ARE SUICIDES INSANE?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13438, 16 March 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

ARE SUICIDES INSANE?

The line of demarcation between eccentricity and madness is a difficult one to draw, and in regard to suicides an eminent judge has declared the stereotyped verdict of "Temporary insanity" to be a mild form of perjury in many cases. :

The inadequate reasons for which many misguided persons of both sexes take their own lives, however, leave no, doubt as to their unsoundness of mind.

Septimus Aloysius Nicodemus O'Rafferty committed suicide at Chillicothe, Missouri, by taking a dose of "Rough on Rats." "I am tired of life with such a name," was the simple written explanation he left behind him. ''{'?; : . ,■■■■;:';.;, .<<<' *k.:

At Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, a clever boy of eleven gained a county council scholarship; for three years; but simply because there was some little delay in finding a suitable secondary school for him, it preyed upon the boy's mind to such an extent that he drank a fatal amount of carbolic acid.

A man named Dorringtoh was extremely anxious to:go to the opera one night, but, failing to raise sufficient money wherewith to buy a ticket, he decided to commit suicide. -He left 'aV letter, embodying his reason for taking his life, and, having ascended the parapet of St. Sepulchre's Church, he threw himself down to instantaneous death. >

An addition to the family is an event usually hailed with joy instead of sorrow. It had such a depressing effect, however, on a Bohemian farm labourer named Wurzebesen that when his wife presented him with twins not long ago he promptly hanged himself. ''" ' - .-.'..

A young girl student at _ an English boarding-school, in a fit of pique at being made >to 'study 1 - from an out-of-date, book, committed suicide by drowning herself" in ay tub of rain water, while comparatively recently a young lady of 16, who had failed 'in •an examination - for an assistant teacher's post, put -an,;end to herself by jumping out of .the window. v " .

Two young Austrians named Bogner and Demm, had entered on their period of military service with the 15th Regiment of Dragoons, when, finding a soldier's life not at all suited to their tastes, they agreed to die together, and- forthwith hanged themselves the same tree. t; " .:"/"

• Just sixty years ago 'ah'.-old Greenwich pensioner"•• was guilty of some trifling act of misconduct, and by way of punishment was restricted a little in his allowance for a certain period. This* so affected the ancient warrior that he sharpened the ends of his spectacle frames and stabbed himself -to the heart. . ■ ''■ '-•'■-. ■'. " . *

: Some 18 months ago Lieut.-Colonel Dzwon-Kowski, of a chasseur regiment, committed suicide in Warsaw under very tragic circumstances. He had made himself personally responsible ' for a party of 26 reservists who wished to settle their private affairs. As they failed to return to barracks -at the appointed time Lieut/-, Colonel Dzwon-Kowski drew up a report of the affair, and then shot himself through the head. An hour later/ the 26 men returned, and shortly after, by the irony of fate, came a. telegram announcing the officer's promotion to the rank of full colonel.' /. ; The suicide is constantly adopting singular means of shuffling oft" this mortal coil. A couple of years ago several instances occurred, both in England and France, of miners who had access to explosives blowing their heads to pieces by dynamite cartridges exploded either in- their - mouths or on top of their heads. Quite recently, a young lady walking along 'a Devonshire highway was horrified to find a man leaning against a wall with his head entirely missing., According*to the medical testimony the man had blown his head to atoms by exploding a charge of gelignite in his mouth. ' •'■"': '" '■'■' '■'•" - ; - ••'- ■ '

A New Orleans blacksmith, having made up his mind to terminate his existence, did .so in a particularly cool manner. Loading his gun, lie put the butt end into his forge fire, held the muzzle to his breast, and calmly'blew the fire with the bellows until the charge exploded and killed him. ;.<.'■

' 'Flu' 'suicide* of the Baron BelaOlnyi at Pesth was fantastic in the extreme. Having speculated and lost heavily, ho insured his lift' heavily in five companies. Returning to Pesth, lie died in ten months from what the doctors' called galloping consumption, : having absented himself from home for long periods every day. Detectives employed bv the insurance companies found that: the baron had hired a small room in a remote. part of the city, and furnished it with a comfortable sofa/a table, two chairs, and two chests. One of these contained a comfortable dressing-gown, a pair of loose Turkish trousers, a fez, and a dozen long pipes. In the other were found about 200 strong Havana cigars and a half pound of common smoking tobacco. From the wrappers found in > the bottom of the chest it appeared that in less: than eight months the deceased nobleman had smoked about thirty-five hundred cigars and one hundred pounds of tobacco, and deliberately killed himself by nicotine poisoning.