The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1859-02-26
Singular Suicide,

Sylvester Rupert, 81 years Of age, al
Englishmsn by birth, and BY trade shil
carpenter, lived vita his wife and twt
children in house on Perdido street.
In October last the yellow fever, ther
prevailing, counted among it's victims the
youngest child of the Ruperts--their lit
tie girl Lizzie, about four years old, ant
the particular pet of the father This
was blow from which the father neve,
recovered. Not able to buy a tomb, he
had the child buried in the ground in
Greenwood Cemetry. The grief preycd
heavily upon him. 1t was his only
thought, and being out Of his regular
employment, be found employment in his
grief.
He bought burial lot, and some other
material, and with his own hands, anl,
all alone in the cemetry, built him a
brick tomb He had not the means to
make the tomb stylish one; so in its
mouth or entrance he fitted wooden
frame, and on this frame he fitted piece
of board, and secured it with screws in
its four corners On this board with
which he enclosed the vault Gin lieu of
the usual brick aud mortar or marble
slab he has carved nicely with his knife
the burial inscription of his child The
| tomb finished, he disiuterred the child $
body and placed it there. He fastened
the board with screws, in order that he
might afterwards have no trouble in re-
moving it when he felt like gazing upon
the dtcaying remains of his child.
This employment finished, it was his
habit to visit the cemetry, open the
tomb, and look at the corpse of his pet
He always carried a screw driver in his
pocket with which to remove and re-.
place the lid of the coffin. Neither the
haggard aspect of the shrinking little
corpse, nor the foul order of its decay,
could repel him in his morbid grief
His visits were frequent, an1 sometimes
his wife went with him lie frequent
ly complained to her that he could not
get work and this inability doubtless
fos,.red the dependency which was
drawing him to death. He frequently
spoke of having no faith in the future,
and of death as desirable thing.
On Wednesday he went to the ceme-
try with two shrubs which he had pur-
chased and planted them in front of the
tomb On Thursday when he left home,
he told his wife that if he had no better
luck in finding work she would never see
him again. He also said something about
having a place in which to rest
That evening", or that night-for no
one saw him in his gloomy proccedings-
he visited the cemetry; taking with him
his screw driver, an iron trunk handle, q
small rod of iron, a piece of wire, some
new screws, and large vial of laudanum
Unscrewing the board Of the tomb, he
threw away the screws and filed the
screw holes in the board with clay
With his new screws he then secured
the trunk handle to the inside Of the
board This work, Of course, had to be
done outside the tomb. Pushing his
child's coffin aside, he got in by its side,
taking with him his poison and other ar.
ticlcs with which he had provided him
self His hat he placed upon the coffin;
his coat, which he had taken of, Fe wrap
ped around brick for pillow. lie shut
himself in with the board, b. means Of
the handle he had screwed to it; the
! board ftting outside the wooden frame.
The iron bar. which was of the proper
length, he placed across the frame inside.
The thickness of the frame would not al
low the bar to pass through the trunk
handle Oh the inside Of the board; 50 he
secured the handle aud the bar by means
of his wire, eoiling it through the one
aud around the other. lie did not sue
seed in fitting the board squareIy upon
| the frame One corner Of it eau ght up
on the brickwork outside the France this
he did not discover, probably owing to
the darkness Of the night; and but for
| this little circumstance his fate would
probably have never been discovered, oil
! not ut least for many years. Havin.
| thus hid himself away, as he fancied
beyond mortal discovery, he drained of
the contents of his lauIanum bottle, com.
posed himself on his back, placed the
brick and coat beneath his head, and
went to sleep, and off into the unknown
| region of the suicides.
As be did not return home on Thurs
day night, his wife feared the worst, re
membcring we'll the tendency of his late
conduct and the tenor Of his parting
words. On Friday morning she rose
early, and went out to the cemetery. Sh,
! looked all around and failed to find bel
! husband She went and looked at theil
tomb, and was about to leave, when sh,
happened to notice that the board did no
fit snugly into the frame as usual Look
ing closer, she discovered the mud in til,
screw holes aud putting her hand oil
the board, found it was standing loosely
She pulled ii out little, and the frs
thing she saw was the dead face OF he
husband. She tainted away, and laid il
the grass she could not tell how long
She recovered at last, got up and wen
and Informed the sexton, Mr. Merritt, o
her discovery The latter vert an,
looked at things, and sent for the eoro
ner; and the inquest was held, as W
have stated, cn Saturday.
The coroner's verdict was in accord
ance with the facts so plainly apparent
suicide by laudnum.
Mr.. Prescott's Method OF Literary Labor.
Everything that relates to the histor
ical labors Of the late William II. Pres
colt is of general interest. We have
therefore, prepared somewhat minut
sketch of the method OF preparation an
composition adopted hy the deceased, b
which he was enabled to overcome hi
impaired vision, and to place his nam