Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-22
WATERVILLE.
WANTED TO DIE.
LIZZIE Lashus, Wateville Girl, Pos
sessed Love That Was Unrequited.
Resident of Section Known as Paradise
AIIey-Tried Hayden Brook.

makes hearts glad and sad in the same
breath. 1t builds up homes and ma
tions and tears down physical struct-
ures and makes men and women mad.
1t produces the smile and the frown.
1t brings sunshine and shadow. 1t
prompts the sweetheart to heroism and
sharpens the appetite for suicide.
IT is possible that the success of
love affair depends more upon the in
dividual than it does upon the section
or location he or she comes from, but
who ever heard of anyone over in
WinsIow, up in Fairfield, out in Oak
land or down in Sidney attempting sui
eide for the sake of unrequited love?
| Then the section of Hillside avenue,
commonly called Paradise alley may
be the seat of a malaria of the suicidal
disorder. At any rate, so many at
tempts at the act have been made in
that section of the city of late years
| it looks very much as though section
or location has something to do with
the mania.
| Yesterday afternoon, just as the eX
press train was Whistling around the
bend at the north of the city, just as
men were cuddling comfortably under
| the great awnings of the Maine Cen
| trail station and just as the rain was
| pouring down in its hardest style of
pour, wild scream, half of anguish,
| half Of fright and the rest of derision,
| rent the atmosphere Immediately adj
| jacent to Ticonic street This rent was
| followed by another more mournfully
terrific because it came from half
hundred threats of excited women and
| two-thirds of a hundred of screaming
children who inhabit Paradise alley.
There was n rush of many hundred
| feet and several hundred people in the
| direction of "Dud' Busheys store and
| around it to the bridge across Hayden
| brook. Among those early on the scene
was Nedal Cheninir, a man of years
| and experience and n neighbor of the
| EAashus family. When Vedal arrived
| Mt the brink of the turbulent tide he
| saw a female form disappearing under
| the waves of the brook that has made
itself famous in the past few months
by sudden risings and fallings. Like
| the Spartan nero of old, without reck-
oning the chances of the survival of
| the ffttest, Monsieur Chevinir, remov-
ing his. superfuous and exterior gar
/
and struck out manfully for the hem
of dress that was seen above the
wave Then followed struggle. the
like OF which had never been seen on
the bosom of Hayden brook.
| When the rescuer and the rescued
had been hauled out of the muddy wa
tcrs and dsentangled from the waste
paper, old hoops and other decorations
t...t -. r. 4
teithcr bank Of the brook in wild, weird
and fantastic arrangement, it was dis
covered to the gaping crowd that the
woman was Miss Lizzie Lashus, aged
% years or more, and that she was I'M
conscious. The dripping form of the
unlucky girl was removed to her home
ana placed upon a bed. There APP
peared to be no great rush about send
ing for a physician, feature of life
in the alley that is most prominent
when any member of the neighborhood
attempts suicide, and the unfortunate
girl was left severely alone to work out
her own salvation until the kinder ma
ture of several of the residents assert
ed itself.
| Then it was that the true story of
what had prompted the rash act came
out. Miss Lashus has loved not wisely
but too well. 1t is the same story that
was told when Addie Patrick took
Rough on Rats a few weeks ago and
1 was more successful than was Miss
Lashus yesterday. 1t was similar to
the story which accompanied the at
tempt of still n third resident of the
alley to suicide. Whether or not Miss
LaShus will recover depends upon the
kind of care that she receives, and the
indications, last evening, were that she
would survive the incident unless COM
plications set in.
Miss Lashue is not a half sister to the
Patrick girl who sucided on the alley
a few weeks ago, neither is she a
daughter of Mrs. Samuel Vigue, the
head of the sensational household which
has many times attracted the attention
of the police, all reports to the con-
trary Notwithstanding. Lizzie Lashus,
| If she Were given n wider scope in life
and was surrounded by better in
fluences; had she been born to better
fortune and been reared on a nearer
level with some other people, would be,
today, and would be in the future one
of the brightest young women. Her as
sociations have made her ill-reputed
and it might be a blessing to her if she
succeeded some time in carrying out
the purpose she had in mind, yesterday,
but in Christian community with a
decent condition of environment there
may yet be something bright for her
That Hillside avenue is the most dis
/ reputable is a fact that can not be de-
MED. That the section is encompassed
by respectable quarters of the city is
also a fact, but the apparent theory of
: the better class of people is that Hill
! side avenue should be set aside as a hole
of iniquity and for this the respectable
r people aforesaid should be neld strictly
; responsible and for all that may hap
pen in the locality. To allow crime to
nestle in one spot as the solving of
what may appear to good people to be
, n knotty problem is one thing. but it
looks as though good people might do
; other than to encourage vice in that
: way.
While poor Lizzie Iashus is in n crit
zeal condition as the result of her folly.
: the residents of the better sections are
! telling themselves that it was just what
~