The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1907-01-16
LOVED HIS VIOLIN
BETTER THAN LIFE
ARTIST MEYER SLAYS HIMSELF
WHEN SICKNESS OVERLOOK
HIM.
HIS GREATEST PASSION
Was Music and He Could Not Bear TO
Live Without Strength to Draw
Bow Across the
Strings.

81. Louis, Mo, Jan. l5.-l.oving hps
violin better than his life and believ-
ing tina his in health would soon com.
pel him tc abandon the instrument
which ne had played for twenty years.
4. Beuno NJ Meyer, 2024 Allen avenue,
former director of the Standard Thea
ter orchestra killed himself
IN the Ia few moments poison was
not quick enough to fetch death for
Never and he shot himself through
the head after taking the poison In
room in the wellington Hotel, us
/ Pine street
/ GGuest Hears Shot
4 A guest in room adjoining tina oc
cupied by Meyer heard the shot and
notified the hotel clerk When Mey
/ ar's doc. was opened he was found
nm 3nscious with a revolver clasped
/ in his hand Near by was a glass
containing the dregs of draft OF
! the poison sufficient 10 k Il three men
( it is said Physicians were summoned
| and they ordered Meyer taken 10 the
City Hospital where he died on the
operating table without rega.nins. con
4 sciOuSneSS
Meyer was SO years old and had de
voted his life to music ince he was
IIG. His one ambition was 10 become
mas or His greatest hope was that
some day his violin would echo the
feeling of Paganini or tlat its strings
A. ne swept the bow across them
would weep along che hearts of his
hearers as though he were a Kubelik
or a Ko7ian.
Orchestra Leader.
For nine years Meyer was director
or the Standard Theater orchestra
This was not easy work playing and
leading an orchestra at afternoon anC
evening performances seven days In
the week, yet, Meyer found time &c
practice and study for hours after per
forming his daily work.
Two year. ago Meyers devotion to
his ant. requiring hours Of hard study
and practice, and his duty To his lit
tie family. requiring that he lead tn
orchestra twice daily, became toe
much for Meyer He could give up
neither, so he compromised He gave
up the duties of a leader for the les
arduous position of a y.olinist in the
orchestra But he con inned TO study
taking special lessons in harmony an
levoting a great deal of time to it.
Since giving up the leadership Of
the orchestra Meyers condition ha'
grown steadily worse. and severa
months ago he began to fear that he
would have 10 give mp his violin en-
ltrely. His fears were also held by
members CT mis- family, and he had
been encouraged to try to find some
thing else to do
Nothing Else To Do.
His reply was always What can
/ 10? have given my life to my violin
lie worked hard at thar. but am pre-
pared for nothing else Meyer had
lately becom very morbid and absent
minded He biz at his finger nails
continually. He was nervous.
He received a notice several day
ago that his rvices would no longer
| be needed in the orchestra as the
| management was going TO cut down
expenses. His melancholy deepened
after that Wednesday he told his
wife that he would not return for
dinner. He played at the afternoon
performance and said he would not be
I .l.,J L.. tho ,vaufup
Later be went to he drug store Of
his brother, F. c. Meyer. 1853 Lafay
cite avenue. While behind the pre-
scripuon counter he was noticed to
have started at the row of poison
/ bottles.
Meyer was married May |, 1893.
His parents are well-todo and live at
Bethallo. IN. He and his wife have
been living for several months with
her mother, Mrs. J. J. Wiedmann.
Meyer was said 10 have been of a
gentle nature and TO have idolized
his wife