The sun., 1894-12-16
STAND THIS WORLD.
YOUNe RUSSELL SMITHS POSSIBLE
REASONS FOR SUICIDE.

nid Mach LesrniAg Make n 11-yesr~oia
BOY Mad t-Csulan't Ensure Attacks o.
His Ideals Ewes when He Read The-.
In placid Passaic they are less concerned
about psychics than about bicycles, so when
young man killed himself there on Thursday
night because his soul was overwrought and his
mind supersensitively adjusted, the authorities
said they would hold no inquest This is re-
grettable, because an inquest might have
prompted an autopsy and many persons who
are earnestly interested would have been ben
ehted In knowing all that the surgeons could
have told about the structure and peculiaritles
of Russell Lawrence Smiths brain. II might
have aided study of his motives; the motives
which prompted q physically strong boy of
seventeen TO write, II cannot stand this world
any longer" and then send 8 bullet through his
heart.
The simple people Of the boarding house where
young Smith lived say: HE was not in debt;
he was not in love; and yet he killed himself"
He was not even morbid" they say. That is,
he displayed no mental effect of imperfect
digestion, so It is probably meant that he was
not morose. He probably was morbidly sensi-
tive. because TO be SO sensitive about something
wholly impersonal that death Is relief war
rants the conclusion that the mind is diseased.
Any way, that is the conclusion one is forced
TO accept after learning all that easily be
learned about Russell Smith, whose suicide was
reported in THE SUNS Passaic despatch printed
yesterday.
He was . prodigy Of learning" say his
friends. and the big phrase seems not to be used
without warrant. From Racine to De Maupas-
SAINT, from Voltaire to Daudet, from Moliere TO
Hugo from Lorraine to Zola, the French clas-
sizes and moderns In fiction, philosophy, and wit,
were as familiar TO him as tho football rules Of
1894 to a Yale undergraduate.
But these were mere diversions. All that
GuiEot had written of France Of all time. and
all that Thiers had written of the revolution,
all that Lecky had written of French morals
and civilization, that seventeen-year-old boy had
sions to a knowiedge of French history tor bowed bowed
to him as an authority
But It was not the actual facts Of history
which interested or concerned him: II was the
politics Of France and especially the European
international policies which might affect French
who have the inclination. even OF those who
have the mental equipment, TO discuss the prob
by England to Russia in the East. so young
Smith passed most of his time in the public
relating in any % way to his fayorite ST. study. % H"'
That describes a man one expects to hear is
unsocial; silent cold, or physically weak. Rus
sell Smith was gregarious, volube, warm
His friends are q trine vague in explaining
ree ns a
State and an ideal standard of morality. About
unless he encountered a criticism which forced
him to doubt the probability OF making any OF
his ideals real. Then he would become either
greatly excited or greatly depressed. This was
to such an extent as to surprise his friends. He
would express actual rage or grief II anything he
read or heard conficted In a convincing manner
with what he had decided in his own mind was
to be the ultimate evolution in literature, poll
tics, or morals.
On Thursday evening he was with two broth
ers. one Of whom walked with him to his board
ing house ut about 10 o'clock. leaving him there
in good spirits. Russell entered the house and
stopped in the parlor. chatting pleasantly with
some people there for few minutes. Then he
went to his room and wrote on a long sheet of
paper his last message:
DEAR FATHER: cannot stand this world any long
er. Good.by. From your loving son. RussEIL-
This paper he carefully folded In the shape
children call FOOLS cap" addressed It on the
outside to W. l.. Smith" and laid II on his
dressing table. Then he took from table a
volume OF Voltaire and presumably read 1t for
ten or fifteen minutes. for 1t was twenty min
utes after he went to his room before the shot
was heard. Before he took up the pistol he
closed the book he had been reading and put
IL In the inside pocket Of his coat.
He was still alive when q woman who rushed
to his room bathed his face with cold water. He
opened his eyes. looked at her, smiled, shook his
head as IL saying " No." and died.