Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1897-05-26
THE MAD KILLER.
Malay Methods of Suicide Are ictu
esque and Troublesome.

eSque and troublesome.
1t was thick air that hung about the
spice stalls. The smell of cloves and
sandal wood breathed over Batavia like a
Sweetened cloud, and the searching
pungent reek Of bruised pepper that hung
round the inner shops was almost pain
full. Moreover, the Javanese is the
era ftiest fisher round the rim of the seas,
and glorious are the haUls he brings
ashore from the bays and rivers that
slice Java to north and south. But he
does not approve of fresh fish, preferring
to smoke his pTey in greenwood smoke
His browning delight is the fermenting of
a seething mass Of fish fry and praWns
in the sun, stewed by natural heat to a
noisome mess that gladdens the heart of
Malays.
Away beyond the low houses 1 could
sec the long ridge of mountains that is
the ragged backbone of Java Some of
them are volcanoes, extinct long aeons
since. Here and there in the swarming
crowds of the town l found a man from
the hillS-Stark, wiry and of more muscu-
lar limbs than the dreamy lollers that
love the plain. There was the CLEAN of
the higher air on his skin, and his hair
was short and crisp. On his shoulders
he carried salable leopard skins, and in
his eye an open scorn for the feebler men
around. This is the way of all noun
tain men, even nearer home than Java.
By-and-by, in the hush of the glaring
noon, there sounded an angry scream up
the street, three seconds later a yell of
pain, and the sobbing cry of a man cut
deep through the lungs. 1t touched off
the whole teeming populace like match
in powder barrel; there was a frenzied
rush of sWarthy loafers for safety, and
shrieking chorus of "AmOki amokp' the
street cry Of the far East which means
many deaths in a short period. Out of
a byway a 1.-the Malay tore blindly down
the road, driving his knife into the stom-
ach of water-carrier as he passed. The
carrier fell on his face with a thick cough,
and the frantic man spun forward, with
starting, blOOdshot eyeballS, foaming at
the mouth like rabid dog, narrow drip
ping kris in his right hand. He dashed
furiously among the deserted stalls, and
on through the town, till big Lascap,
fresh from his ship and hungry for a
fight, sank his knife under the madman's
ribs with the slipping upstroke which is
the legacy of all Lascars throughout the
earth.
These ten-minute dramas occur twenty
or thirty times 4 year in Batavia and in
most cities of the remOter East. The
pleasant Malay prefers this method of
suicide to any other; and after losing his
wealth in gambling den in the East city
Sums, or his betrOthed through fever, he
decides on an amok. 1t is far less cold
bloOded than common self-murder, and
the red, rabid frenzy appeals to the hot
blood Of the ruined Malay He buries
his kris in the body of the nearest man,
and keeps the line of maddened jackal
through the town, killing to right and
left. till reader knife ends him. [
have known eleven victims to succumb
to one amok, and at times a powerful
hilman will cut down a score of by
ISLANDERS before he meets the point. In
all countries of the farthest East you
will find that ruin breeds this fever for
the Running Kill.-Answers.