STRANGE SUICIDES OF RICH MEM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5961, 28 August 1897, Page 7

STRANGE SUICIDES OF RICH MEM.

(P.ockct.) The suicide of tlio master of many millions, Barney Barnato, emphasises the? oft-noted fact that the excitement and nervous stress -which financiers, and wealthy men generally, are subjected to readier them peculiarly prone to self-destruction. Although financial v.*orry and inability, sometimes of a purely temporary character, to meet their liabilities, generally cause these rash acts, there are numerous instances of'' millionaires a-ind wealthy men committing suicide where other causes than those of a pecuniary nature must be sought for. When Abraham Goldsmid, THE GEEAT BILL BROKER, committed suicide ou Sept. 28, 1810, the British Government actually owed him, jointly with the firm of Baring, the sum of fourteen millions, which he believed was lost, owing to the continual fall of scrip duo to the Napoleonic war. Had the unfortunate man resolutely held on for another iivo years, ,the eventual triumph of England would hare enabled his scrip to have been redeemed, and would have made him, owing to the immense rise in the value of securities, three times, richer than before. The suicide of John Sadleir, M.P., on the other hand, was due to fear of the authorities discovering the frauds he had committed on the Tipperary Bank, and his dramatic exit from the world by means of prussic acid, taken on Hainpstead Heath on the morning of Feb. IU, 1856, caused A PEOFOUND SENSATION in the country. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, eighth Earl of Shaftesbury, who shot himself in a cab in Eegent Street on April 13, 1886, was the possessor of -yaat wealth free from liability, and .the .same may be said I of-'the Duke* of Bedford, who committed suicide the following- January. Fred Archer, the " demon jockey," whose sadend provoked so" much sympathy, although ; by no means a millionaire, was still a rich [ man earning a large income, and absolutely clear of pecuniary difficulty. The most romantic suicide, however, of recent years, the full facts of which have never been discovered, was thafc of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria on Jan. 30. 1889. This heir to untold wealth, as well as the Austrian Crown, it is said, was passionately in love with a young Austrian lady, who reciprocated his affection, and seeino* that his high birth proved AN INSURMOUNTABLE OBSTACLE to their union resolved as they could not live together to at least die together. I n spite of the fierce light which is supposed to beat upon a throne, the Court officials have kept the identity of this lady, whose body was found near the dead prince, secret, save for rumours of a vague nature. Time alone can tell whether the cause of the Austrian Crown Prince's suicide wi' l remain shrouded in impenetrable mystery, like the identity of the "man with the iron mask." It would be easy t« multiply i

■these examples, all of -which' go to wove that wealth, though so much sought after, does not necessarily spell happiness.