The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-10
HEAT CAUSING SUICIDES.
Hanging, Shooting and Insanity~the
Effect at Chicago.

CHICAGO. July 9-Of all of the hot days
that have made life a burden since the hot
weather of 1897 began, this was the worst.
There We're more deaths of human beings
and of animals and the number of prostra-
tions was greater than upon any other day
of the long hot spell that has hung over
Chicago. Sixteen people are dead from the
heat, two are insane and out of large
number of prostrations ten cases are criti-
cal. The dead are:
CHARLES BENSON, committed suicide
while insane, caused by the intense heat.
JOHN EATON, shot himself while suffer-
ing from the heat.
REV. FATHER OTTO GROENBAUM,
priest, of ST Nicholas Church, in Evans
ton, died Of heart disease, aggravated by
the heat.
ing, near Park Ridge, driven to the deed by
the heat
HELEN HALLOREN, died from the
heat.
DORA JOHNSON
FREDERICK KAISER,
THOMAS LYING I.
ANNIE O'DONNELL committed suicide
by taking carbolic acid, driven to the act
by the heat
RACHAEL RISTON.
FRED SCHLOMANN, died at the County
Hospital from heat prostration; stricken
last Saturday.
JACOB STAUB.
WILLIAM SCIENBERGER.
REV FATHER AUGUST TOLTON,
priest in charge of St. Monica's COlored
Roman Catholic Church.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN, found in Wash
ington Park.
AUGUST VANDERSLEE, hanged him
self while insane from the heat.
Two men were driven insane by the heat.
There were ten people Frustrated who are
in a very critical condition and twelve
others who viii! recover.
Out in the Bridewell. where seven pris-
onerS went insane yesterday because of the
heat others suffered the same fate to-day.
Three men, either strong in the belief that
a life of rectitude insured an eternal abode
in some place less hot than this, or deter
mined to be packed in ice at any cost, took
their lives.
The night was sizzling horror There
was comfort to be found nowhere. 1t was
the hottest night Chicago has ever known.
The mercury in the weather office had
climbed to 81 at Z a. m. and there was a
steady, overpOwering bull movement until 3
p. m, when 80 was reached. This was up
in the Auditorium tower where the wind
had a chance at the thermometer. The
weather man sat in his Office and said:
This is the hottest place in the country
to-day but he was wrong. A seVenteen-
story slide down the elevator shaft would
have placed him in place still more torrid;
On the streets, where the heat radiated
from baking pavementS and sun-soaked
brick walls, it was to degrees higher
than in the tower, and no breeze to be
had. The day was especially severe on
horses, over one hundred dying in the
streets.
Sixteen hundred men and boys were tenn
porarily thrown out of employment in Pull
man to-day. Owing to the intense heat the
managers found it necessary to close the
works at noon and send the workmen
home. The shops will remain closed to-
morrow if the hot weather continues and
until the temperature decreases a little.
The temperature took quick drop in
Illinois and Iowa this evening. At Deca-
tur, H.. the mercury, which had reached
100 during the day, fell Is degrees in two
hours One death and dozen prostra-
tons occurred.
At Bloomington, ILL.,, the mercury reached
105 degrees Three deaths and a number of
prostrations occurred. The dead:
DIR. JAMES A. MANNING, Chicago.
MRS. JOHN F. TROTTER Bloomington.
A thunderstorm this evening caused a
drop of twenty degrees. Rain fell over the
entire county in torrents.
In Iowa a downpOur of rain cooled things
considerably: One person was killed by
lightning. At Burlington the mercury
prostrations occurred AT Keokuk one
death and several prostrations.
Toledo, O.. reports one death and dozen
prostrations. The thermometer registered
IS degrees.
At midnight the number of prostrations
by heat had risen to siXty-siX. OF this
number twenty-eight cases are said to be
serious and twelve of them are almost GER
tain to die.