STOCKBROKER'S CALM SUICIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 15

STOCKBROKER'S CALM SUICIDE.

£300,000 LIABILITIES?" ,^™* "Charley," the idol of the Waff-street Stock Exchange, a champion boxer and splendid athlete, blew out his brains on Tuesday, April 28, at his New Yerk home In despair at bis financial entanglements. The suicide was followed by the announcement of the failure of the stockbroking firm of Coster, Knapp, and Co., with liabilities between £160,000 and £200.000. All his friends had believed his affairs to be in a sound financial state; but Mr. J. M. Knapp, Mr. Coster's partner, on examining the books, discovered that his comrade had been speculating heavily with the firm's money. Mr. Coster made a fortune when the Union Pacific declared a dividend of ten rer cent, and ever since then he has been so self-confident that he would take no advice. After the October panic he pursued "bear" tactics until a few days age he lest all his own and his customers' money in outside speculations through a rise in stocks.

Still he gave no hint of his awful position and on' Tuesday 'no one could have told that there was anything the matter from his manner. Though in superb health and only forty-two, he decided to put an end to his existence, seeing no way out of his financial troubles. In order te soften the shock to his wUe, he arranged, with the utmost deliberation, that his death should take place while the family doctor was In the house.

TVIFE FAINTED OVER CORPSE. He telephoned Dr. Bartlett to call, and the doctor found him sitting in his bedroom In pyjamas. Mr. Coster, who owned a fine shooting brfx In Long Island, held the doctor in conversation on the subject of shooting until his wife's return. He was showing Dr. Bartlett a rare collection of fin-arms and revolvers when the front door bell rang, and Mrs. Coster entered. "Charley, are you there?" she called.

Excusing himself with the doctor. Mr. Coster went to the front bedraom, and a second later, as his wife reached the top of the stairs, a pistol shot resounded in the house. Mrs. Coster and the doctor rushed to the room and found the athlete stretched on the bed dead with a bullet in his brain The heartbroken wife fell fainting on the body.

Mr. Coster was a member of an old New York family, and many of the best clubs in the metropolis. He was a fine amateur boxer, and, after some training, he became too strong for Professor "Mike" Donovan, who is Mr. Roosevelt's trainer In the art of self-defence. Mr. Coster fought "Billy" Edwards, the light-weight champion. After forty rounds Edwards exclaimed: "You evidently do not know when you are beaten. I do." Mr. Coster afterwards gained a decision on points against James J. Corbett.

Mr. William Coster, only-brother of the suicide, and junior member of the firm, arrived in New York on the Oceanic from a long trip to Europe an hour after the failure was notified. He heard of the death of .his brother by wireless telegraphy the previous night.