The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1879-12-11
A RUSSIANS TERRIBLE SUICIDE.


Down Hiss Horrible Sensations In Differ.
ent Language.
A most extraordinary suicide has lust
taken place in the Russian town of
Jhitomir, under exceptionally fearful
circumstances The story is told by the
st. Petersburg Zeitung: "a few days
ago, well-dressed traveller arrived at the
Hotel de France, stating that he was MIR.
Joseph O., a colonial agent, and that
he wished to stay q short time in Jhito-
mir on business. A room on the second
hoOr Of the hotel was assigned to him,
and he spent two or three days in walk
ing around the streets, although the
weather was unusually wet and stormy.
On the fourth evening he retired to his
room and locked himself in. Next
morning he was called at his usual hour,
but returned no answer to the summons.
After a good deal Of futile knocking and
shouting, the hotel proprietor became
alarmed athis tenants protracted silence,
and caused the door Of the room to be
broken open. A terrible spectacle pre-
sented itself to the assembled household.
Mr.. O--'s body was lying en- the bare
bedstead, from which the mattress and
bed-clothes had been removed; one of
the sheets partly covered the legs of the
corpse, which was otherwise in a state Of
nudity, its left hand pressed tightly upon
the region of the heart, and its right
hand corvulsiYely clutching the hair.
The eyeswere wide open, fixed in CLASSY
death stare, and the features distorted
with agony. An oppressive odor, as of
scorched 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 APP
pearanCe on the scene of this horrible
tragedy, the corpse was turned upon it's
face, when the cause of death for the
first time became known to the terror
stricken spectators. A deep and broad
burn was exhibited in the middle of the
back, and the spine was completely car
BOMBED. Upon the floor, underneath
the bcdstead, were discovered the wicks,
embedded in a little blotch Of cold stear-
inc, of three candles, which had been
taken out of the candesticks and fixed
up on a planking upon a layer of melted
grease, and the flame Of these candles
Mr.. O. had laid upon the skeleton frame
work of his bedstead, and suffered his
spine to be slowly consumed until he
died. A manuscript placed upon table,
close to the bed, contained not only re-
sumo of the reasons which prompted
this unfortunate man to undergo self
inflicted martyrdom, but minute details
of the torturing process by which he had
chosen to destroy his life. 1t was writ
ten in four languages-German, Russian,
Polish and CzeChish-and commenced in
firm, bold handwriting, the last few
pages, however, being scarcely legible,
having evidently 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. Here
by, propose to solve an important
question-nameIy, are suicides in their
right senses, or are they victims of self
alteration? Thus the question is COM
monty put, but I 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 takes no interest in it, when
he cannot discover in the whole wido
world the least thing which awakens
sympathy in his breast. The question,
therefore, is not whether the suicide be
mad or sane, but whether or not he has
anything to hope for from life. / hope
for nothing in life, but my intellect is
perfectly clear. (In Russian.1 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 cow
ard, for he might have thrown away the
petroleum, and thus saved his life. Yet
his clothes were already on fire, and the
straw he was lying upon, was shoulder
ing; still he may have wished to escape
death, had 1T been feasible. Now, a
burning candle, to the fame of which
the backbone and spinal marrow are ex-
posed, must certainly make an end OF
fife that sort of death must be attended
with atrocious sufIerings, and the person
inficting such agony upon himself hay
ing no power to contend with but his
own proper will and pleasure, can at any
moment interrupt the. process. by the
slightest movement of the body. | will
submit myself to this torture. I'm
Russian Should ] not succeed in en-
during the pain, the question will be
settled, at least for the present, in the
sense that suicides are cowards But, If
my corpse be found exhibiting proof
that have obtained death by two
agencies--by burning candles, as minis
tering factors, and by my dominant viii,
which has not.blanched before excrueia-
ting torments--thatsswill be pr0of-posi-
tive that men may die OF their own free
choice, I.etdne begin.0 Here the writing
became irregular, and progressively more
and more illeefble. 81 arose from my
fiery couch amid Mdequs asnferings, but
Still not 30 terrible as / had anticipated
and fearcd. arise, but not,to save my
self. No life is IS obnoxious to me as
ever. BRIT I must send youth Czeclashl,
nv mother, my father. Last farewell;
NV last areinembrancd, my last 5senti-
nlNlt ttItF dG&ilGs4tG tGA IL FSAts SAAAtAsA}
also 0f those who are the uhwitting
caussAof this my drdadfnl death, In
wittinglve1foratfey knew not that their
love was inlisnensablesto my life. | die
without their affection, like a fish
desert there above, like here beneath,
like everything else I'm Polish.1
return to my strange, silently burning
bed, must put something under the
candles to raise them up little. Only
one thing annoys me, that one can not
die nobly and pleasantly the evil smell
of my own consuming body offends my
nostrils. In Czechish.) Motherl fatherI
forriye mel In GERMANY Perhaps I
should also set down that / forgive the
being who has caused my death. But
that would be lie. curse her; and il
me for a long while from putting an end
10 myself. { cannot do otherwise. 1t
Is So easy To follow the dead. But it
would be better were you to forget me.
Fryi II. l. ,.14 aF av1af arYa Ixrtnrr fs5a nv-