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Show Russian CLub m Wmicm I (ft .aaA ASIA'S latest Sui- wW cide Club has re" f.f duced self-destruc- JrtAtS tion t0 au art- f si H Probably in no I i-4 B other country in IliL-Jk the worId wouli it tytpSS XapS&M be PSBible to es- wOrNSfW tablish as a fam- !! ous Russian au- have done here, an V&ZUsX?i organization whose sole purpose is the encouragement of "sporting" suicides among its members. With headquarters in St. Petersburg and quickly growing branches in Moscow, Odessa, Khakow, and Vladivostock, this club meets regularly reg-ularly to plan the self-inflicted death of its members. J These suicides are so far removed from the ordinary affairs that result from hunger, unrequited affection, jealousy, poverty or despair, that one of the conditions con-ditions of membership member-ship is that no member mem-ber shall kill himself him-self for any of these vulgar reasons. This club is but one of the manifes tations of the peculiar and almost inexplicable in-explicable suicide mania that is now sweeping ,the whole of the country, seizing upon young and old, rich and poor, lowly and high-born. ' In St. Petersburg Pe-tersburg alone there is an average of 15 suicides a day. Moscow records about the same number, and the other oth-er big Russian cities are not far behind. be-hind. Efforts have been made in vain to check the tendency. Anti-suicide societies by the dozen have made their appearance, but despite the constant efforts of such organizations organi-zations as the League of Life and the Anti-Suicide League, the daily record rec-ord of suicides increases alarmingly. So serious has the situation become in this city that the Prefecture of Police has offered a reward of $2.50 for every ev-ery rescue and many of the unemployed unem-ployed assemble every day on the banks of the Neva and the canals on the lookout for attempted suicides. One watcher placed three rescues to his credit in as many days. Because of the pledge of secrecy which binds the members of the Suicide Sui-cide Club details of its organization are difficult to get. Who founded it? Who is the president? Some declare it is one of the grand dukes, though the younger generation of imperial cousins show too mcch good sense and too much zest for life to, play such a role, and the older ones are far too dignified. Others declare that the famous Russian novelist, Artzybascheff, is the founder and president and the instigator of the more original suicides. He has written writ-ten many books which condemn life as something like a sin, and extol self-destruction self-destruction as a heroic, action. He has been fined by the tribunals for writing writ-ing books of pernicious influence, and he openly advocates many kinds of vice, which he makes as attractive as possible. His great talent makes his books all the more dangerous. Nevertheless, Never-theless, there is no sure proof that be has any direct influence on suicides, or has ever helped the club to gather In its harvest of victims. And though it is now an established institution its origin and members' list is aB deep a mystery as possible. This mysterious club holds its meetings meet-ings at the homes of the members. Many fashionable people belong to it, and women with a family of growing children, elderly men with the best part of their lives behind them, young women with a good chance cat happiness gather round the table where the fatal lots are drawn. One card is prepared for each meeting. The member who draws it must kill himself within a week, the club deciding de-ciding as to the method, if the member mem-ber cannot think of a suitable way Members must court death out of mere curiosity, or as a means of showing show-ing some novel way of leaving the world. Common poisons are tabooed. Drowning is admitted only when wine or perfumed water is used and the surroundings are exceptionally beautiful beau-tiful or luxurious. The simple emptying empty-ing of a revolver into one's body Is not good enough. Shooting must be "artistic," or left severely alone. These suicides take place with a lot of pomp. In the case of the young Baroness Zakomelska a supper was given to the Petersburg members. At the end, a huge tub was filled with champagne, and the lady drowned herself in it, after all present had ; drunk p. great t deal of the wine. In Me scow a young doctor, named Dovhor, recently married mar-ried a charming girl. He did not know that she belonged to the ' Suicide Club. After her marriage mar-riage she at- tended the meeting of the Moscow branch with the intention inten-tion of tendering tender-ing her resignation resigna-tion at the end of the proceedings. But she drew the fatal card that night. Her husband was away, so she had