The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-07-14
DETERMINED TO DIE.


Remarkabie Case OF Suicide mt the
l1inH Palmer House, Ohfcaso. 'D D.'0'
m9Il ilaUqTFrom the mssr-Ocesn1 blrio ...o.
q Fre5 A. Jeffery, a young man OF ~
years, who belonged in SYRACUSE, NJ T.,
arrived at the Palmer House ON Monday
afternoon July 3. and securing room,
paid his bill up to the 9th inst. before
breakfast, obtsining q receipt for the
money. Tuesday lie partook of his meals
after the manner of the other guests, and
several times inquired at the Office for
letters. He was last seen alive immedi-
ately after supper Tuesday night. 81
The chambermaid employed on the
parlor floor of the hotel tried the door
of the room that had been engaged by
Jeffery several times during Wednes-
day forenoon, but always found it locked.
She at first paid no attention to this, re-
garding it as nothing unusual, especially
on the morning after night that had
been devoted by 30 many persons to
celebrating the nations hundredth ami
versary. About IL 80 o'clock, however,
she noticed that the gas was burning in
the apartment, and reported the fact at
the office. An examination of the door
proved that the key was on the inside,
and, several attempts to turn it proving
futile, and repeated knockings eliciting
no response, a boy was assisted through
the transom. The lad, on descending,
disco vered that the bed bore no signs
of being occupied during the night pre-
vious, and his first thought was that the
room was entirely vacant. A glance in
the bathroom opposite the bed showed
this impression to be false, and revealed
a sight that he will probably bear in re-
membrance until his dying day. Sus-
pended by heavy cord Immediately
over the bath-basin, his feet dangling
in horrible mixture of blood,
water, and dirt that it contained,
was the CHASTITY corpse of young
Jeffrey. There was deep, wide
cash extending almost across his throat,
into which the cord had penetrated /; his
mouth was distended as if by terrible
in his left breast. He was attired in an
old pair of pants and striped linen
coat, from which one sleeve had been
ripped off. These garments were be-
spsttered with blood, and the walls and
floor of the bathroom also exhibited
crimson stains, IA If ferocious ARRAY
had occurred there. Swinging by cords
and dangling around the body were a
small one-barreled pistol, a razor, and
an empty tumbler, and hanging on the
wall directly opposite the face Of the
suicide was small looking glass, in
which the young man may have gazed,
observing his own face while enduring
awful agonies. Investigations made by
persons who were admitted by the boy,
and afterward by the Coroner, showed
that Jeffery had hung himself, and sus-
pended his two weapons of death and
the tumbler from a gallows consisting of
several stats from the bed, bound tightly
together by cords, and fastened be-
tween one end of the bath. room and the
wall of the bedroom.
1t is the supposition of the proprietor
of the hotel that Jeffrey commenced
preparations for the destruction of his
life early Tuesday evening. He prob
ably purchased dose Of poison of some
kind at drug store and mixed it up
with water in the tumbler, arranged his
! gallows and suspended the poisonous
mixture, the loaded pistol, and razor.
Having changed his clothes, packed his
trunks, written the letters, and perhaps
partaken of some whisky to strengthen
his courage-there were two half pint
liquor bottles also in the bath-room-he
fastened the cord about his neck Sc
curely, and stood on the edge of the
basin while he drank the poison, shot
himself, and cut the cash in his neck,
then hanging himself while the blood
was pouring from his wounds.