GRIM SUICIDES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1920, 4 December 1890, Page 36

GRIM SUICIDES.

STRANGE WAYS OB 1 ENDING Llfrß A* PARIS.

Before the Column Vendome was pulled down by the Commnne its pinnacle was much sought for by Parisian suicides who wished to take a final view of their beautiful city and then leap into eternity. Now that the ascent of the column is denied to every one but a few officials and Important guests of the Eepublic, the Cathedral of Notre Dame has become the fashion among the seekers of the oblivion. It was only a few days ago, in the early evening, that a merchant of the Boulevard St. Michael was taking a quiet after-dinner walk with his little daughter past the majestic portals of Notre Dame. Suddenly a dark, whirling body, like an enormous bird of the night, spun down through the gloom, crushing him on the pavement. The falling object was a woman j who had jumped from one of the cathedral towers. The little girl was fortunately not harmed, the suicide was dead, and the man so nearly so that he still lies in a precarious condition in the hospital. The charcoal fire has been gradually going out of fashion since the grisette faded into history, for, in the first place, it is not always efficacious in producing the desired death, and has been vulgarised by being used so much by questionable women. The same might be said of drowning in the Seine. Last year the morgue sheltered in its gloomy walls less than 900 silent guests, while in 1883 there were 944. A most melancholy chapter in the history of suicides in Paris is its alarming increase among children of both sexes. 1 In 1877 tkere were 141 boys and girls under 16 who had taken their own lives to escape cruel taskmakers or for disappointment in love. This year the number will be over 200. Between the ages of 16 and 20 the yearly suicides amount to over 1100. One of the strangest suicides ever committed in France was the cause of a long and tedious lawsuit. The victim was a financier who had been ruined by speculation on the Bourse. He was very devoted to his family, who had been brought up in the most luxurious surroundings. He resolved that he would turn his suicide to some account so that they might be well provided for after his death. It was not generally known in the financial world that he was entirely ruined, for he was considered a man of great wealth, and his heavy losses might be recovered by a lucky covp. So he lived on for some months in the same extravagant way, staving off his creditors until he had perfected a plan of suicide. As usual that summer, he took his family to Switzerland, and one day set off with a party of- friends to ascend a neighbouring mountain. They came back alone — in crossing a field of ice the financier had suddenly disappeared through a crevasse. A few weeks later his body was recovered, 1 and then it was found that some weeks previous he had insured his life for several hundred thousand francs in various accident companies. These companies demurred about paying the money until they examined into the matter. They discovered that the victim was a ruined man, and that a few days after his failure he had drawn out these heavy policies on his life. They also found a sort of memorandum in his note book in which he had written down his plan of committing suicide, which was to leap into that deadly ice ravine when his friends were not looking. If he had not been such a methodical man, and had only written down the scheme on the tablets of his memory, all would have been well, but the company had sufficient evidence to refuse to settle.

A stranger suicide was that of a young Alsatian who came to' Paris and established a restaurant on the Boulevard Magenta. He had a young and beautiful wife who pre< sided at the cashier's desk, and was not the least attraction in the eyes of the men who frequented the place. A young artist boaided with the family, a handsome fellow who had created considerable havoc among all the female hearts in the Faubourg. It soon became evident to the Alsatian that this romantic-looking Romeo was altogether- too attentive to the pretty wife. He remonstrated with her on several occasion, but was only laughed at for his pains. Time passed and his suspicions were verified. He planned a terrible revenge. He was found one morning dead on the floor of his bedroom. The furniture was broken, the bed overturned, on every side were the signs of a terrible struggle.

Near the dead man lay a pistol and a handkerchief which were proved to be the property of the artist. In his room notes were found in which he stated his fear of being assassinated by the young man and his belief that the wife also wanted him out of the way.

Things looked black for the pretty cashier and the young man with the poetic face and long hair. They saw the shadow of the guillotine loom up in every sunset sky.

But one of the wonderful detectives of Paris solved the mystery. He discovered that the bullet which had killed the victim could never have bean fired from the pistol found by his side. It was 6i a much larger calibre, and, besides, the revolver showed no signs of having been recently fired off. Thia seethe police thinking that the unhappy husband had planned a posthumous revenge against the man he believed had ruined his home. 'i'he discovery of another pistol in the court of the restaurant settled the dispute. The husband had probably intended to kill" himself with his neighbour's pistol, but finding it unloaded, and not being able to procure proper cartridges at the last moment, he had shot himself withjhis own revolver and then flung it out of the window, placing the other weapon at his side. The wife and the loVer were acquitted, and have since married, and live happily on the otber side of the Seine. A strange gnicide was that of a yorlilg novelist of the Latin Quarter some time ago. He belonged to the naturalist school, but did not have the genius of 2501 aor Bourget, though he wrote fairly well. He thought of turning his suicide to" account by making it the last chapter in his last novel, as it was the last ohapter in the story of his life. . He cut several arteries, and while his lifeblood slowly oozed away he wrote down his feelings until the pen fell from his hand, and the last mark he made on the paper was a cross in his own blood. But, alas 1 for his hopes and those Of his publisher, the book never succeeded, for all the realism concentrated in its last chapter. To-day in Paris another book is being industriously advertised as the work of the suicide George Berthier, who seems to have been an unfrocked priest. Recently a young girl employed in a manufactory cf artificial flowers hung herself from a beam in the working room. She had attached a placard to her dress bearing the employer's name, and below it in large letters she had printed " Assassin I " The sight of this body worked so much on the man's mind that from being a tyrant who starved the girls in the shop he became the kindest of employers, raising their miserable wages and reducing the working day to eight hours. So this poor child's suicide had produced some good effects. The reason for her death was explained more fully by a scrap of paper found in her pocket. It recorded her expenditure for the week, This is the translation. It shows how a Paris working girl lives, or tries to live, one sou 1 being equal to an American cent : — Sunday, January 14, 1890. — 1 roll, 1 sou ; fried potatoes, 2 sous; 1 fried sausage, 2 sous. Monday— 2 rolls, 2 sous ; coffee and milk, 3 sous ; fried potatoes, 1 sou. Tuesday— l roll, 1 sou; slice of ham, 3 sous ; 1 pork chop, 4 sous ; coffee, 3 sous. Wednesday — 2 rolls, 2 sous ; 1 buillon, 3 sous ; 1 long sausage, 3 sous. Thursday— l roll, 1 sou; 1 mutton chop, 6 sous ; coffee, 3 sous. Friday — 2 rolls, 2 sous; coffee, 3 sous; chocolate, 3 sous; 1 box of blacking, 1 sou; hair pomade, 1 sou. Saturday — 1 roll, 1 sou^ charcoal for fire, 1 sou; 1 candle, 1 sou. The total for the week amounted to 53 cental , A young man of Monterre had been discarded by the young lady of his choice, and on the day of her marriage, while the final words were being said that linked her to his rival for life, this miserable man staggered across the aisle and fell dead at her feet. He had poisoned himself while the joyous peals of .the wedding march ran through his disordered brain.