The Sentinel=record., 1912-09-14
FOLLOWS ANCIENT JAPANESE CUSTOM AND KILLS SELF AS
 EMPEROR IS BURIED.
WIFE ALSO VICTIM OF CUSTOM
Supreme Military Commander of Ja. pan Showed that stocism in Death as He did When He Led His
 Forces Against Great Odds.

Tokio, Sept. 13. - General Count Marezunk Nogi, supreme military councillor of the empire, and his wife, the Countess Nogi, committed suicidte tonight in accordance with the ancient Japanese costum as a final tribute to their departed emperor and friend, Mutsuhito
 The death by their own hands of the famous general and his wife was as dramatic as it was sad The gen. eral cut his throat with a short sword and the ccutess committed harikari.
 Following the Samurai costum the couple had carefully prepared their plans for killing themselves, and timed hem so tthat they would be coincident with the departure for ever from To kio of the dead emperor.
 General Nogi and the countess had attended the funeral services of Mutt
 suhito at the palace here today, and it was expected that they would pro- ceed to Aoyama tonight with the cor tege. Instead, however, at the con- clnsion of the ceremony at the pal
 ace, they withdrew to their modes- home in Akazaka, a suburb of Tokio. and there began their final prepara- tions for death.
 ! First the general wrote letter to his new emperor, Yoshihto. which la ter was found beside his body. Then he draped in mourning portrait of
 the late emperor. which hung on she wall. and afterwards he and his wife dressed themselves in full Japanese costume and drank farewell cup of
 sake from cups which had been pre- sented to the general by Mutsuhito.
 Darkness had fallen and General
 Nogi and the countess sat and awaited the signal they had agreed upon ot announce their leave taking. This was the booming of a single gun In the palace grounds at Tokio which was to let the people know that the body or The emperor was starting on the funeral car for it's last resting place.
 As the boom of the gun resounded through the clear still night, General Nogi arose and, grasping in his hand short sword. plunged 1t into his throat, while the countess stabbed i1rf- self through the body A student who resided in the Nogi home heard the fall of the bodies and rushed into the room.
 Lying upon the floor were the hero of Port Arthur and his wife Both still were breathing, but their spas moiic gasps showed plainly that death was near The student hurried for aid. but when he returned with 1t, both the general and the countess were dead
 The tragedy created profound sem sation and expressions of sorrow were heard on every hand tonight Esne- cially grief stricken was Prince Ar thur of Connaught, the special envoy to the funeral of Mutsuhito, of Great Britain. Prince Arthur was to have gone with General Nogi tomorrow to the former capital of the Shogunate, Kamagura
 Those who knew General Nogi we'll declared that his calmness in killing himself tonight was the kind of stoicism he always had displayed, no matter what crisis faced him. They instanced the famous charge of the Japanese up 203-metre hill during the war when. as com mander of the Japanese thi-d army. Nogi saw the Russians now down his forces in hundreds, among them two of his own sons, and yet quietly and fearlessly continued the battle, taking the hill and eventually being handed the surrender of Lieut. Gen Stoessei at Port Arthur.