Evening star., 1897-01-09
DEATH LAUGHS At CHEESM.N.
He Has Tried Suicide I'm Many Ways,
hut Still Lives.

From the San Fran cisco Examiner.
Frank H Chcesman, thirty-eicht years
old, living at 2221 Ohio street, South Berke-
ley, breaks the local record for suicidal
effort Eight times has he attempted to
ferry the StyN. and only his last call 10
the grim boatmar seems likely to attract
old Charon's sulien attention. Cheeseman's
persistence in seeking a ready exit from
the stage OF life is consistent with the
varied methods of his lethal experiments.
Some of his failures were unique notably,
when he Interrupted the circuit of live cleo
trio wire and survived the deadly voltage
OF an alternating current of immune ra bic
ohns. He has also swallowed poison. and
jumped from the pro nenade deck of a
southern Pacific ferryboat. Last Saturday
ne shot himself through the lungs narrow
ly missing his heart, and the doctors
diagnose his symptoms as fatal
Cheeseman's first attempt on his life was
sensational He threw himself from an
upper-story window in this city. involving
hlinsef IN two possibilities of successful
suicide. lie hoped in the first instance 10
Perish on the wires of an electric light in
tercepunS his descent TO the pavement
which lie imagined would mangle him suffi-
Gently If the wire should break n hap
pened that the wire was tenacious and
ChessI1an was rescued.
His next adventure was n plunge firm, a
ferryboat, reckoning on the chrome lethargy
OIL the Southern Pacific to achieve his pur-
pose. But Cheesman could not sink IL is
the custom of the Southern Pacifi, officials
to arrest people who jump from their ferry
boats and turn them over to the police
Ihls was the procedure on this occasion
put Cneesman, while on his way To the
station, drew knife from his pocket and
stab bbed himself three or four times in the
neck This time his lack of precision as an
anatomiSt saved him
After his wounds We're drassad ,ba,,
locked Cheesman in a cell and hslr an bour
later he was found hanging by his suspend
ers TO the grating in the ceiling
When ne had recovered his breath suffi-
Gently to explain, cheesman said he want
ed 10 die because Efiie Lambert would not
marry him.
A few months later the old craving came
upon him again. and he poisoned himself in
the basement of his parents home i'm Iorin
Again the doctors interfered. this time with
the pump, and cheesman came up smiling
once more out of the Valley of the
Shadow
But Cheesman was still unsatisled His
desire for death may even be regarded as
insatiate. little while after the poison-
inS illS episode he climbed upon windmill
ioiter than those at which his proto;ype
OF La Mancha tilted, and, probably imasin-
ing himself an airship or a thunderbir3
leaped head foreInose into space Death at
thls time was inevitable. but big dog
passed opportunely and Cheesman landed
safely on the animals back
Ihe OBJECT of these evidences of an in
sane regard. thus emphatically importuned
cohcluoed about this time that Cheesman
was in deadly earnest, and that ht. meant
what he said when he averred that he would
not live without her. Consequently on
September 2S 1892, Frank H. Cheesman
and Ellie Lambert were married
In books the romance of life usually end.
a the altar, but in real life II is different
and the Cheesman tragedy was no excep-
ton to the rule of realism. He began new
series of tragic episodes by trying 10 shoot
his wife. Falling TO do so he knotted a
handkerchief about his neck and in the
presence of his wife tried to choke himself
to death Mrs. Cheesman summoned as
sistance and her husband made record Of
his seventh failure.
His wife then left him and Cheesnan
came TO San Francisco where he found a
woman whose throat he tried to cut He
was arrested and sent to the Ukiah Insane
Asylum. He was discharged six months
later, and shipped on man-of-war but de-
serted at San Diego and returned home
He had a lucid interval for seven months
during which he worked at the trade of
house painter ir Oakland. He was paid off
last Saturday night and went to his home
In South Berkeley. He carried his suicidal
tendency with him, and with a revolver
for the eighth time, attempted his life DR.
Rowell was called and located the bullet
In Cheeseman's lung. The doctor says the
wound is serious.