nobody to consult. con-sult. She determined to feism suicide and then leave the town, tilling him all and asking him to live elsewhere. For the club, like most secret societies socie-ties in Russia, is very strict with those who reveal its secrets. So -she laid her plans with care, telling die members that she had discovered a mysterious poison which, sprinkled on a rose and inhaled, produced death. She knew enough medical jargon to convince them and her maid found her seemingly dead next morning as she went into her room. As a matter of fact, she had only taken a strong narcotic, but the maid, in a panic, wired to the husband that his wife was dead. His despair was so great that he shot himself. Meanwhile the wife recovered, and wired him it was all a joke, and she was coming to rejoin re-join him. She found him dead. Then she shot herself, after leaving a letter let-ter to her mother, in wnich she disclosed dis-closed the above facts about the club. The police were put on its track, but only made a few unimportant arrests. Various reasons have been urged for the increase of suicides in Russia, and many remedies suggested. The writer asked no less an authority on Russian life than Count Witte for his views. The Count thought a moment before answering. "There is not one cause, but many," he said at last. "To begin with, our young men begin to live too soon. They are children for such a short time that they lose their health and good spirits before youths of the same age in America have begun to be grown up. They are satiated before they are well out of their teens. Their minds, made morbid by undue excitement, excite-ment, are, always craving for new impressions, im-pressions, new sensations. Suicide is new to them, so they try suicide, not because of despair, but from simple lassitude. 'Life,' they say, 'is not worth living.' "In the case of the very poor, I should say that they often work under un-der worse conditions than the same class in America, or, rather, there is not so much hope for their getting on. With us, the classes are more shut up than there. It wants far more enterprise enter-prise than you would think for a Russian Rus-sian to 'make himself.' "Then, too, modern Russian literature litera-ture has a depressing influence. We j have many authors of tremendous talent; tal-ent; but they are all sad. They have none of the joy of life. We have still a lot of eastern fatalism in our psychology. psy-chology. We Russians do not value human hu-man life so high as the English, for instance, who not only drag a poor devil whose life is one long burden out of the river, but put him to prison for trying to end things. "One cannot help admiring the courage cour-age of the very poor, who are content ! to toil and suffer for years, with no prospect of anything better. Can we wonder that some of them break down and take fate into their own hands? In general, too much is made of Russian Rus-sian suicides. We are a young people, finding our way to the light. There must be a number of discouraged ones." The truth is that people In Russia go into despair over things which would not trouble an Anglo-Saxon much. Sometimes Russian suicides are ordered or-dered by the family, a regiment, or other institution. The case of young Captain Sergius Hurko of the Hussars is an example. The young man was wild, played high and ran into debt. He determined to retrieve his fortunes at Monte Carlo and failed. As it happened, an old general he had known from childhood was staying at the same hotel, and had won huge sums. Hurko entered his bedroom, gagged him, and stole the money. But the victim had bitten his hand, and though Hurko made off for Petersburg at once, he was recognized as the thief. His family disowned him, and he had a hint from his regiment that the best thing he could do was to "disappear." "dis-appear." He did so, the prison authorities au-thorities facilitating the conveyance of poison to his cell. Old Baron Mellor-Zakomelski no relation, by the way, to the young woman wo-man who ended her life in champagne, cham-pagne, was governor of the Baltic provinces. He had a wild son named Sacha. After paying Sacha's debts many times, he grew tired. When the son made an application for money one day, the father sent him a revolver, telling him to shoot himself. The son, who was making merry in some town in central Russia, ordered a supper, invited all his boon companions, com-panions, arranged a sleigh expedition afterward, returned to his rooms, and shot himself with his father's present. He left a note saying; "I should have done it long ago, but knew it would afford my father p'easure, so put it off till his revolver came. Now, at least, all the world knows he ordered me to commit suicide." |
