The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1915-07-01
WIFE
SOUGHT Town DEATH

Suicide ended the life of Mrs. Jes-
sic Halliday Dana, the perfect
bride" who just three years ago mar
ried Edmund T. Dana on the lawn of
the Longfehow home in Cambridge,
Mass, with ritual which the couple
had prepared and from which the
word obey was omitted. Her body
was found floating in the surf on the
Cliff Bath beach, at Nantucket, Mass,
and while positive proof that death
by suicide is lacking. the young hus-
band says he is convinced that she
took her own life.
Her artistic sense made her feel
that a thing ought to be perfect or
not at ALL" declared Dana in sum-
ming up the reasons which led his
wife to end her life. She felt, he
said, that her fl ling health made it
impossible for Ter to be a perfect
mother to her baby son, and that
somehow she had bungled what to
her was the greatest duty in life.
BY request of the husband, who
said that Mrs. Dunn, like himself,
was opposed to the customary burial
rites, the funeral was without cere-
mony. The body, in a plain oak cas-
ket, was taken to the cemetery at
Nantucket in a covered wagon. Dana
objected to the use of a hearse. He
was the only witness of the interment
aside from the undertaken and the
latter's assistant.
MelanchOlia Over Lies Failure.
Mrs. Dana's death was undoubt-
eddy an act of her own will" said
Dana in a carefully prepared inter-
view, given out shortly after the find
ing of her bodf. "Dr. Grouard, who
is frank, sensible man, said that
the evidence showed that death was
due to drowning and not heart fail
re. He told me that he was convinced
that it was a case of suicide on ac-
count of the melancholia Mrs. Dana
was suffering from, and also because
the body was found perfectly limp,
showing no signs that would have
resulted from a struggle. Her face
had the calm look of a person who
had sunk asleep with sigh of re-
lief.
Personally I am glad that it was
an act of my wife's own choice and
not a horrid accident, though it was
a pathetic mistake that made her feel
the world would be better without
her. Suicide shows an erroneous
courage, especially for an intellectual
person, and a considerable amount of
skill, while accidental drowning is
usually due to weakness, stupidity,
clumsiness or loss of nerve, which is
the reason suppose that people al
ways prefer the latter explanation.
Why Woman Ended Life.
why did Mrs. Dana want to end
her life? Well that is a long story.
She had the strongest sense of duty
in regard to the making of a human
life, and consciousness, combined
with what is rarer-a sense of the
enormous importance Of the environ
ment' in shaping character. By en-
vironment l mean all the external in
fluences, such as food, air, people,
ETC.
Like Nietzsche, she had con-
tempt for mediocrity. The baby must
be brought up not merely well
enough, but in the best possible way.
She felt a great moral responsibility
that the character, the happiness and
the efficiency of a human individual
were in her hands. For year before
her son was born she had set her
heart on doing just right. This was
the keystone of life after we were en-
gagged.
Was Too High Strung.
after her son was born last July
for some unexplainable reason she
lost faith in her ideas on diet and
began to eat more than usual eating
between meals, and from sense of
duty when she wasn't really hungry.
For this and other reasons she be-
came run down and began to worry
which is fatal. She was really too
high strung to make perfect mother