The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-07-12
STARTLING SUICIDE.
SEVEN WAYS OUT OF THE
WORLD.
The Most deliberately Planned and
Executed Suicide Ever Known
Since Self Slaughter Was
Invented.
DEBUT IN TR AGEDY.

-
MIRROR ATTACHMENT, so THAT he MIGHT
s'eET THE FULL VALUE OF THE ENTER
TAINMENT" HIMSELF.
The centennial suicide is reported In the
Chicago Times as having occurred at the
Palmer House, and it took Chicago
chsmbermaid TO discover the corpse. At
about half after noon of yesterday a neat
chambermaid flourished her broom and
buster about the rooms that line the east
extension of the corridor on the grand
parlor floor OF the Palmer House. Her
head was probably full OF the glories OF
the departed Fourth, and having exhaus-
ted her stock of patriotism the day before,
pathos took its place, and INDUCING In
gloomy views of lie she scarcely hoped to
see another centennial day. In such rumi-
mating mood her attention was attracted
to the fact that the gas was blazing away
in the third psrlor east from the ladies'
grand saloon, as could be seen through the
glass Of the trsnsOm. She gave notice OF
the fact and soon man was sent
to see about it and presumably
to request the sleeping and 1t may
have been intoxicated occupant to
turn it out. But after continually
rappine and receiving no response the
messenger procured ladder and looked
sight met his gaze which made him shud-
der, for dangling from a rope so suspended
as to hold iL in the middle of the bathtub,
was the body OF a man evidently quite
dead. Assistance was called, the door
opened, and the scene of horror exposed
to view, and that terrible sight proved to
the sstonished behOlders that Chicago,
which has furnished so many wonderful
incidents To the history of the nation, had
in this tragic episode contributed the
prize centennial suiciJe to the annals
of death. Upon investigation the
corpse proved to be the body OF
Frederick Addison Jeffsry, presumably a
member of the irm OF Wyckoff 81 Jeffsry
general agents for the american plating
machine" of Peoria, Ill. Further dis
closures in reference to the melancholy
affair tend to show that the suicide Is one
of the most r. msrksble, ever on record,
both from the motive which prompted it.
the number of deadly agents employed,
their wonderfully ingenious arrangement,
and above all for the cool elaboration and
elaborate preparation which was apparent
in every
DETAIL OF TEE WORK OF sELF-DEsTRUO-
TON.
Some men have destroyed themselves
because of the infrmities of creeping age,
the reverses of misfortune, the sgonies Of
yemorse or the shadows of despair. This
man was young, good-looking, prosperous
in business and generally esteemed.
Cheerful and even jubilaDt in life. self
possessed and even buoysnt in death. He
was not so much tired of life as he was
completely intoxicated with bis belief in
the power and pleasures that come after
death; neither delirious nor despairiDg
he coolly and with a deliberstion that
is com DIE tely stonishing dwelt upon the
reasons for his death, and they appeared
SUFFICIENT to him; slowly and mesto iica ~,
during the space of an entire week, he
added one fatal agent to another, so that
his means of death should be too numer-
Gus and too surs to fail him. He selected
the city of Chicago as the place in wi ich
to die, because he liked IL better
than any other city in the Union.
He chose the Palmer House because he
said that he wanted palace to die in or
the next thing to it, and he carried the
tr,fiing details of his awful purpose so
clearly and infinitely before his mind
that he even preferred psrlor B to psrlor T,
because he had stopped in the former one
before, and was in any case determined to
be put into room containing bath en-
closure, as be knew full we'll that the
bath-tub was one OF the essentials counted
upon in the execution OF his fell purpose,
or, as he himself describes il,
This DEBUT IN TRAGEDY"
Ordinary mortsls. seduced into tasting
of the unknown joys or sufferings opened
out by an indulgence in enthusiasm, are apt
to dc pend upon one or at least two agents
of death TO accomplish their purpose, but
this young man successfully experimental
upon his unfortunate body in no less than
four ways separately, namely, those of
hanging, poison, shooting, throat
cutting, and would have INDUCED in a
ffth-stabblDg TO the heart with
q small dagger-hsd time permitted.
In addition to this he had saturated
all his clothing with alcohol, and had
placed Alphabetically saturated cotton on
some soft substance upon secured wires
running lenkthwsys of the bath-tub to
which he intended TO set fire, and thus rem
der his remains q charred and unrecog-
nizsbIe mass. To this extent, and In such
methodical manner did Frederick A.Jeffery
pre- pare to shuttle off the mortal coil which
to him was burden. Such was the elsbo-
rate machinery he arranged for making as
he himself expressed it, "his debut 10
tragedy" and through which be could dis
enthrsl his restless but indomitable spirit
from the human frame which prevented
him from
wINGING HIS FLIGHT
into those spheres, the mystery OF which
he evidently burned to unrsvel. The sit
ustion of the body, which is that of q
smooth faced, dark haired young man, of
medium height, and about thirty years OF
age, and the appearance of the room when
the occurrence was discovered, Is as fol-
lows: 1t must be borne In mind that the
A.fA De- n1f .fe<2
cess; 1t Is a portion of the room set off by q
carved wooden enclosure. Within
bis ia the bath tub and little
table. The deceased bad taken three
stats from the bed stead and
had carefully, as Is plsinly seen from the
ingenious knottiDg, bound them together
with several thicknesses of fine cord. He