New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-12-26
A SINGULAR SUJriDR.

count of suicide committed by an old gentleman
named Ester Davis. He was about sixty years
of age, and at the time Of his death kept
very small grocery in cellar, below which he
cooked and slept. Everything about his prem
ises, in which he was found shot by his own
hand, was squalid and shabby. Some money
was discovered upon his person, and subse-
quent investigation proved that he was not
very poor, as he left cash in bank and other
assets. The old grocer, it turned out, had some
what interesting personal history. A quarter OF
q century ago he was prosperous merchant IN
Cincinnati and moving in good society After
wards he lost money in business and became
bankrupt; his wife, most estimable lady to
whom he was greatly attached, died, and MI.
Davis suddenly disappeared, and would prob
ably never have been thought of again by his
acouaintances, but for the tragic circumstances
of his death.
The old man seems to have been sufficiently
wretched both in mind and body. He had
seen life both in its plenty and its penury.
When he married. his nuptials were the social
event of the season in Cincinnati, being cele-
brated in grand style unusual at that time.
He took his bride to live at fashionable no.
tel; he bought a country place at College
Hill; he was considered, in every way, pros
porous gentleman. And yet though apparent
ly without any vices-at least none are men
toned in the accountable died by his own
hand in a squalid cellar. He seems to have
been a man also who thought good deal,
though he might not have thought very wisely.
He left by his bed letter which gives us
glimpses of an utterly broken spirit. lie was
not absolutely poor be might have continued
to live if he had thought it worth his while
But why should he7 "God only" he
wrote, ais the true judge of my distracted and
broken spirits. Life is no longer feasible.
"The passing away of personal attractions ana
"the various changes that have occurred have
"isolated all congeniality; there is not living
"soul with whom l can claim any assurance OF
real friendship" A thoroughly morbid man
it would seem he was, for he also wrote:
Popular society will bitterly condemn what
"cannot avoid, especially professors of religion;
"and while claim no justification, / can only
"say to popular society, that it has heartless
"code of ethics that is mostly superficial"
Sunk In the scale of society as he was, he
seems to have made some efforts to recover
himself, unless, indeed, there was bitter irony
In his request to his Member of Congress, Mr..
Stevenson, made in 1869, to get him appointed
to the Consulship at the Fejee Islands. One
witness testified at the inquest that he heard
the deceased say day or two before that
"with his experience before him he would not
Give his life over again If it were offered to
" him as a free gift"
Here, then, was one of those inexplicable
failures in life which it seems impossible to
account for by any rule or to explain by any
theory. The wretched old man started fairly
enough, and ct the first was sufficiently pros
porous. He was a person of some culture-it
is even said that he was once college pro-
fessor. His way of existence for a time was
refined one; he loved books, for in the dirty
hole in which he died several tattered and
dusty volumes were found. He must have had
friends, since he complained so bitterly of
having them no longer. He must have thought
though with kind of wild waywardness and
lamentable indifference. He was speci-
men Of the man with whom, in this
world, nothing ultimately succeeds, and
who makes fresh efforts to rise only TO
sink into still lower depth. There are
such-every one in his experience has known
one or more-and whether they are wrecked
by some overmastering fatality or through
their own fault, matters but little, since, il
fault there be, it is usually uneradicabe. The
old man was doubtless mad--so are most of us
upon one side or another. There is not one
human being in this populous city to-day who
can be sure that his brains may not be be-
deviled to-morrow-not one, either, rolling in
wealth and health and all that makes life
worth having, who may not find Jobs expert
ence his own, and that, too, speedily. 1t seems
to US that intellectual alteration is just the
one thing against which we do not any
of MS, sufficiently provide. We are all too
arogantly strong in what we call our common
sense We arc all so pitful of the poor luna
tics who are locked UP, that we overlook our
chance of becoming one of those who are not
locked UP, and cannot be, according to any pos
sble statute. Yet there is such thing as
wisdom which a man may attain, If he has 1t
not Mr.. Carlyle in that tender essay Of his
upon Robert Burns says of him that the way
" of his life was not WISE" Whose is so
The moralists have made but poor work Of IL
in teaching us the arts of . well rounded and
successful mortal career. Are there no I'm
moralsts who would like to take up the work
of Instruction. If we cannot be preached can
we not at least be coaxed and wheedled into
q prudent management of our beingf
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y. aNf,nAa x.aAA at