EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE AT PRAHRAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8632, 30 July 1891, Page 5

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE AT PRAHRAN.

A BOY TWELVE YEARS OLD SHOOTS

. \ HIMSELF. , . ; Probably the most extraordinary suicide in Victoria for years was that of a boy welve years of age at Prahran on Saturday, the 18th instant. Not only is it remarkable because of the extreme youth of the victim, but also because of the - circumstances which led up to it. The boy's name was Frederick Wallace; Mathers, and; he was the son of John Mathers, bookmaker, carrying on business at ' the corner of Bendigo-street and Malvern Road, Prahran. The lad was unusually bright-witted and intelligent, and though only twelve years of age, had passed successfully through the state school curriculum, obtained his certificate, and was assisting his father in several ways in conducting his business. He was trusted by his father in many matters of importance, and he always acquitted himself so well that ho was the pride of his parents. He was a lad of quiet manners and thoughtful disposition, and not given to passionate outbursts of temper, and, generally, was so amenable to discipline that he seldom deserved reproof. But on Friday his mother noticed that he was indulging himself in sweets and fruit, and she asked him where he got them. He told betthat another boy, whose name he mentioned, bought the several delicacies and shared them liberally with him. As this other boy was employed in a shop, Mrs. Mathers deemed it prudent to make further inquiries about the money before permitting her son to accept the sweets and fruit from him. She sent the boy to bed, and on Saturday morning, having consulted her husband in the meanwhile, she told the boy that his father was going to see his friend's employer to ask about the money. ! The boy seemed much troubled when he heard this, and begged her not to allow his father to do that, " because he did not want his friend to get into any bother through him." Seeing his mother was determined to do what she said she would, the boy went upstairs straight to his father's bedroom, and: taking a sixchambered revolver, : which was always kept loaded under the pillow, shot himself in the forehead. Mrs. Mathers heard the report and rushed up to ttie room. The boy was lying upon the floor bleeding and unconscious. Dr. Ramsay was immediately sent for, but he could do nothing, as the charge—a ball cartridgewas lodged in the lad's brain, and death was certain. The poor little fellow lingered in an unconscious condition until the evening when he died. It is impossible to tell why the boy shot himself. As previously intimated he was not passionate in nature, nor was he subject to fits of melancholy or irrationality. The father supplies the key to the puzzle, probably, when he says that the boy was fond of reading to a fault, and delighted himself in sensational stories and whatever else in the form of printed type he could acquire. He was frequently checked, and measures were taken by his parents to stop him over-reading, but he was so passionately fond of the pastime that it was a difficult matter to restrain him. • .