaps goldsmith has given the most powerful justification for suicide but of any writer ancient or modern he says when lovely woman stoops to folly and finds too late that men betray what charm can soothe her melancholy what art can wash her guilt away the only art her guilt to cover to hide her shame from every eye to give repentance to her lover and wring his bosom is to die whole libraries of books have been written on suicide its causes its prevalence its various phases the frenchman says john bull kills himself because of the melancholy fogs of london but statistics tell us that the french are ahead in self murder the |