The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-10-30
SUICIDE AS A FASHION.
Young Mobiles Apparently Suffering from
an Epidemic of Desperation.

Young Mobiles Apparently Suffering from
an Epidemic of Desperation.
The most remarkable news that has
OF late come by cable that concerning
the many suicides in Berlin of young
men of noble families. Day after day
the World has published dispatches
telling of the deaths of those who with
apparently the most brilliant prospects
before them, choose to emu their lives
in order to avoid either the shame of
exposed immortality or prospective
bankruptcy. Within the past month
there have been 40 less than three
suicides in the Prussian capital of men
high in the highest military positions.
The first was that of Count Won
Schleinitz, the son Of the Governor of
Sllesia, who had run through large
fortune in gambling at cards and on the
turf. He was the best gentleman rider
III Germany, and though he lost con-
siderable sums of money at the races,
be could have still retained large for
tune but his mania for cards. 4 few
weeks ago he found himself at his wits
ends for money. He was driven to such
straits that he had to borrow $50 from
a servant at his club. With this he
went to fashionable club On the Inter
den Linden, where, seating himself on
a divan in the public room, he put a
revolver to his>head and blew out his
brains. When his pockets were ex-
amined it was found that he had no
money whatever and that he owed
100000 marks to his aristocratic friends, B
which he. could not pay.
The next suicide in Berlin was that
of Baron Won Loeper, the hero of
several notorious affairs and a we'll
known man about town. He was An
ex-Lieutenant of Hussars, but had been
compelled to withdraw from the army
by reason of his debts and several mis-
conduct. he was a member of one of
the most aristocratic families of Ger
many. He could find no way out Of
his difficulties except suicide, and his
body was found hanging from the
limb of tree in the Oranienburger
Wald. He is said to have been driven
to suicide by losses at horse racing and
baccarat.
Next came the suicide of Count Won
Kleist, which resulted indirectly from
drunken spree. Filled with wine, he
attempted to reach his room at hotel
near the Unter den Linden with a
strange woman and was refused adj
mittance by the porter. The Count
thereupon few into passion; quarreiled
with the porter and threw him over
the baluster. The porter subsequently,
died and Count Won Kleist was ar
rested, and it was while he was await
ing trial that he determined to avoid
further scandal by taking his own life.
Count Won Kleist had in his early
youth the most brilliant prospects. His
great-grandfather was the great soldier
poet whose hand during the revolution
had held the sword and swept the Tyre
with equal skill, and who died with his
face to the foe in defense ofhis country.
His family belonged to the ancient
hereditary nobility of Pomerania. 1t
was rumored that he was at one time
engaged to an American heiress, but
the affair was broken off.
Another suicide was that of Count
Philip of Schaumburg, young man of
only twenty-five, a son of Prince Frede-
rick Wilhelm of Hanau, who on his
part was the fifth son in morganatic
marriage of the last Elector of Hesse
and Gertrude Falkenstein, afterwards
Princess of Hanau. Up to year ago
the Count belonged to Saxon regi-
ment of hussars, but he left the army
OH account of ill-health and went to
study in Munich. Three months ago
he returned to Berlin, where he made
the acquaintance of young chorus
girl at the Friedrich Wilhelmstadt
Theatre named Elise Helle and fell in
love with her to such a degree that he
wrote from Vienna a month before
his suicide that he could not live with
out her.
Count Schaumberg'soon returned to
Berlin and took up his residence in the
house of his lady loves mother. There
his relations with Fri. Helle seem to
have attracted the attention of the
nelghbors because of the numerous
qnarrels of the couple, he being ex-
ceedingly jealous. Finally, after
night Of scenes ofjealousy, when Fri
Helle had retired, the Count entered
her room and with the words, "You
wished to see me once MORE" he drew
revolver and shot himself through the
head. He left a letter in which he
asked his father to care for Fri. Helle
in the future,
The last case of suicide in Berlin high
life was that of Major Won Normann.
The officers sent a round robin to the
Major demanding that he should take
the alternative, either committing sui
eide within an hour or being brought
up in a police court. He chose the
former, taking poison, and his dead
body was found stiff and cold.
In what connection the other recent
suicides in Berlin can be classed it is
difficult to say. Not long ago a young
German-American lady, a student of
music, suddenly took her own life, and
two weeks ago Fri. Hook, well known
actress, committed suicide on account