Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-05-27
SUICIDE.
The Melancholy Death of ~
3 Young and Lovely Lady.
She PIunges into the silver
from the Bluff and
IL Drowned.
Her Farewell TO her Friends
The Whole Affair
a Mystery.


of nearly sixty feet above the surging
waters of the Mississippi that wash its
ever erumbliDg base, was the scene,
last evening, Of an occurrence which
will long haunt the memories Of
those who may hereafter visit the
melancholy spot For here, as
yesterdays sun was yet sinking 10 a
cloudless sky, beneath the horizon
friuged with forest trees that stretch from
the opposite shore as far as the eye can
reach, a form, radiant with the rare grace
Of early womanhood, and casketing
life to the outward world as pure
and cloudless as day in spring
sunk under the turgid waves Of the in
tervening river, never again to rise, save
in the cold and dark eclipse Of death.
II is perhaps unnecessary to say that We
allude to the melancholy death Of Kate
Gruper, whose demise and the distress
ing manner of its occurrence has already
thrilled many heart with pain and hor-
ror. The facts Of the shocking affair, as
near as we have been enabled to
ascertain them, are about as follows
The deceased, who is spoken of as
a young lady of peculiarly lovely dispo-
sition, prepossessng appearance and
many refined accomplishment, came to
this city some months since from her
fathers house in Madison, Indiana, and
made her home with an uncle, Mr..
James Bachman, who resides on Shelby
street. She had been here but few
days before she drew around her hume
rous circle of friends and admirers; and
among others who visited her at her un-
cle's house was a Mr. G. A. Eckerly,
respectable and highly esteemed
citizen of Memphis, who, becoming
fascinated with her many charms of per-
son and intellect, sought her hand and
received in return the promise that she
would become his wife. The two were
engaged and the day Of marriage was
agreed upon. Thus the matter stood en-
Monday evening last, when Miss Gruper,
attended by Mr.. Eckerly, visited with a
surprise party the house of Mr.. Leopold
Goepel, who also resides on Shelby street,
where they both participated in the fes.
tivities of the evening. Here, however,
the young lady seemed not to enjoy, as
others around her, the dance, the tete-a
tsts, and the merry laugh; but evidently
was struggling with some secret, only the
more painful because secret. Here,
too, she danced with others than her be-
trothed, and, among othsrs, with a gentle
man named Kline, whose attentions to
her we're somewhat marked. None who
saw her then and there, however, for a
moment deemed that in so short time
thereafter her form should be cold in self
inflicted death. Yet such was to be the
case, as the following facts in the closing
chapter Of her young, pure life develop.
Last evening srrayiug herself with es
pecial pride and taste, about five o'clock
she left her uncle's house, simply remark
ing as she passed from the door that she
was going out shopping. When on the
streets, however, instead Of direct
ing her steps toward the city,
she turned about and walked in
the direction of Fort Pickering. On the
bluff she entered grocery kept by one
John Shelby, and asking for pencil and
paper, had it given her, when she ad-
dressed two netes-one to her uncle and
another to Mr.. Kline-both of which she
placed in the hands of a negro lad, whom
she paid to deliver them. This done, she
left the grocery and strayed out to the
brink of the bluff, where it projects above
the surging river, and here laying aside
her parssol, her hat, aud silk scarf that
enveloped her form, she hesitated for an
instant only, and then plunged from the
dizzy bank into the waves below.
In she plunged boldly,
Nomatter how coldly
Thorough liver ran,
Mad from lIie's history
Glad TO deaths mystery
Switt.to be hurried,
Anywhere, anywhere,
Out Of the world"
Her movements up to her disap-
pearsnce under the bank had not
been unobserved There we're those
who had traced her steps from the little
grocery, and when too late-the fatal
plunge. was made-they rushed to the
spot, only to find her parssol and hat and
scarf. These discovered, they at once
manned every boat at hand, with a view to
recovering her body, which had gone down
under the waves. They searched all
night and were searching up to noon
to- day, but, alas to no avail Her form
like her secret is hidden, perhaps for
ever. All that she left to explain
the rash, last act of her life,ssre
the notes, both Of which we're duly deiiv-
.,ad and rad "a foiiows.