The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-06-15
DYING MADE EASY.
The Remarkable Reveries Of a
Scientist
St. Paul Has a Professor" Who Proposes
to Elaborate the Art of Easily Shutting
OF This Mortal CoiI-Subtle Poi
sons the Vehicle.
Ist. Paul Pioneer-Press.l


The professor is a crank No one doubtS
it. His best friends, who have known him
for years, gravely shake their heads, when
ever he breaches one of his hobbies, and,
turning away, mUrmur: at is only one
of his hobbies" The professor-genial,
gray-haired old man-lives somewhere be-
tween the writer's desk and St. Anthony
hill, in a home noted for its coziness. On
the second floor, in the rear of the build
ing, is a well-equipped laboratory; and
here, one night last week, the writer sat
and pulled white clouds skyward, while his
host, sitting opposite, with his eyes bent on
the fire, told of his latest hobby. He said:
''My theory is that men Will, as long as
life is a burden, and grief, sin, crime
and toll Cypress them, seek to end their
existence, either ina temporary fit of mad
ness or with deliberate prenne ditatiOn.
Throwing aside the moral question involved
in taking your own life, my design is TO fur
nish men with easy methods of dying-to
provide them with that which will end life
more quickly than the sun ever slipped dew
from a flower. How to do this bothered
me for long while, till deep study into
the poisons of the East Indians-those sub
tie substances, liquid or solid, whose infu
sion into the blood produces, according to
light, or as slow and lingering as consump-
ton, with either pain or ease, as you care
to make it. Here is a ring-a simple ruby
with foil behind the stone. That foil is
hollow, and in it the juice of Sarah Hugud;
inside the band of the ring is a steel spring
needle pointed, that point cA!stantly
wet with the poison. Put the ring on but
don't bend your finger. Ii You do that the
needle flies out, pierces your skin ever 50
lightly, only touching the blood-and, my
dear sir, you are dead in fifteen minutes.
Now, there is an easy way to kill yourself,
removing all necessity of throwing your
self from the Hotel Ryan and making a
hideouS muss on the pavement.
Here is a compound OF onion and the
betal root. I'll use it on cat to show you
its startling effects. Pussy comes to my
arms confidingly. Now watch me. l open
her mouth so, and let one drop of the
liquid fall. See. her eyes dilate and her
limbs straighten out. She is dead already.
Su ely, suicide would be easy with that.
See this Neapolitan dagger, that may have
belonged to the Borgia. One scratch with
that on your throat and sympathizing
friends weep over your cold clay in less
than an hour. A strong and long inhala-
ton of chlorofOrm will end your existence
quickly. The use of charcoal fumes [ de-
test. The smell is very disagreeable to
the living, and then your struggles while
dying are apt to be horrible. This vial
contains laudanum and an Italian drug.
Its effect on the system is to prolong the
act of dying for hours, to fill your ears
with sounds of sweet music, to bring
before your eyes beautiful colors,
and forms of exquisite grace. Under
the influence of that poison you will cross
the River Lethe without one pain or regret.
You will think only that the world beyond
is the paradise of Mohammed. A few
grains of arsenic and sugar of lead, thor
oughly saturated with alcohol, makes a
deadlier poison than perhaps modern chem
lists have ever discovered. 1t will kill in a
half hour. So l might enumerate other
poisons; but time flies, and you have little
to spare. You understand, though, that
my plan is to furnish wOuld-be suicides
with instruments of death that act quickly
and leave the body after death unmarked
undisfigured. This blowing your brains
out, or falling off of monuments, or thr
ing yourself under trains, is indecent and
shocking. 1t sickens all refined people.
Why not give the self-slayers subtle poi
sons, then, that end life-snap the silver
Oord-as quietly, with as little disturbance
and pain, as a child passes from the activ-
| ity of day to the sleep and peace of night?