Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-10
AN EXPERIMENT IN SUICIDE
BY CLIFTON SPARKS.

! There seems to be something about a
| wood fire and a pipe to bring strange
| ghmpses of feeling out of even the hardest
| Eien. No one of us ever knew SEXTON to
tell story of this kind before. Maitland
| said he did. but then Maitland was un-
reliable, anyhow.
| There were men Of many races and as
| many professions gathered around the fire
| the night speak of. There were no lights.
/ the dinner had been good and in the dusk
CT the room Maitland was playing one of
those queer old world pieces that show
| VENICE as in a dream, to the man who
never was out of his own country. sey-
toms face'was in the gloom, and as Matt
| lands music moaned to it's end one of the
| men began to tell the story of his first
| newspaper assignment It was a good
story, well told. Maitland said so.
| can tell you story of an assignment,
| TOO, began Seyton, quietly. ut won't be
| quite Ike the last story, for some times the
| the life He hesitated a minute. as if he
| thought some of us would break in Then
| he went on:
Il don't know whether any of you knew
| Give Hoiten; don't suppose you did
met him first in Denver, myself He
walked in on me one day and asked for a
Joo, but at the time l was only holding
Gown the de SIX for few days, and conse-
IL.
| slack hour, and l got talking to the boy
There was something about him 1 liked.
and the end of it was that when the city
editor got back l managed to get him tn
give Cllve show. He did pretty well
from the start; sometimes he was almost
brilliant and sometimes he stopped over
badly. The boys sympathies were too
easily aroused, and l told him more than
once l hardly thought he was fitted for the
hard grind of our work. He had literary
posslblLtl about him, and if there is any
thing that kills that sort of thing it is
daily newspaper work. Some people think
we ought always to be reeling out good
stun, and say we all ought to write not
able novels The fact of it is that the
that line do it, not because we are news
paper men, but in spite of the fact that we
are newspaper men. That's a depression 1
didn't mean TO make.
AS l was saying. Gives summarizes pot
away with him He would branch off in
the middle of good murder story to ex-
pauGte on the hardships thereby inflicted
on the murdered mans family That used
to make the city editor tired, and he would
coidly tell Give that the paper had sew
eral EDITORIAL writers who We're paid large
and healthy salaries for writing that sort
OF stun, and he needn't try to help them
out AS one of the noble body of cow
readers l used to point out his breaks to
MIN once in a while, and because he al
ways Wore the same sized hat 1 began to
take more than usual interest in the
boy. ~
'One day I was sitting in his room. and
Cnve was trying to find some picture or.
other he wanted to show me- He was
diving into his trunk and Htteriag the room
with the armfuls of stuff he threw out
From the middle of one lot there fell a
little morocco case, which rolled to my
1eet and came open as 1 lifted it, 1
recognized the little shining tube of glass
and silver which it contained only too
Well. 1t was morphine needle. Give
was little disconnected when he saw what
1 had found "''
o, that?' he said Iaughingly, as he sat
down on the bed. I keep that thing by
me as l Keep gun; might need it some
tlme. l used to need it lot once
Then he took it from me and fitted the
needle to It's place Think of rest, sleep
and forgetfulness coming to one at a touch
with this, he said, dreamily.
HusbH / put in savagely. Don't be such
1901. 1hlnk 1T the head you have next
morning. There iSp't much rest and for
getfulness about that
Give seemed to take no notice but want
on playing with the needle Isn't If a
queer thing he said, presently. Here. YOU
might say, is the idSal means of suicide.
and l don't believe anyone eyer rried II
l uoh see why man couldn't get NOR
prime enough to kill him under his skin
WIN one OF these needles. They couldn't
pump him out, and it ought to kill him
comfortably. asked a doctor about n
once, but he said he didn't believe it would
work, and insinuated that had better NOT
Try experiments. Just as If I wanted to.
f.
ing suicides would try it once and see Low
1t worked
There came time when 1 remembered
all this.
ITO cut it short, went on another na NOR
and saw less and less of Give. BY and by I
heard he had left the city. Nearly a wear
afterward moved to Chicago,and about the
hrst man met was Give He was WORRYING
on a morning paper, he told me and was
ooing We'll. Moreover, he was engaged to
the sweetest, incest girl that ever lived
l was sorry to hear it, for I knew 1 should
be bored to death, and I was Nothing
would satisfy him but that should come
and dine with him. During dinner he
talked continuously about his fiancee and
nnaliy showed me her photograph. She was
handsome, but it seemed to me to be the
picture of beautiful, shallow woman, who
was ooeh ambitious and INSCRIPTIONS 1t
need hardly be said that kept these i'm
pressions to myself
Give kept on talking about the girl and
told me a dozen little things about her. her
name included. Only one thing seemed TO
worry hIm and that was his fiancee's
IrlenoSh1p Tor a man he called Fielden
This tlelden, it appeared, was the son of a |
wealthy board of trade man and had the
drop on Give in the matter of sleigh and
several horses. Gives 6ancee occ,1,,ied a
seat in that sleigh far more often than
Give liked, but, he put it, You see. I
can take her out. and it would be beastly
selfish of me to object. They have known
one another long time
In few weeks l found myself working
on the same paper with Give My work
necessarily kept me in the Office all the
time. His kept him out from O'Clock at
night until in the morning. Once in a
While would get some of his copy to read, |
ana 1t was easy to see he had improved |
He was not brilliant by lot, but he was |
steady and conscientious, and the bows |
liked him. seemed to be about his only |
confidant and at least once a week Give |
would manage to waylay me, and then for |
three mortal hours l would have TO listen |
to the progress of his love affair The bow |
was so dead in earnest about whatever he |
did that actually got interested in spite of |
myself. Somehow 1 felt that the girl was |
only amusing herself with him, and would |
throw him over for wealthy man but |
what could l say? l let things slide |
One Eight Give dropped into the office |
with some little story other, and when |
he had written it said he would go to get |
some lunch. He always took his meals at |
the same restaurant at night So that if We |
needed him we could get at him quickly. |
He had been gone half an hour when Ack- /
ley, the night city editor, came in. He
also had been to lunch
BY the way he said, I got a tip on a |
good story just now, and 1 sent a note over |
to Give to tell him to chase out on it, They
saw Young Eie,den haS alopa5,