Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-06-09
WANTED TO DIE,
AND CANE MIGHTY NEAR HAVING HER
WISH GRAfIFIBD.
Clara Belmont Takes Two Ounces Of Laudanum,
and Comes Very Close to Going Over
10 the Majority.

About hslf.past two o'clock yesterday
morning report was hurriedly spread
through the Second ward that one of the
inmates Of the nest of houses Of ill-fame
which cluster around the intersection Of
Tenth and Chapline streets, ha' died
very suddenly, under somewhat mys-
ferrous circumstances; and two physicians
and three officers hurried to the locality.
The trouble was soon located at No. 1908
Chapline street, in the house in which
Madame Clara Belmont has been recently
installed by gentleman with military
prefix to his name, and thither the pre-
servers Of life and of the public peace hur-
ried. Entering the house, Miss Clara her.
self was found to be the victim, but al
though not dead, she was perilously close
to the confines of the other world.
While the physicisns set themselves to
work to save the life of the woman, which at
the outset appeared to be very unpromis-
ingjob, enquiries were made as to how che
came to be in the fix she was, with the re-
suit of unearthing the following facts:
Inmates Of the house stated that for the
past week the woman had been upon pro-
tracted debauch with q well known young
man, whose home is not on the east side of
the river, and that she had retired about
one o'clock with her system well soaked
with liquor, q condition she had not var
led from for several days. 1t is supposed
she had grown tired of the racket and of
life at the same time, and rising from her
bed, without disturbing another female
who was sleeping with her, she took
two ounce bottle of lsudanum from wash
stand near by and deliberately drank off
the contents. There had been proba-
bly, teaspoonful of the laudanum taken
from the bottle before che applied it to her
lips, so the girl got at least an ounce and
three-quarters of the drug. She must have
fell into comatose condition almost i'm
mediately upon retiring to the bed, and
half an hour or so later her friend, waking,
found her unconscious, and breathing in
deep and labored gasps. She at once
aroused the house, and messengers were
despatched for doctors and bluecoats.
The doctors set to work with will, but
despite the application of every known
remedy, which term does not irclnde, it
may be said, the word ''opium," used in
this connection by last evenings paper,
little progress was made towards reviviDg
the would-be suicide, and shortly after four
o'clock the physicians came to the con-
clusion that their efforts had been vain.
As last chance, however, they resorted to
the expedient of forcing air into the I'M
conscious girls lungs, and then torcibly
expelling it, and after time the breathing
thus stimulated gave way to natural il
flstion of the lungs, and little by little life
came back. 1t was eight o'clock, however,
before the girl could speak with any CO.
herency, and all during the morning she
was more or less under the influence of the
drug she had taken and the antidotes adj
ministered by the physicians.
In the afternoon she was making fayora-
BILE progress, and expressed sorrow for
what she had done. Last evening she had
still further improved.
The would-be suicide is about twenty
one years of age, and girl of progresses
ing appearance She used to be located in
East Wheeling, but since then has been in
Pittsburgh. She is an inyeterate smoker
of cigarettes, and has consumed an enor-
nous quantity of tobacco in this form.