The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-30
WHAT nobel INTENDED BY The PRIZES AWARDED in HIS name

a half interest in his discovery for
$780, But the man to whom he CT
fered this bargain rejected it, and
thus lost a chance to make himself
many times a millionaire. Nobel was
worth $4,000, 900 when he died.
He was a son of Emanuel Nobel,
who established a great torpedo fac
tory at st. Petersburg, but who was
impoverished by the Crimean war.
Emanuel Nobel and all his sons stud
led the manufacture of high explo-
sives for many years, and had pat
ented a number before Alfred Nobel
made the greatest discovery of all
and gave the world a form of nitro
glycerine which it was safe to handle,
with the name of dynamite.
Alfred Nobel improved upon his
invention by successive discoveries,
gelatinous nitro-glycerine and ballis-
tite being the most famous. He also
manufactured cannon. Another of his
inventions was artificial gutta-percha.
But he was active in many other
ways than in invention and discov-
cry, and his interests were world
wide. He aided his brother in devel-
oping the oil wells of the Caucasus
and he subscribed half the sum nee
essary for the balloon expedition to
the north pole which ended, as is be-
lieved, in the death of Andree.
Aside from his vocation, his chief
interest was in the material uplifting
of his fellow-men. But his methods
of uplifting were widely different
from those of the common or garden
philanthropist. Many of them were
singular in the extreme.
In the first place, he was an agnos-
tic, and hence did not compete with
the Standard Oil philanthropists in
backing churches or semi-religious
colleges. Nor did he eyince any de-
sire to build library structures with
his name blown in the door. He did,
however, interest himself in trying TO
prevent the increase of the pauper,
criminal, and diseased classes of
society.
AS an illustration of the singular
ity of his doctrines on this point, il
may be mentioned that he believed
in euthanasia for such people-pro-
vided they could be got to consent to
it. He believed there were plenty Of
people of the hobo" class who would
be quite willing to agree to benefit
society in that way.
And he went to the length of pro-
posing to Francesca Crispi, premier
of Italy, that he, Nobel, should Gre
ate at his own expense and endow in
Milan and Rome establishments
where anybody who desired could he
painlessly suffocated by a gas he had
invented.
Under his plan, at a fixed hour
every day, first-class dinner, washed
down by the best of wine, would be
given to those who mad chosen TO
avail themselves of Nobel's euthana-
STA scheme. After dinner, when
cigars had been lighted, the smoking
room was to be filled instantaneously
with the deadly but painless gas. The
bodies were to be cremated in The
morning at the expense of the insti-
tuition.
Nobel said he would use a poison
which he had tested on animals, and
which was instantaneous in it's effects
and impossible to detect. He used to
tell his friends that the moment he
discovered he had been attacked by
a mortal illness he would escape it by
using this poison en- himself.
He carried a bottle of it with him
always, and wore ring which con-
tanned another preparation of the
same agent. Whether or not he used
it cannot be known, since nobody but
himself was capable of detecting its
effects; but it is certain that he died
from a sudden failure of the heart
when suffering from a severe attack
of bronchitis.
Premier Crispi rejected Nobers
proposition.