The New York herald., 1921-12-29
CRIPPLE HANGS SELF
TO ESCAPE TAUNTS
16-Year- Old Passaic Boy, Para
lyzcd From Babyhood,
Hears Last Gibe.
LONGED FOR PLAYMATES
William Simkowitz Found in
Bathroom With Rope From
Water Pipe.
LONGED FOR PLAYMATES

William Simkowitz. the sixteen-year-
old son of John Simkowitz Of 81 Wash
ington place, Passaic, N. j., hanged
himself in the bathroom of his home
yesterday afternoon because he could
no longer endure the taunts and gibes
of his playmates. He was cripple
and they had been cruel to him, laugh
ing at him when he could not run and
play with them, and yesterday they
made fun OF him because he was not
able to go coasting and try out their
new sIeds. So he couldn't stand it any
longer.
Young Simkowits had been a cripple
since he was a baby. when he suffered
an attack Of infantlle paralysis that
affected almost his whole right side
but particularly his right leg and
foot. The disease left him with a
limp which he could not hide, al
though all bis life he had been trying
to walk without 1t. But he couldn't t.
He couldn't be like the other boys; II
they played baseball he had to keep
score for them. or he had to watch
them; If they played football he even
had to keep away back from the side
lines because he could not get out OF
their way.
Mimfckcd by Schoolboys.
He felt his affliction terribiys It hurt
him all his life, this knowledge that he
could not play and that lie had to walk
with a limp. 1t might not have been so
bad IL the other boys and girls had SYM
pathized with him and helped him. but
they didn't. They laughed at him and
made fun of him. The boys at school
mimicked him and paraded before hin,
with an exaggerated limp, and the girls
wouldn't so anywhere with him because
he was q cripple, so when his school
mates had a party or anything OF that
sort he either went alonc or he did not
60 at all. Usually he did not go at all,
because he knew that IL he went. he
would be alone all evening or all after
noon. No ono would play with him be-
cause he could not play; no one would
even talk to him..
The boy had ray OF hope last week
when his father went to Newark and
made arrangements to take him to one
of the clinics and have him examined
by Dr. Lorenz, the Austrian orthopedic
surgeon. That lasted over Christmas,
and young Simkowitz seemed gayer on
the morning OF Christmas day than he
had been In years. But In the afternoon
"a hra nd LET 80
games, crowds of other boys passed
with their skates and their sieds on their
way TO skate and coast.
Hears Last Tsunts.
They didn't stop to ask him to 20
even his own brothers did not ask him.
They passed by with taunts and gibes.
and they did the same thing on Monday,
and on Tuesday. aud again yesterday.
leaving him with nothing TO do but to
read book. And nc didn't wantto read
book. He wanted to run and Jump and
slide down hill on q sled and cut the
figure eight on "a pair OF glistening
skates. Yesterday afternoon he was the
only one left at home. His sister Sophia,
~. was out coasting his brother John,
II. was out skating; his mother was
shopping and his father was at work.
He had nothing to do but to read. and
he had read so much that he hated the
sight of book. lie wandered about the
house. and in the kitchen he found
n half inch rope. He took this rope
and went Into the bathroom, and climb
ing on a chair he tied an end Of the rope
about 81 water pipe ard In the other end
he fashioned a moose Then he pu: the
moose about his neck and kicked the
chair from beneath him. An hour later
his brother John came In and found him.
but William vas dead. lie had left no
message. but he must have felt when he
died that ut last he would walk without
limp. and that At last no one would
make FUN Of him for something hc could
not help.