Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-05-07
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.
A Discontinued Man has Recourse 20
Pistol 90 End his Troubles.
Squire Moore Proceeds 10 Hold an In
quest on the Body hiIe Life
was StiII I'm "a.


Mr.. w. /. Jenkins made a sensation
1 on Monroe street yesterday about two
O'clock, by shooting himself in the head,
back of the right ear, in the office of r.
/ c. Floyd 4 Co., ON Monroe street.
/ jenkins was a printer, young man
| between the age of tWenty-three and
} twenty-fOur years, tall and slender, with
a few struggling hairs for a beard. He
is represented as having been a person
of culture and of very respectable family
connections. One of his habits was that
of periodical "tares," and another and
opposite one was periodical fits of strict
sobriety. When recovering from q
"tare - he INDUCED in mOroseness, low
ness of spirits, gloomy foTebOdings, and
a general letting down of vitality and
hOpefulneSs. He was in one of these
moods. He discussed for some time
the various means of painless taking of,
and spoke freely of suicide as an easy
passage from a world of bitterness and
disappointment to one of much pleas
anter aspect. On Sunday evening he
was met by brother typo, who asked
him for his "rule," he handed it out at
once, with the remark: "Here it is, I
shall not want il any mOre.o
He was just recovering from one of
| his sprees, when he went up into the
office of MesSrs. II. &. Floyd & Co., on
Monroe street, where he had been work
| ing previously, and took pistol from
the drawer Of a desk in the room, and
pointed it up toward the ceiling as if he
We're going to discharge it in that direc-
ton, but suddenly placing the muzzle
against his head, behind the right ear,
discharged the contents of the weapon
into his own brain. Two young gentle
men and press-bOy were in the room
at the time, and saw all his motions,
but they were executed so rapidly that
they hardly realized what was transpir-
ing until the man had shot himself. He
bled a bueketful, where he lay, for he
fell The moment the shot was fired.
NIAGIsTERIAL EXCITEMENT.
The Office where the catastrophe Oc-
CURED is right across the street from
that of Justice Moore. The magistrates
of Memphis are remarkable for their
judicial quickness and official prOmpti-
tude, and of course Justice Moore is no
exception. Having heard the explosion
of the villainOus pistol, he rushed over
to FlOyd's. There were other persons
there before him, and without waiting
to find out whether it was a eat or
stray goat that had been shot, or
whether a man had done it theatrically,
he summoned the following jury to hold
an inquest: Andrew Hughes, William
Elliott, +. +. BabcOck, NJ Pyne, D..
Hertxall, V. B. Thayer, H. Cramer
Having sworn them to well and truly
ascertain all the facts as to how the dead
man lying before them had shuffied off
this mortal coil and give a verdict ac-
eorCiingly, the jury proceeded to hold
the inquest, but the very first move they
made showed the man was still living.
This disagreeable fact had the effect of
dispensing the justice and his fury in hot
haste. 1t was a hOrrid thing to thus
proceed to inqUesting a man who had
not departed this life.
At one O'Clock this morning Mr. Jen-
kens was still living. He was stretched
on a mattress up in the room in which
the fatal shot was fired, and several of
his brother printers were sedulously at
tending to him. Three or four doctors
looked at him. during the evening and
all pronounced his death certain The
brain was broken and some Of it taken
out. He became conscious enough at
one time to say "take me up to the Of
flee, | want to go asleep He repeated
that he wanted to go asleep three or four
times