The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-10-29
A PHILOSOPHER Of Suicide.

Russia has not been of late very de-
lightful country to live in, but the
method of quitting it described in a late
number of the St. Petersburg Zeitung
must provoke nearly as much astonish-
ment as horror.
The story told is that of q suicide.
He resolved to kill himself, and to do it
in manner absolutely unique; and, in
fairness it must be owned that he was
successful. Some years ago a man in
one of our Western States had a some
what similar idea. Hemade for himself
a kind of amateur guillotine. An axe,
heavily loaded, was fixed in groove
above and block was nicely adjusted
below. The axe was held in place by a
cord. and the cord was passed through
pulley and conducted downward. A
candle was then so arranged that when
it's flame had burned down to certain;
point it would. consume, and so release,
the cord. The inventor of this ingen-
ious machine having seen it in thorough
working order, bolted his door, swal-
Low, ed large tumbler of whiskeS, fas-
tened himself down in the precise spot
required for the purpose and was decap-
itated with great neatness at the ap-
pointed time.
We have no intent to make q pleas
antry of 50 CHASTITY theme, but it must
be owned that there was certain gro-
tesqueness about this proceeding at
which it is hard not to smile. The
same is true of the Russian case. This
unhappy man determined not to cut his
heal off, but to roast himself to death.
Nothing would content him but to do
this in way that would insure the most
excruciating tortures. But he also de-
sired that the world should be thor
oughly made aware Of the fact. If he
were simply found roasted or boiled the
presumption might be that it was acci-
dental or that he was insane, or that he
had taken narcotics or an@sthetics by
way of dulling the pain or becoming IN,
sensible to it. He had perhaps heard
of the Western man whose case we have
described and he had certainly made n
profound study of suicide. Now, there
was good reason to believe that the
Western man, before tying himself
under the axe, had got extremely
drunk; and the Russian was resolved
that no odium of this kind should attach
to his memory. Hence, after arranging
and subjecting himself to his apparatus
he wrote memoranda in four different
languages, explaining his purpose and
the circumstances of its consummation.
He first fixed line of candles to a
board, set the board at a suitable dis
tance under his couch, and then lay on
his back on the frame or skeleton of his
bedstead in such way that the candles
roasted his back, or, according to the
Zestung, carbonized his backbone" ="
He was found naked and dead, and his
manuscripts in the four tongues were
close by him. These were in German,
Russian, Polish and Czschish. He was
anxious to show in dying that he was
not a coward. Hence his selection of a
mode Of death that, in his own words,
should assure "the most atrocious suf-
ferings." A woman, as usual, was ut
the bottom of his troubles, and he liter
ally died cursing her. "Beshe accursed
with my last breath rare the concluding
words of the message the poor wretch
left behind for the pity and wonder OF
his fellow beings, and doubtless for the
grief and remorse of one Of them.-Neu
York Evening Post.