The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-16
WHY KITTY DID NOT KILL HER
SELF.


Miss Kitty Gibson, aged l9, eyes blue,
complexion peachy, health perfect, had
made mp her mind to die.
This decision had been reached after
much deep reflection, some sharp twinges
of regret, and a fierce conflict with con-
science nevertheless, it had been
reached with unalterable firmness. Per-
haps a physiognomist would have de-
clared that firmness was not a quality
of mind possessed by Miss Kitty Gibson,
and by so declaring he would have
proved simply the absurdity of his own
science. What though her chin vas not
square and angular, after the manner OF
Joan of Arc's-did that indicate q lack Of
courage, self-reliance, or determination
May not blue eyes sometimes look out
from as fathomless depths as black
And may not fixed resolution form it.
self il the breast Of a pretty, peachy-
checked girl of 10 as well as in the ma
turer bosoms of aquiline-nosed maidens
Thus would Kitty Gibson have reasoned
with any physiognomist who might have
intruded his obnoxious arguments upon
her, as she sat, on a certain winters day,
gazing ont of the kitchen window.
The question OF a speedy death had
been settled beyond all quibble or doubt,
and il remained now only ID Nis young
lady of suicidal proclivities h determine
what means she should employ to con-
summate her design. A pistol would be
quick and effective, bilt there wasn't a
pistol in the house. Poison, particularly
strychnine, presented itself to her mind
as a Mecca for al death-coveting maid
ems but there was the difficulty of pro-
curing the drug of reaching the Mecca.
What would Hiram Grswold think If she
were to 60 to the village store and ask
him for an onace Of strychnine And
cwould one ounce be enough9 She might
hang herself in the barn, but that was
more properly masculine method of
self-destruction. She might cut her
throat with Uncle Randolph's razor, but
for lingering recollection of the diff
Guilty she had experienced in sharpening
lead-pencils with that venerable instru-
ment. Besides, such a plan would dis
figure her dreadfully, and she desired,
above all things, to be a neat and comely-
looking corpse. There was vet another
way open to her, and that was the river.
This impressed her more favorably than
either pistol or poison, rope or razor.
Even such sensible heroines as those
who figure in George Elot's novels were
given to watery graves, and drowning
seemed at once the simplest, the most
agreeable, and the most romantic method
Of putting an end to her burdensOme ex-
istence. The river il should be--the
broad, swift Connecticut, which flowed
within half mile of Uncle Randolph's
house, and which seemed at the precise
moment, to Uncle Randolph's pretty
niece, designed by Providence to afford
her a moist and peaceful exit from this
dry and warning world. She would drown
herself Just as soon as the ice melted.
And. this weighty question having been
decided, Miss Kitty Gibson rose mp from
her seat, filled the tea-kettle with water,
and replenished the fire with a stick of
wood.
Except they be insane, girls of 10,
with comfortable homes and good d.
eestions, do not make up their minds to
drown themselves without cause. 1 will
not say without sufficient cause. since
that might plunge me into defense of
suicide under possible conditions line
a argument which no Christian story
seller would care to follow. Kitty Glib
son was not insane but she believed that
circumstances rendered excusable the
tan she was about TO take, that is. n
step into the Connecticut river. Called
upon 10 analyze and explain these cir
cumstances, she would have brought
forth as the result Of her seli-searchinQ.
first. love unreciprocated next, pride
deeply wounded and last heart
which she believed to be broken 80
hopeleesly that not even the magic Of
times cement could mend IL A month
before, Kitty Gibson was the hnppiest.
ae well as the prettiest. girl in the State
a Connecticut nt least that Is what
eyeiyoody who knew her said, and no
doubt that il what Kitty herself thought,
although she did not, Of course, acllnowl-
edge the fact 70 others. A month be-
fore and she was counting the days until