The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-03-25

/
After leaving a letter in Mares buffet
at No. SIS Washington avenue yesterday
morning. in which he stated that he was
| going to commit suicide, Horace Kephart
for many years librarian at the Mercantile
Library. and a well-known magazine
writer. was apprehended by the police be
fore he succeeded in carrying out his an
nounced intentions. Kephart is now a pa
tient in the observation ward at the City
Hospital.
Kephart entered the saloon shortly be-
fore noon and was seemingly in the best
of spirits He ordered a glass of beer. and
after drinking it started to leave the sa-
| loon.
When he reached the door he turned
back, and, taking several large sheets of
| common yellow wrapping paper which
We're covered with writing, from his pock-
ct. handed them to Edward Wasen, the
bartender, and hurriedly left the saloon.
Wasen glanced at the papers. 1t was a
letter. in the first paragraph of which Kep-
hart stated that he was going to end his
life very soon. Wasen at once notified Pa
trolman Manion of the Central District
and asked him to take Kephart in charge.
Kephart was at this time walking swift
ly on Washington avenue toward Broad
day. Near Broadway Manion overlook
him and placed him under arrest
At the City Dispensary Kephart was
examined by the physician in charge and
at his order was sent to the Emergency
Hospital, at Fourteenth and O'Fallon
streets where he is held for observation.
In his letter. which he left with the
bartender at Mares cafe, Kephart dealt
with life and death, as they applied to
his case. Friends who read the letter
after It had been turned over to the po-
lice were at once convinced that it was
written under a strain of hallucination.
The tenor of the letter shows that KEEP
hart imagined that he was being nagged
by devils He said these devils had driv-
en- him to suicide. and he denounced them
as more fendish than any demons Of
mythology In this connection he wrote:
They have taken man who never did
anyone intentional harm, and deliberately,
by slow torture. driven him mad. 1 am
at this moment mad in the sense that Z
see all hope of existing more than few
minutes with mind enough to write clear
statement.
81 have left In my room a miscellaneous
statement, hurriedly written last night un-
der circumstances OF strain and stress.
that 1 honestly believe is without paral-
lei. 1 trust you may find them
ut comes from a mind still rational;
the last effort of a man, who. though still
himself mentally, realizes that the hour
of madness will soon strike. In spite of
worse than bell, die with my boots on
OF the future, TO myself. neither know
nor fear anything"
In the letter addressed to a friend, which
Kephart handed to Wasen. he stated that
he was going to end his life. He did
not go into details as to the method
he would employ, but It is thought he
intended to drown himself
Kephart is 42 years old and IS married
He resides at No. 1871 Kennett place. He
has wife and children who are at pres
ent at Ithaca. n. y.
On the way to the hospital he told the
policeman that he had not slept for sixty
hours.
Mr.. Kephart came to st. Louis in 1880
and became librarian of the Mercantile
Library and held the position until last
February. Before coming here he was
librarian at Yale University College, and
took postgraduate courses at Yale and
Cornell universities.
He found much diversion and pleasure in
hunting and trapping, being expert at
the trap as well as in the field. He is
also considered authority on firearms and
woodcraft. and has been working on a
book on the latter subject. He is consid-
cred authority on Western history, and
particularly the history of St. Louis and