, 1889-12-19
Persistence Is One of the Char,
aoteristios.
THE CUUIOSlTlES OF SUICIDE.
Strange and Unaccountable Rea'
sons Assigned for Taking
Their Own Lives.
fChicagp Uorald,,

numbers, per year.
at sounds almost Incredible" said q
deputy coroner, "but the slightest trou-
bles often suffice to bring persons to the
point of self.destruotion. Some doctors
claim that only demented persons take
their own lives, but this Is denied. A
saloonkeeper on Blue Island avenue
killed himself, and left long letter to
his wife. In II he explained in a very
rational and logical manner why 1t was
best for him to leave this world. Sick
ly and suffering, unable to earn enough
to support my family, my death will be
relief and blessing to all love. That's
rs far as you are concerned. AS for me
the burden carry is heavy. Life has
been nothing but torment to me since
long ago. 1t is easy for me to part with
It, One moments suffering and l shall
have ceased to feel pain, worry and feai
ofthe future. My death will leave you
dear wife, with quite a large sum
enough to start anew and under better
auspices. Farewell end think kindly
of Inc. That's about the way 1t run,
Wasn't that a sound argument2 Mus,
that man when he wrote II, hve minutes
before death, not have ten possessed oi
his full faculties of reasoning1
In the case of poor seamstress on
Milwaukee avenue, near Noble street,
who asphyxiat herself with charcoal
and who left half dozen notes explain
ing the exact state of her feelings, say
ing, Now I'll soon be happy docs M
that case show she had her senses ana
her will power about her till the last2"
UNREAsoNBbE ONES.
$50 much for reasonable suicides"
said the reporter. "And now tor the
ones"
"Well, they're the majority, / think.
Old Louis koenig, UP on West Chicago
avenue, was perhaps the boss crank
know Of He had been suffering from
for quite while, but not
severely. He was out of employment,
it is true, but he had considerable prop
erty and Quite bit of ready cash. His
relations with his aged wife were pleas
ant. One day his wife had to go to the
store on the next corner. She fell to
chatting with the owner, as women will,
forgetting that she had promised her
husband to be back within five minutes
and then, remembering her husband,
hastily weut home. As she tried to
open the Kitchen door, something heavy
struck against the sash inside. She
forced her way in, though, and there
was her nd-dead-hanging from
q stout nail he had driven into the door
On the floor was a bit OF paper, chunk
of coal on it as IA weight, in which he
had said: i see you want to be rid OF
by That was all. He had become so
,iisgusted at ten minutes delay as to
drive him to death. Queer, wasn't h?'
"Ies, rather. Remember any cases
of great persistence on the part OF peo'
Pile who wanted To dicY
PERSISTENT ONE.
Eyes many. In fact, persistence Is a
feature of many suicides.
The most recent and prominent case of
this kind was that of a wealthy retired
on West Harrison street,
The man had no earthly reason what.
ever for committing suicide. The fact
that he had paid too high a price for
some real estate and that he had had to
sell it at a loss made him brood on this
fact during his hours of leisure every
day. His actual loss had been less than
500 and his remaining fortune was con-
and papers netting good interest, while
his expenses were greatly below his in
come and his personal tastes were very
simple. Still, there ne sat and sat day
after day, and far into the night, worry
ing himself to u shadow over the loss OF
that 500. Finally he got to believe that
real estate was going down in
this city, and that his ultimate
fate would be penury and starvation,
and then he shot himself. His aim was
sure enough. The bullet crashed into
his brain. His wife found him lying on
his bed on her return home. But the
wound was such one that she did not
guess its origin, and the unconscious
man woke TO life again-with the bullet
IN his head stuffed the ear where the
bullet entered with cotton, and told his
wife a plausible story about an accident.
She. poor soul, believed it, and nursed
him faithfully and tenderly. But
while she was out of the roon-sevcral
DAYS aitcr-the man rose from his bed,
goi his gun, and put a few more leaden
globu.es into himself, this time finish
ing the Job. At the autopsy the great
est astonishmeiit was shown by the
ljhy sicans at the fact that this man
with a bullet In his brain had talked,
eaten and slept like well person for
days, AMI that the probability was he
would have lived for many years 10
lome il he hadn't rcsorted to the revol-
YER second time.
GLARING INSTANCE.
"But oven that was not such q glaring
instance of persistence as that of young
girl / remember. She was but lS,
healthy, pretty, and with fair prospects
in life. She was native of Bremen,
Germany, and she had come heic to join
her sister, young woman who had re-
Gently become the wife Of well-to-do
.radcsman on Archer avenue. That
was the trouble. At home in Bremen
she had been used to life Of constant
and had thus acquired her rosy
cheeks and robust health and simple
tastes. At her sisters store there wasn't t
much to do, cxcopk now and then to
wait on a customer and assist bit in
the small household. Her spare time
ten hours n day-she filled out
by reading trashy literature. The girl
was OF rather romantic turn anyway.
and her poor little brain couldn't with
stand the constant assaults made upon
II by this class of reading. She began to
hunger for prince in. disguise herself,
and to watch and 10 wait for
him more eugcrly day by day.
but the prince didn't come.
Princes are not very plentiful on
Archer avenue. SO she began to de-
speir in mild and inoflensive sort Of
way. With girls secretiveness as to
the real state OF her heart she never told
her sister OF the real state of affairs. He
romcth not she said one day, and then
she went up to her little room, locked
herself in, took half dozen boxes Of
sulphur matches scraped of the phos-