Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-02-11

CctdpUtu 10 Terry
t.. the Styx and only
ms last can TO n grim boatman seems
hkeiy to attract old Charon's sullen at
sentfon. Cheeseman's persistence in
seeking a ready exit from the stage of
HE rs consistent with the varied meth
ods or his lethal experiments. Some
OF his failures were unique, notably
When ne interrupted the circuit Of a
I'VE electric wire and survived tha
deadiy voltage of an alternating cir
CUT OF innumerable ohms. He has
also swallowed poison and jumped
rom che promenade deck of a Southern
racine ferryboat. Last Saturday he
mot himself through the lungs, mar
rowly missing his heart, and the doe
'ors diagnose his symptoms as fatal
Cheeseman's first attempt on his life
was sensational. He threw himself
from an upper-story window In this
c'ty, involving himself in two POSSIBLE
Hles OF successful suicide. He hoped
IN the first instance to perish on the
wires OF an electric light Intervening
MS descent to the pavement, which he
imagined would mangle him suffi-
GENTLY If the wire should break. II
happened that the wire was tenacious
and Cheesman was rescued.
His next adventure was a plunge
from a ferryboat, reckoning on the
chronic lethargy OF the Southern Pa
cific to achieve his purpose. But Chees-
man could not sink. II is the custom
OF the Southern Pacific officials to ar
rest people who Jump from their ferry
boats and turn them over 10 the police.
This was the procedure on this coca
sion, but Cheesman, while on his way
to he station, drew q knife from his
pocket and stabbed himself three or
four times in the neck. This time his
lack OF precision as an anatomist saved
him.
After his wounds were dressed they
locked Cheesman IN a cell. and half
an hour later he was found hanging by
his suspenders TO the grating in the
ceiling.
When he recovered his breath suffi-
ciently 10 explain Cheesman said he
wanted TO die because Enie Lambert
would not marry him.
A few months later the old craving
came upon him again and he poisoned
himself in the basement Of hrs par
ents' home In LoriR. Again the doc
tors interfered, this time with the
pump, and Cheesman came up smil-
ing once more out Of the valley of the
shadow.
But Cheesman was still unsatisied.
HE desire for death may even be re-
garded as iHsatiate. A little while
after the poisoning episode he climbed
upon a windmill loftier than those at
which his prototype Of La Mancha
tilted, and, probably imagining him
self an airship or a thunderbird, leap
ed head foremost into space. Death
at this time was inevitable, but a big
dog passed opportunity and Cheesman
landed safely ON the animals back.
The object of these evidences of an
insane regard, thus emphatically i'm
pVl kuuCA, WVuIduuCu about Luip LiEiC
that Cheesman was in deadly earnest
and that he meant what he said when
he averred that he would not live with
out her. Consequently, on Sept. 81,
1892, Frank Fl. Cheesman and Elhe
Lambert were married.
In books the romance Of life usually |
ends at the altar, but in real life it Is
different, and the Chee9man tragedy
was no exception to the rule of realism.
He began a new series of tragic
episodes by trying to shoot his wife
Failing TO do 50 he knotted a handker-
chief about his neck and in the pres
ence of his wife tried to choke himself
to death. Mrs. Cheesman summoned
assistance and her husband made rec
ord of his seventh failure.
His wife then left him and Chees-
nan came TO San Francisco. where he
found a woman whose throat he tried
10 cut. He was arrested and sent to
Ukiah insane asylum. He was
discharged six months later and ship
ned on a man-of-war, but deserted at
Diego and returned home.
He had q lucid interval for seven
months, during which he worked at
the trade of house painter in Oak
land. He was paid off last Saturday
night and went to his home in South
Berkley. He carried his suicidal ten
dency with him. and with a revolver fcr
eight time, attempted his LIE.
DIR. Rowell was called and located the
bullet In Cheeseman's lung. The doc
tor SAYS the wound rs serious.