New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-28
Long Insane, He Cuts His Throat
in Flushing Sanatorium.
HAD SPECTACULAR CAREER
Believed He Was a Millionaire
and Purchases of Jewels Led
to His Incarceration.

John V. A. Rhoades, former member
or the Union League Club. who after a
spectacular career in this city and In Lon
oon and Paris was adjudged insane and
committed TO Sanford Hall, a private sana-
forum In Flushing, Long Island committed
suicide in that institution Thursday morn
Ing by cutting his throat with a safety
razor blade All Information concerning the
suicide was refused by the sanatorium au-
thorities and the circumstances surround
ing his death did not become known until
yesterday. when Coroner Amber of Flush
ing gave out some Of the facts The police
We're not Informed of the case until yes
terday. and much secrecy and mystery have
been thrown around the whole affair The
body, 1T was said. had been removed from
the sanatorium during the early morning
yesterday.
None of the dead mans relatives could
be found In this city yesterday, and those
who had known him declined to talk about
his tragic end.
Thursday morning the sanatorium barber
was shaving Rhoades. using safety
razor, as was his custom with all the in
sane patients. He turned for a moment to
go to the hot water basin, leaving the razor
in the mans lap, when Rhoades In some
gasE In his throat. The barber summoned
the head of the institution. DR.. W. Stuart
Brown, and his assistant DR.. Russell, but
by the time they arrived Rhoades had bled
to death
A commission appointed by Justice
Greenbaum declared Rhoades insane in
January, 1908. For some time before that
he had startled his friends by his eccentric
actions He labored under the deiusion
that he was a millionaire, when in fact he
enjoyed an income of only $500 a year
allowed him by his father, DR.. Archibald
Craig Rhoades, retired navy surgeon In
a London music hall he threw q revolver
at the leader because the orchestra did not
play TO his liking. He was arrested on
that occasion and later sent to an asylum
His eccentricities in Continental cities got
him into trouble with the authorities.
When he returned to this country. in 1903.
his strange actions became more pro-
nounced, and a creditors action was
brought against him at which a number
of firms appeared to recover jeHelry VAL
ued at several thousand dollars which he
had ordered. large black pearl scarfpin,
valued at sl,e75, which he got from Tiffany
& Co, was an item. Rhoades had been
declared an incompetent prior to his trou-
BILE with his creditors and Craig F. R.
Drake. a real estate dealer, had been APP
pointed a committee Of his person to look
after his property
DR.. Gustav Scholer, formerly coroner,
who was member Of the commission that
adjudged Rhoades insane. said yesterday
that the man had suffered from acute
neurasthenia and melancholia Of an i'm
pulsive sort, which would prompt him to
take his life when occasion offered.
Rhoades married Miss Pauline Schmid,
a daughter Of the late August Schmid,
millionaire brewer In 1895. Two years later
they were divorced. He married Miss Alice
Ralph, daughter of Julian Ralph, the news
paper writer and novelist, nine years ago.
He was forty-six years Of age.