Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-27
SUICIDE NOW THE FAD.
Four Army Officers in Berlin End Their
Disreputable Careers.
Gne Was Under Indictment for Murder-Baron
Normanns suicide and the Causes
That Led to It

iCopyriG ted 1890, by the United Press.
Special Correspondence to the Gazette.
BERLIN, Oct. 6.-During the last fort
night no less than four noblemen, all OF
them officers in the army and occupying
very prominent positions in both the So
cinl aud the sporting world of the city,
have committed suicide under peculiarly
tragic aud dramatic circumstances. The
first OF the FIVE is Count Kleist of the
Garde du Corps or Imperial Body Guard,
who was confined IN the great Moaoit
prison Mt the time, under indictment lot
murder. The second was Count Won
Schlriutz son Of the governor Of Silesia
and nephew of the famous Countess
Schlefuty. whom Prince Bismarck always
rerared as his most dangerous adver-
Eorv The third was Count
schgumburg, grandson of the
lust reigning sovereign Of Hesse
CassrI urrvious 20 its absorption by Prus-
STA in 1866; the fourth was Baron Won
Norman, the principal of the school OF
officers and commandant of the imperial
palace guard, and the nth, Baron Oscar
Won Loeber, a captain OF the Second reg
iment Of the Fusilier Guards. Curiously
enough they were all i've on terms OF in
tInHcv with one another, and after hav-
ing been associated during their lifetime
in many gay bout and frolic, it IS, to
say the least, strange that they all should
be united In violent death by their own
hands, the causes of the tragedies being,
however. different in each case.
Count Kleist, who is descendant OF
the famous PrusSan general of that
name, and the chief OF his ancient fam
ilg. was young man
OF THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE TEMPER,
n defect which had during the past five
or six years brought him into frequent
conflict with the authorities. Three
wears ago he was condemned by q court
martial to four months arrest in the
military prison of MadeburG for striking
with his drawn sword and dangerously
woundiug his soldier servant. Bare six
mouths have elapsed since he was SEN
fenced here by one of the police courts TO
Il fine OF 800 marks for the gross treat
lnent Of the chief cashier of the principal
bank of this city. The latter, who is
jew in the last stages of consumption,
and who moreover had lost one of his
legs,
WAS GAsHED, POUNDED AND KICKED
into insensiDility by Count Kleist and two
gallant companions for having plant
lively protested when walking three
abreast along the Mohrenstrasse, they
had pushed him aside in such brutal
way Us TO cause him TO stumble and fall
in the gutter.
About three weeks ago he got again
INTO trouble for having thrown hotel
keeper named Albers over the baunlsiers
of the staircase on to the stone paved
floor below, after having punched and
ions
This outburst of wrath was called forth
10y the unfortunate mans attempt to
prevent tire count from making his way
upstairs 10 the room of q female friend
whom he had brutallY thrashed on the
occasion OF his last visit. The
injuries inflicted by the count
upon the hotel keeper, whose
establishment is on the ''Unter den Lin
deu'' avenue were OF such serious na-
ture that he had to be conveyed to the
hospital without delay, where his tract
ured skull was trepanued and his left leg
amputGted. Count Kleist, although ar
rested at the time of the assault, had
been set free a few hours afterwards So
great, however, was the popular indlg-
nation created by the publication OF the
affair that the emperor himself gave
orders for his re-arrest. Four days later
ALBERS DIED AT THE HOSPITAL,
from the effects of the Ill treatment 10
which he had been subjected. On be-
coming aware of this, the powerful rela-
sives of the count exerted all their iu-
fluence TO get the Young man transferred
from the jail to luuatlo asylum at Pan
kow, SO as to be in u position 80 escape
from any legal consequences OF his crime
on the plea of insanity. The emperor,
thing, and decided that the count should
be held responsible for his offence.
Moreover, IN view of the young officers
past record of evil doing, he ordered that
his name should be struck of the army
list. Count Kleist was made aware OF
this at the same time as of the fact that
he had been indicted not for the man
slaughter, but for the murder of the hotel
keeper Realizing the critical nature of
his case he determined to commit sui
eide rather than face the consequences,
and accordingly hung himself by towel
10 the bars of his cell ia the Moabit
prison, where he was only discovered
after every spark OF life had fled.
1t is possible that the end of Count
Kleist was FASTENED by the receipt of a
letter q few hours before his death which
had been discovered bearing his address
among tho papers OF his most intimate
friend and boon companion. Count Won
Schaumburg, i
WHO HAD BLOWN HIS BRAINS OUT
two days previously. Young Count
Schaumburg was but twenty three years
of age, and one of the most popular and
good looking of the young mon about
town. He was q son of Prince Phillip |
OF Hanau, who was himself the youngest
son OF the last elector of Hssse Cassel. !
The only possible motive assigned for |
his suicide is q quarrel which he had |
had few hours before with his belle |
annie, an exquisitely beautiful girl |
who had formerly figured in the ballet |
at the Frederick Wilhelm theater. He |
shot himself in her presence, and |
among the papers which he left were |
found bitter complaints concerning her |
alleged uufaithfulness. The almost sim |
infamous death of his friend and crony, |
Count Won Schlenitz, who shot himself |
through the heart at hotel on "Unter |
den Linden was due TO the fact that |
the latter had reached the end of his |
financial tether. A considerable older |
-, he,