Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1890-12-27 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SENSATIONAL SUICIDES.  On Friday morning a man named Stirling committed suicide by jumping in front of a South Western tram at Bavenscourt Park. Stirling appeared to have booked to the City. On the approach of the Richmond Ludgate-bill train lie deliberately jumped on to the:four footway in front of the engine. Every effort was made to prevent the disaster, but without success; consequently the train passed over his body, which was frightfully mangled, the snow-covered rails being deeply stained with :blood. A young student of theology named Franz Pfau is reported to have committed suicide at Bruck, near Glatz, under the following romantic circumstances: He was in love with a young nun named Sister Maria, who was attached to a convent in the above place, and was dangerously ill. He went thither desiring to see her, but the Mother Superior refused to allow him to do so, whereupon he drew a pistol and fired at her twice. The woman fell, and Pfau, thinking her dead, killed himself with his revolver. It appears that Sister Maria once nursed the young man through a sickness, and at the same time inspired him with a hopeless passion. The Mother Superior, though badly wounded, is not dead. In the majority of cases of suicide at Monte Carlo it is well-nigh impossible to obtain exact information, so swift and sure are the police agents of the Casino in destroying all traces of the victim and the evidences of his identity. This week, however, says the Times correspondent at Nice, the deplorable case of a young man who had several English friends here has been thoroughly investigated, and lam now able to give exact details. Mr. C. L. Bour, an engineer, 28 years of age, who had been out in South America for some time and returned to England with about £2,000, came to Nice five or six weeks ago and began to play daily at Monte Carlo. He was living with a young French woman in rooms here. This afternoon she narrated the sad circumstances of his death. The proceedings of the Monaco authorities in their efforts to hush up the suicide are particularly interesting. The story of Roues early winnings and then of repeated I,sses until all his money had gone is similar to that of every other victim of the Monte Carlo gambling tables. All his jewellery and most of his clothes were pawned and the proceeds laid upon the green cloth in the hope of retrieving his fortunes. The last 5 franc piece passed to the bank on Monday last. During the evening he wrote a letter to his mistress stating that when she received it he would be dead. She hastened to Monte Carlo on Tuesday morning and saw the body of Mr. Bour at the Morgue with a bullet through the temples. The police told her they had found it under the walls of the Castle of Monaco. She went to the director of the Casino and furnished evidence of Mr. Bour's Identity. She also made a statement of debts paid on his behalf, and the director handed her 400 francs, on the understanding that she gave up the documents in her possession belonging to Mr. Bour for the use of the Monaco police. Two officers came to Nice and took away all papers, including, as she alleges, a certificate shewing that Mr. Bour was born in England. She made a request to the Monaco authorities that the body should be interred in a Protestant cemetery, and that the deceased's friends, whose addresses she supplied, should be advised of the deplorable event. The remains, however, were buried at once in the , Common graveyard of the Principality.