Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-29
A WOULD-BE SUICIDE,

A German. Wasted by Consumption and
Supping the Dregs of Poverty, Tries to
End His Misery with a Bullet in His
Stomach.
A strange case of shooting occurred in
st. Paul on Tuesday afternoon but it did
not come to light though till yesterday,
nearly twenty-four hours after it occurred
Officer Cunif was informed yesterday
noon that case of shooting had occurred
on Rice street. He Immediately pro-
ceeded to investigate the mat
ter when he learned that
| it happened out near where the
Manitoba road crosses Rice street. It was
pretty difficult even when he got out there
to find out much about it at first, owing
to the unwillingness of people IN that vi
| cin1ty to talk about it. 1t took a long time to
find any one who could or would tell him
in which shanty it occurred. Finally the
officer found a saloon kept by big fellow.
When this man was inquired of he did not
know anything about it, but on
| being questioned he admitted that some
fellow out back of the saloon did little
shooting on himself, but it didn't amount
to much.
WHERE IT WAS DONE.
Following the direction indicated by the
mans thumb as the same was carelessly
thrown over his right shoulder the officer
went out in the rear of the saloon, where he
found a shanty, or small house, rickety in
appearance, with broken windows and
loosely hanging doors. 1t did not look as
ha hoh
ton of human beings, but more like an
abandoned pig sty. AS it was the only
thing in the shape of a building in the
vicinity Officer Cunif approached it and
pushed open what appeared to have been
door once. As he did so such a stencil
came out as to cause him to stop and hest
tate about going in. He peered in and
there saw strange looking woman who
dren, the eldest not over six
years OF age lying around the
floor in their rags and covered
with dirt. On what passed for a bed, but
which was really an old pile of filthy straw
and rags laid upon rickety old bedstead,
was man about thirty-ive years of age.
He was wasted away to a skeleton. Con-
sumption, trouble, poverty, poor food and
had done their work upon this semblance
of a man, and had left him almost nothing
but a skeleton, a collection of bones held
together by a few old rags, so
rotted and decayed that they could
hold together but short time
longer. The floor of the house was COW
cred with filth, the children were swarm
ing with lice and the rotten straw and
ticking upon which the man lay and
which was called bed, was also swarming
with the same kind of Egyptian snipe.
This is faint description of the interior
of the place where the shooting occurred.
The stencil was awful, and how any one
could exist there is the mystery. They did
not exist, but all within the howell were slow
ly going through the process of gradually
and surely wearing away, dying by inches.
The woman was pale, thin, emaciated and
sickly, and the children were sickly and
weak, dirty, ragged and squalid.
WHAT THE MAN SAID.
Officer Cuniff attempted to talk with
the man, but found that he was a German
and could not either talk or understand
English. He therefore got German from
outside to go in and translate. In this
way he learned that the mans
name was Tobias Rossey, a Ger
man by birth, and thirty-five
years of age. He admitted that
he had shot himself, but said he had thrown
away the revolver. The officer knew bet
ter, and proceeded to hunt and found it, a
very small one, old-fashioned twenty two
caliber instrument under his hip. This
was taken possession of and delivered to
the chief of police. All the barrels were
loaded except one. 1t was found that he
had shot himself through the stomach and
below the heart on the left side of the body.
WHY BE DID IT.
When questioned as to the cause of the
shooting the unfortunate man upon whom
tie burdens of life fell so thick and fast,
replied that he was unable to work, his
wife was out of her head and he had four
small children. This condition of affairs
was all around him. He said the want and
restitution of his family, his little chill
dren in their dirt and filth day after day,
and his wife out of her mind, and all starv-
ing. He could not stand it any longer, and
so shot himself to end his misery.
HE Is TO BE TAKEN CARE OF.
DR.. Wheaton was notified of the shoot
ing and went out to the place where the man
is and after examining and providing for
his injuries arranged for taking him out to
the hospital this morning. 1t was but a
short time ago the doctor says that he had
the man out to the hospital. The wife has
been in the insane hospital.