Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-10-08
TERRIBLE SUICIDE IN RUSSIA.
How Despalrlng Lover Slowly Burned
Himself to Death--- -Cursing His Love
With His Last Breath.

A most extraordinary suicide has
just taken place in the Russian town
Of Jhitomir under exceptionally fear
ful circumstances. The story is, told
by the st. Petersburg Zeitung: "A
few days ago a well dressed traveller
arrived at the Hotel de France, stating
that he was Mr.. Joseph o., a colo
NAL agent, and that he wished to stay
short time in Jhitomir upon bust
ness. A room on the second floor of
the hotel was assigned to him and he
spent two or three days in walking
about the streets, although the wealth
er was unusually wet and stormy. On
the fourth evening he retired to his
room early and locked himself in.
Next morning he was called at his
usual hour, but returned no answer to
the summons. After good deal of
futile knocking and shouting the hotel
proprietor became alarmed at his ten
ants pfotracted silence, and caused
the door of the room to be broken
open. A terrible spectacle presented
itself to the assembled household.
Mr.. 0-s body was lying on the
bare bedstead, from which the mat
tress and bedclothes had been re-
moved one of the sheets partly COW
cred the legs of the corpse, which
was otherwise in state of nudity, its
left hand pressed tightly upon the
region of the heart, and its right hand
convulsively clutching the hair. The
eyes we're wide open, fixed in CLASSY
death stare, and the features distorted
with agony. An oppressive odor, as of
seorched fat, pervaded the room. No
wound was perceptible upon the body,
but the chest was transversely barred
in several places by dull red stripes.
AS soon as the police, accompanied by
the local medical officer, had made its
appearance on the scene of this hor-
rible tragedy, the corpse was turned
upon its face, when the cause of death
became for the first time apparent to
the terror stricken spectators. A
deep and broad burn was exhibited in
the middle of the back, and the spine
was found to be completely carbonized.
Upon the floor, underneath the bed
stead, were discovered the wicks,
embedded in little blotch of cold
stearine, Of three candles, which had
been taken cut of the candlesticks
and fixed up on a planking upon a
layer of melted grease, and the fame
of these candles Mr.. o. had laid
upon the skeleton framework of his
bedstead, and suffered his spine to be
slowly consumed until he died. A
manuscript, placed upon a table close
to the bed, contained not only a re-
sumo of the reasons which prompted
this unfortunate man to undergo self
inflicted martyrdom, but minute de-
tails of the tOrturing process by which
he had chosen to destroy his life. 1t
was written in four languages-Ger-
man, Russian, Polish and Czechish-
and commenced in a firm, bold hand
writing, the last few pages, however,
being scarcely legible, having evident
| ly been penned in dire agony.
The first paragraph, in German, ran
as follows =" thought it would
cease, but it ceases not. So be it.
then. Hereby | propose to solve an
important question-namely, are sui
cides in their right senses, or are they
the victims OF mental alteration
Thus the question is commonly put,
but | fancy that it does not touch the
real point at issue. A man makes up
his mind to put an end to his life
when he finds that he takes no inter
est in it (; when he cannot discover in
the whole wide world the least thing
which awakens sympathy in his breast.
The question, therefore, is not wheth-
er the suicide be mad or sane, but
whether or not'he have anything to
hope for from life. l hope for moth
ing in life, but my intellect is perfect
ly clear. (In Russian.) There is
still another question to solve. (In
Germany Are suicides towards
That lover who allowed himself to be
dragged to death by horse before
the eyes of his betrothed affords no
proof to the contrary. Perhaps he
would have cast himself loose from
the cords that bound him had it been
in his power to do so. That other
fellow, who burned himself to death
| in Odessa, was probably no coward,
for he might have thrown away the
petroleum lamp and thus saved his
life. Yet his clothes were already on
fire, and the straw he was lying upon
was smouldering; still he may have
wished to escape death, had it been
feasible. Now, a burning candle, to
the flame Of which the backbone and
spinal marrow are exposed, must Ger.
tainly make an end of life that sort
of death must be attended with
atrocious sufierings, ald the person
iuficting such agony upon himself
having no power to contend with but
his own proper will and pleasure, car
at any moment interrupt the process;
| by the slightest movement of hi,
body. | win submit myself to thii
torture (In Russian.) Should | moi
succeed in enduring the pain, tho
question will be settled, at least fol
the present, in the sense that suicide,
are towards. But if my corpse b,
found exhibiting proof that / have
obtained death by two agencies-b,
burning candles, as ministering fac
tors, and by my dominant will, which
has not blenched before excruciatin,
torments-that will be proof positiv,
/. IhnA man ,,,n,, Ia nf Ahnir nm, &c.