The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-12-15
DEATH HAD
NO TERRORS
Civil Engineer H. Perry
Feared Madness.
KILLED HI MSELF BY GAS
For Ten Years He Was With the
Hawaiian Sugar Company
at Makawei.


neer of the Makaweli plantation, and
the man who made the carrying of
water through the big acreage of the
plantation possible, committed suicide
in Oakland, California, November 80
in a cheap lodging house. Letters re-
ceived by the last steamer from Oak
land by friends Of the deceased confirm
the sad news. Henry Perry was man
of ability, and his engineering feat in
bringing the water system for the
MAXWELL plantation to such state OF
perfection, is looked upon as one of
| the best pieces of work accomplished
in the Islands.
! The deceased left the Islands about
year ago on account of his health.
The following account of his sad
death is taken from the San Francisco
Chronicle of December 2:
OAKLAND, Dec. Fearful that his
! mind was failing, Henry c. Perry, a
we'll known civil engineer of Berkeley,
committed suicide last night in an
Eleventh street lodging house by in
haling gas. The suicide was deliber
ately planned and as carefully carried
out, though preceding events indicate
! that the man was temporarily insane.
| Perry was a native of California,
| forty-two years of age, and was d
graduate of the State University, havz
ing been a member of the class of 1883.
For more than ten years he held an
important position with the Hawaiian
! Sugar Company While on a visit to
this State about a year and half ago
| he expressed fear that his mind was
giving away. Prominent physicians
/ advised him that his trouble was pure
ly nervous complaint and that with
proper care he would be all right. He
returned to the Islands, but after a
! few months he came back to this
| Coast to seek medical attendance. He
was subject to fits Of melancholy, dur
ing which 1t was with difficulty that
| his family could arouse him. These
were due to his fear of insanity.
Recently he consulted with some of
| the leading experts in the State and
only last week visited the Napa State
| Hospital, where he talked with DR..
| Gardiner. superintendent of that insti-
| tuition. Despite the assurance of these
| experts that his mind was all right,
| Perry continued to brood over what he
| feared was bound to come, and he
| carefully and coolly planned to end it
ALL
| Shortly after noon yesterday Perry
called at sos Eleventh street and en-
gagged small back bedroom. He eX-
| planned to the landlady that his wife
| was in Napa and that he would want
the room for some time. He inquired
| carefully as to the time the gas was
turned off, remarking that he was a
great reader and often read late into
the night. Being informed that the
gas in the hall was turned out at 10
O'Clock, but not at the meter. he SEEM
ed satisfied
Returning to his home on -Ashby
avenue, Berkeley, Perry dined with his
family. afterward requesting his wife
to make an inventory of all the prop
7 erty they owned Owing to his eccen-
tricities Mrs. Perry did not think Sc
| riously of this, and even when he
| complained that she did not take prop
er interest in their affairs she thought
nothing of it. About $50 O'Clock he
told Mrs. Perry to go to bed and rest,
saying he would take short walk be-
fore retiring His wife never saw him
alive afterward. AS her husband had
not returned when the last train from
san Francisco arrived. and beginning
to fear that something serious had
I happened, she telephoned to her broth
er-in-law, eX-County Recorder Charles
II. Spear.
The police and morgue officials of
San Francisco Oakland, Alameda and
Berkeley were notified, and a search
for the missing man was begun. His
body was found in a little room in the
lodging house about O'Clock this
morning by roomers who had detected
| the strong Odor of gas emanating from
the room. They found the body half
reclining on the bed, which had been
/ placed directly under the gas let
! A message to the coroner resulted
| In the remains being identified by Mr..
| spear a few minutes later. The re-
mains were removed to Browns I'M
| dertaking parlors.
The family of Perry consists of the
! wife and two children. They are com
fortably provided for by the estate of
/ the deceased. which consists chiefly. of
| plantation stock and money in bank.
/