The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-06-16

SUICIDE AT DAVIDSON COLLEGE,
Information was received In the city
Yesterday evening that Mr. B. A. With
ers, a citizen of Davidson College, com-
mitted suicide yesterday morning about
10 0 clock, by shooting himself through
the head. No cause, except poor health,
low spirits and an unhealed wound re
ceived during the war, is assigned for
his selt-destructlon, though 1T Is stated
that several letters were found on his
person, some to individuals and one
addressed to the citizens of the TOW n,
which may reveal the motive. These
letters had not been examined at the
time the news sent to Charlotte, hence
their contents are mere matters OF con
lecture. The deceased lost an arm In
the Confederate service, and had never
recovered from the effect of the wound,
which may have been the cause of sui
eide.
Mr.. Withers was well-known through
out the county, and his rash act will be
heard Of with regret by his many friends.
He leaves a young widow, but no chill
dren. Charlotte Observer.
1t is estimated that more than one
thousand persons have committed SUI
eide in this country during the past ten
years. No single issue of the New York
papers for several months has been
without its ease of elf-destruction.
Many of them exhibit great originality.
A joke is an odd legacy for a %suicile
to leave. A musician of Buffalo, named
Chas Kircher, before hanging himself
in a.garret, pasted into his hat a card sta
ting that the heat was too much for
him and he was going to a cooler coun
try.
Chas. Kerms for the past five months,
and up to early last week, was employ
ed as a machinist in the Minneapolis Il
ST. Louis shops, near Western n
He was one of the most skilled workmen
in the shops, and received the highest
rate of wages paid, 50 50 per day, but
was addicted to drink and to occasional
sprees, when he did not report for duty.
He quit work about a week ago, and
has since been drinking heavily.
On Tuesday, however, he made APP
plication for permission to 60 to work,
and was refused by the foreman and scot
to Mr.. Downey, the master mechanic.
He was told that drinking would not be
permitted by employees In the shops.
During the afternoon purchased or Dor
rowed a single barreled shotgun, pass
ed through the groves in Oak Lake ad-
dition down on to Border avenue, front
ing on the little lake. Several parties
saw him carrying a gun and thought
him hunting, a belief which was EN-
phasized by his stopping to shoot a
bird. kerms seem to have seated him
self on the bank, written in a memo
randum book the notes below given, to
have procured a piece of rope by cut
ting loose a COW tethered near by, and
then, by tying foot and trigger together,
discharged the gun, first having placed
the muzzle of the gun in his mouth.
The charge must have been an uncom-
monty large one, for the head of the
suicide was literally blown off and par
ticles of it scattered in every direction.
The sight presented was indeed a CHASTITY
one, nothing remaining which even bore
a semblance to a head. The chin was
picked up some twenty feet away, and
the tongue and othel parts Of the
head even greater distance in as many
different directions as there were pieces.
w. p. Van Norman and j. II. S~prague,
who were in the vicinity at the time
heard the discharge of the gun and saw
the body apparently thrown into the
air and fall upon the embankment
When the body was reached the gun
and foot we're still tied together by
the large rope, bungingiy but effective
ly tied.