The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-06
THREE VICTIMS OF DESPAIR.


With the death of little Ralph the
Van Guilder tragedy has claimed three
victims. The fourth, the frenzied
mother, the distracted wife. is pros
trated but may outlive the fearful
scenes that have wrecked her life and
robbed her of the most priceless jewels
CT existence.
Local history has furnished us with
few tragedies so startling and sadden-
ing. Men may kill each other in the
heat of passion: assassins may creep
upon their victims prompted by motives
of avarice or revenge; but those are
crimes that almost every community
has witnessed. Here was a man broken
in mind and body by honest toll a hard
working citizen haunted by creditors
and perplexed by debt A husband who
felt that he had reached the end of his
resorces and that he would soon become
burden for the woman he had vowed
to provide for and protect A father
whose mind was clouded by dark des-
pair. who felt that he must die and
feared to leave his little ones behind.
Sick and discouraged, he broodsd over
his misfortunes- He magnified them.
He borrowed trouble. He saw nothing
in the future. He forgot the past. The
present was a hideous nightmare in
which the goblin of debt and the skele-
ton of starvation We're, ever prominent
SO he called his children to the bedside
and gave them poison. 1t was SLOW
He became impatient. He took a re-
volver and shot the little boy in the
head. AS the frightened child started
10 run he fired again and struck him in
the hand. Turning to the little girl he
shot her through the head. Then he
took his own life.
Mingled with the general sadness
which followed the commission of this
insane deed was a hope that little
Ralph, the plucky child who rose from
q pool Of his own blood to unlock the
door for the neighbors. would survive.
But it could not be. The father was too
deliberate and the aim too close for
him to escape.
Within a month there have been a
score of just such cases in different
parts of the United States. Men and
the want of means and the lack of en-
ployment, and have destroyed them
selves and their families. Whatever
may be the conditions elsewhere there
is no excuse for workingmen to starve
or fear starvation. in Salt Lake City. 1t
is growing and prosperous; skilled and
ordinary laborers are in constant de-
mand; houses are going up and mines
are pouring their wealth into the city
There never was a time when generosity
was more lavish, when help for the
needy and deserving might be more
readily extended. Thousands of dollars
have been freely donated to demon
dollars have been sent to relieve dis
tress in other parts of the world The
work of doing good has never been more
thorough, more systematic, more intelli-
gent than il is today. Even dumb
brutes are not allowed to suffer if the
attention of the proper authorities is
directed to the circumstances And men,
hard working mechanics or day labor
ers. men who are too industrious to rest
until they are broken down, men who
are so sensitive to obligation that a
debt pursaes them like a ghost, who are
yet too honest and upright to desert
their families or drown their sorrows in
drink, deserve every consideration.
IL is not charity that relieves such
people. 1t is public spirit; it is human