The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-27
PECULIAR SUICIDES.
COURAGE NOT REQUIRED FOR
SELF-DESTRUCTiON.

SELF-D DESTRUCTION.
Novel Methods Employed in Commit
ting Hari Kari by Disappointed
Seekers After Wealth and Position.
Suicide Not Disease.
In a talk had few days ago with a
gentleman who is ''well up" on the subject
| Of suicide, who has made it life study
almost, says a reporter of the New York
Herald. he impaired to me some facts that
were startling. The conversation had
turned on the recent deaths by suicide Of
Balmacsdn and Boulapger. Said the gentle
man:
There are many who say that none but
towards commit suicide, while others insist
that it requires nerve and bravery to sud
denly terminate ones own existence and
enter into a future state that is paradoxical
es to its being. Some men who commit
suicide are brave; others are towards and
do not dare to face misfortune. think they
are about evenly divided. IL is disease in
many instances"
A work jevoted for the most part to sta
ttstics on suicide was at hand, and it sho wed
| many interesting facts concerning the SUBJ
| jew A4uOA ClAlsAucAdtiObs 1EOtu IL LILO ldCt
was Cleaned that the United States is con-
sidered an AL country in which to shuttle Off
the mortal coil Here the ratio is l to every
l,oO0 inhabitants, while in gay Paris it is l
to each 2.700, and in smoky London and
| chilly st. Petersburg TO eacn 81. 900 of pop
ulatton. In all Russia, however, the ratio
IS as to 81. 246; in Sweden, l to 92,375; in
Saxony. l to s, 445.
In 1.-The winter Of our discomfort" there
are decidedly more suicides than in the sum-
mer time, when majority Of them occur in
the morning Women appear to love life
more than men, for fonr men commit sui
eide where one woman takes her own life.
| and the ratio is much smaller in married life
than in wjdowhood. The early part of the
week claims more suicides than the latter
part, and the early part of the month more
than the waning.
| OVER NIAGARA FALLS.
| In any one particular part of the United
| States Niagara Fall has the call, and there
| is no doubt that many "disappearances"
| lind laat resting place at this suicide sug-
| costing resort. Suicides are so COMPARE
| lively common nowadays that the sub ect
would not be worthy Of extended comment
were it not for the fact that the means used
to assure the desired result have in a num-
| Der or cases been SO remarkable. The pis-
tol, poison and the rope are generally used
in solving the great problem, and these are
! so frequently used by the man or woman
| tired of life that unless there is some romance
connected with the suicide, or unless he or
she may have been distinguished person,
very little space is vouchsafed the story in
the daily newspapers. Here are few of
the remarkable ones which have caused ex-
citement during the past score OF years or
SO, and which were remarkable for the ex>
ceptional reasons above referred to.
Twenty years ago there was probably no
man better known among gentlemen
drivers" than mort" Tunison, whose famed
hostelry was on the old Coney Island road.
MORT was known from Coney Island to
Canada as jolly host and good fellow. His
| hotel was the stopping place, and mort"
grew wealthy. Suddenly the park commits
sioners determined to construct a new 100
| foot boulevard about quarter of a mile
west Of the Coney Island road. "Mort"
kicked. The commissioners urged him to
move his hotel to a new site on the proposed
boulevard, but he wouldn't have it. He
said that his place would draw the crowds,
boulevard or no boulevard. The new park
way soon became a fact, and new hotels
gprang up all along its line. The old Coney
Island road became deserted. One by one
''Mort'sn old customers left him, as the new
road was beauty and was just built for
| trotters.
snort" had plenty of opportunity to get
| IA WIG SWlLus Uub ue was COuUf6Ey dUu
| wouldn't take advantage Of IL. One fine
morning Mort" didn't appear at breakfast
as had been his won't Investigation proved
that he would never appear at breakfast in
| this world again. During the night or in
the early morning hours he had committed
| suicide. His old friends had left him, his
famed hostelry had become desolate and life
had become a burden to him.
| Next door to Tunisons was another ia
nous road house. "Henn Virgins was the
proprietor. The houre was more a resort
| for families than was morris" and it was
known as a Temperance house, although
| all kinds of liquors were dispensed there.
| Virgins didn't do one>half the business
that snort" did, but still he gathered nice
little income from his hotel. When the
| boulevard was completed, Virgins trade
also fell off. That need not have affected
him. however, for he was well fixed, )" and
was one of the heirs to the Howard estate
| In east New York, now the Twenty sixth
ward of Brooklyn. in any event, shortly
after Mort" Tunisons untimely end, "Hen"
| Virgins also decided that he had had
enough of life, and he terminated his exis-
| tence.
Thus was the boulevard, now known as
| Ocean Parkway, and which extends from
the southwestern entrance to Prospect park
to Coney Island. tho cause OF the death Of
two noted road house bonifaces.
| CORNELIUS vANDERBrLT's DEATH.
| The suicide of Cornelius j. Vanderbilt
was also an execution to the rule because of
the fact that his name was world-known.
| He was a son of Commodore Vanderbilt.
| He had become spendthrift aud gambler,
and in March, 1882, he shot himself through
| the head in his room in the Glenham hotel
! In this city. Financial troubles were said
to have been the cause of the deed. Several
| times Commodore Vanderbilt had been
called upon to pay bis sons debts, and he
| finally became tired OF 30 doing. When the
commodore died he left young Cornell" the
| interest of $500, 000. cornell" also received
large sum to withdraw from the contest
of the commodores will. These amounts be
coon squandered, and be died almost penni-
| less.
Another case CT interest at the time OF it's
occurrence was that Of Nine. Restell, a
| malpractitioner, who was one Of the wealth.
lest women in the country. her wealth
| having been accumulated in her vile prac-
tice. She owned and occupied pelatial
mansion on Fifth avenue. One morning
she was found dead III her bathtub and few
sorrowed, as she was said to hold many
secrets concerning scandals in high life
which died with her.
AN UNCANNY SUICIDE.
Probably the most uncanny suicide that
the newspapers were called upon 70 report
the facts of was that of Philip Truschel,
which occurred in Clarkson street, Flat
bush L. l., in the summer Of 1880. Truschel
was employed by his uncle, Louis Schrnutz,
| who was a florist in the villapa named