SUICIDE CLUB FOR BOYS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 27 July 1909, Page 1

SUICIDE CLUB FOR BOYS.

CASTING- LOTS FOE THE VICTIM. DEATH SCENE- KEHEAKSED Bl r SCHOOL LADS.Astounding revelations have just becu made coneeruiug tho suicide hist week at Clermant-Ferraud of Blaise Pascal Nony, a 15 year :ol boy, writes tlio Paria correspoudeul of a Londou paper. The lad blew Uis brains out "before his schoolfellows assembled at class. The details of the tragedy ' noi^ only show a very strange mentality, but emphasise, in a striking manner, tho increase in juvenilo criminality. Tho boy's home appears to have beeii an unhappy one. On tho very eve of his death such a violent scene occurred that ho spent the night with neighbours. 110 was also a diligent reader of the German philosophers of tho • pessimistic school This latter circumstance, coupled with tfej fact +hat his honie was unua PPy, must have had something to do with his_ act of despair; -but tho decisive point was his connection with a suicido club which certain of his schoolmates had formed. CAST LOTS FOE THE VICTIM. It appears that three boys east lots to decide which was to kill himself first, and young Weny drew the fatal number His iwo accomplices at oncD set to work to drive him to carry out his pledge by accusing him of cowardice. The day beforo his death they made him rehearse all the details of the tragedy, and then marked with chalk tire spot where he was to blow his- brains out. Whilo this grim rehearsal' was taking place in an empty class room, a junior boy put his head inside the door and saw what was going on. The others drove him away, saying: "You know too much; you will have to be put out of the way.i' It appears that there was a list in' existence of boys who were to' be "suppressed." - ■' V SUICIDE SCENE BjEHEABSED. . Ten minutes before the final scene, in class Neny's neighbour borrowed a watph and said to him: "You know you have to kill' yourself at twenty minfites past three. You have only ten : minutes, to live." ■ ; When'fivo .minutes had elapsed he remindecT him again, and again when only two minutes remained. Punctually to the minute the wretched boy rose, walked on' the spot where tho chalk mark was, drew a revolver, and shot himself :in, the right temple; ■ - In the confusion which followed" one of the conspirators had the coolness to seize the revolver and hide it. It has not been recovered, j It is a curious coincidence that only a' few months''; ago Eobert Louis Stevenson's stories of-. "The Suicido 'Club" from" the ;^ New Arabian Nights" were ' publisjifed in a popular French magaziricv"' Whether the boys had seen tho stories or not is not stated. •