The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-09
URGES SOLONS
0 BAN ON
POISON
Eloquence Wins
Support to ANTI Suicide
Measure.

Or. ]. G. Froelich, representative in
the Common Council from the Third
Ward, at the meeting of that body last
troduced a resolution restricting the
sale of carbolic acid that was passed
under a suspension of the rules to the
third reading and referred to the
finance committee. 1t will be taken up
at the next meeting of Council.
The resolution restricts the sale of
the poison to such an extetnt that it
is expected that in the future a person
who commits suicide by taking carbolic
acid will have to obtain tibet poison on
a doctors prescription, and in that case
the physician and the druggist can be
held responsible for its sale to an i'm
proper person.
Such prescription. under the re-
quirements of the resolution, will
nave to contain not only the name
and address of the physician issu-
ing it, but the name and address of
the patient as well, and must be filled
on the day upon which 1t is issued.
Further han this, physicians will be
required to issue such prescriptions
only in cases where, to the knowledge
Of the doctor consulted, ,carbolic acid.
will benefit the patient.
DR.. Froelich departed from the usual
routine method of introducing the
measure n laid aside prosaic, every
day words and ideas for oratorical
verbiage with which to clothe his
thoughts. His address was the first
flight into oratory which had occurred
on the floor Of the new Council cham
- -
plauded at its conclusion. He said:
"I have been filling my lungs and
hanging on to myself in this we'll
padded chair; 1 have been listening to
the orators of this Council for che past
eleven months and have been moved by
their burning e%loquence, and / desire
to say to you, Mr.. Chairman, that
Greece had her Pericies, but it left the
Eleventh Ward to produce an Alder
man Martin; Rome a its Cicero and
its Caesar, but they were not in it with
some of the Aldermen of this Council,
such as Aldermen Bray, Meyer and
my friend, Alderman Mullen.
$50 much for my preamble; now a
word about myself. 1 am not an ora
torical clearing sale or an Evolutionary
bargain counter, nor have 1 ever hired
OUT lily LOISuC lOI q dill lIllllS Jul L
am a plain, blunt man, like Mark
Anthony. Poor Mark is dead! L also
come to think of another MARK by the
name of Mark Hanna, and 1 am sorry
to say that he, too, has one to the
land whence there is no return.
1.-The subject I have selected this
evening is not a sweet one. 1t is not
composed of sugar n other sweets;
it is not a spicy one; not filled with
attic salt: nor a bitter one saturated
with gall, but it is a strong, powerful
and deadly poisonous one. Now, there
may be some within the sound of my
voice who think or suspect that ] am
going to poison the hearts or the minds
of my colleagues of this Council. If
there is one such 1 will do myself the
honor and you, Mr.. President, the
pleasure of disappointing him.
Such was not my intention, which
was to introduce an ordinance regu-
lating h sale of carbolic acid to pre-
vent, to a certain extent, attempts at
suicide by those poor, unfortunate
creatures who have forgotten that the
bright days outshine the dark; who
think that they will always have days
Of suffering and nights of agony; who
think that they always slip and the
boulders bruise their feet, and that
every lark cloud that shadows their
path has no silver lining; who think
that life is a mistake and who no
longer RI to remain with us, but pre-
fer to cross the dark river and go to
an untimely grave.
For such reason l introduce tonight
this ordinance regulating the sale of
carbolic acid. Several cities like Chi
cago, and others in the South, have
passed such resolutions. An Assem-
blyman from Essex County this year
intended to move the passage of such
a measure in the Legislature, but was
disappointed by coming in at a late
hour. We learn from a report of the
Board of Health that there were no less
than forty cases of suicide in this city
from September 6, 1906, to August 80
last"
1