The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-22
A MAGNANIMOUS SUICIDE.
[From the chieago Record-Herald.l

IRON the Chicago Record-Herald.1
Mrs Nixon was one of those young.
practical dutiful women who love no
body and nothing deeply, and whose
very lack of desire and whose literal
sense of all realities is sufficient to pre-
vent them from sinking into the deepest
state Of seldshness. She was dutl1uI
wife. who cared no more Tor heI nus
band than if he had been a mere puSl-
ness partner to whom she felt obligated
to proffer her best services. Tnelr only
child. a boy of 4 was, from hef point
of view. one of the penalties OF a part
nershfp that had aVaileQ nothing Dene-
dcial Nixon the husband and father,
was an invalid. He had been Brook
lyn motornan. but had contracted
pneumonia and wasted a year OF time
and most of his small savings trying TO
get we'll
His life was insured for $4,000, and.
though he advised her to quit paying
the quarterly premiumst she insisted Oh
keeping them up Evidently she was
wiser than he for. when the time came
that he could no longer pay she had ac-
cumulated enough from her earnings as
a seamstress to sustain the policy;
sPhefr life in an east side fiat was Squahd
and unhappy enough TO nave uIlseh d
less affectionate man to drink or deser-
ton but Nixon was silent, patient,
saflglfne fellow, fully alive to the utter
failure of his life, but clinging resolutely
to the boy whom ne lONeu with All al
most feminine tenderness.
II was "A chilly November evening that
Charley, the child. catching the odor or
frying meat from an adjoining nat, set
up a wall for sausage" Nixon hadn't q
cent and knew that It was useless To
plead with his wife. She was forever
rasping about his spelling the boy, ana
Nixon, who hated scenes, quietly left the
table, patting the child's curis as he
went past and said: Never MIND,
= oct a
sausage" a few minutes after he left
the room Con Doyle, NixOns chum,
came in with the sausage. telling MS
wife that her husband had stopped at
the corner to chat with one of the pier
foremen who was hiring help. That
was the last heard of him that night and
for most of tie next day Then po-
nceman from Mulberry street called to
notify Mrs. Nixon that her husband was
supposed to have drowned himself IN the
East river; that garments supposed to
be his and note had been found on
pier No. 10, and that she was to call at
the station to identity the clothing. she
went across to DOyle'S boarding house
left Charley there with the housekeeper,
and set forth with her husbands friend
to examine the evidences of suicide.
tWhatd make him take off his clothes
q cold night like that was. is what 1
can't understand" whispered Doyle to
the widow. who, pale but fearless, was
inspecting the shabby coat.
Here's the note he wrote" explained
the sergeant, passing out scrap of
butchers wrapping paper on which was
written: You can sell the clothes, Har-
riet It'll buy some sausage for Charley
at Christmas. When you get the insur-
ance, pay Doyle four dollars I borrowed
of him"
But. as it turned out. there was quite
a squa bible with the insurance people.
The police. as we'll as the widow and
Doyle, were sure that Nixon had drown
ed himself and. as a matter of fact. the
insurance company had no doubt either
but they stuck out on a technicality,
and the widow paid another assessment
before the body was found down toward
the Battery, about four months after
the drowning. In the meantime both
Doyle and Mrs. Nixon had made a hun
bred trips to a score of morgues, both
bent upon establishing the identity of
the lost husband. If it hadn't been for
the fact that nearly every corpse picked
UP was clad IN outer garments of some
sort there might have been some doubt
about it. but it was not till March that
Mrs. Nixon and DOYLE saw the remains
that corresponded in every way with the
probable condition of poor Nixon after
four months in the icy waters of the
East river.
OF course the flesh was blackened and
the features terribly disfigured from
contact with the ice and from Earring
against piers and shipping but there
were no garments except an undershirt
and drawers and about the neck was
the old pair of scapulars that Nixon had
always worn. Doyle was sure it was his
partner. and the widow swore to the
clothing and the scaoulars.
She made cutie a funeral of it. and
Charley was there in a pretty little suit
Of black. The neighbors made much
over the widow and her son, for they all
knew that the family was ito come into
money" and $4,000 was a great fortune
In that poor neighborhOod The child
who understood nothing OF all the dreary
pancply, was delighted. Doyle, who