SUICIDE’S REMARKABLE LETTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3184, 1 April 1911, Page 9

SUICIDE’S REMARKABLE LETTER.

READ AT AN INQUEST.

Probably one of the most remarkable 1 letters ever penned by a suicide was the ■ following, read at an inquest on the ■' body of an unknown man who was de- ■ capitated on the railway near Alder--1 shot: —-“Kindly free from censure the 1 courageous • driver Of the train responsible for this another tragedy. The cause of this 'tragedy is the unfair distribution of work. I have searched in vain for the past three, and a half months for a situation. I even went the length of offering £5 for a situation, but, alas, alas! ‘The Survival of the Fittest,’ a book which I read some time ago taught me if I were honest I would not survive. Well, I could not be dishonest. I would not survive; but I say the time is coming when a man becomes really conscious of the, real cause of this drama —the unfair distribution of work —lie will not commit—as I have done —suicide, but will instantaneously arm himself with a revolver, and he will make a “B” lino for the Prime Minister of the country, and make him pay the penalty with .his life. This is a conviction which is growing surely and not very slowly. Although 1 am taking my life, that is no proof of the death of this conviction. I am not the author of it. However, it has been said that there is a land of —ah! all! ah! alien murderers here, and that no stone should be left unturned in the clearance of same! I have been to Sidney Street-. I have seen the West End. Yes, I know London. I have also been to church —the manufactory of crime—and I am convinced that if people from the. North, South, and East refrain from going to church after this day there will be no recurrence of the Sydney Street affair. I would have liked to have lived a little longer, but 1 am convinced I shall be better away, seeing the drama every day as I see. it. I do not believe in murder. Nevertheless I warn the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister of this Country of the real and, as I believe, proper conviction that is growing—it can’t be stopped. Now I am afraid I will have to close up, as my train will be here presently. Good-bye, Briton. Written at Aldershot, Monday, 31st January, 1911, four o’clock, while waiting that fatal train destined to take me to Heaven.”

The jury returned a verdict of temporary insanity .