BOY’S TRAGIC DEATH

Western Star, 10 April 1934, Page 2

BOY’S TRAGIC DEATH

LITERARY AMBITIONS BOOK AT THE AGE OF 14. A 16-year-old boy who wrote a book called ‘‘Peril of -Death” at the age of 14, and sat up lato at night reading books in French, Latin, and German, was the subject of an inquest at Luton, England, recently. The boy, Hyman Woolf Rock, was found hanging from a beam in a shed at his home. His father, David Marcus Rock, a costumier, said that his son had been employed, by a London motor-car firm as an office boy. He had said that he was tired -of doiiig the same thing over and over again, and that he wauted something bigger. He wa s highly struug. During last winter, when he was unemployed, lie did nothing but write books. He wrote one when he was 14 called “Peril of Death,” which ran to aboue 375 pages. He would sit up until midnight reading book 3 in French, Latin, and German.

Mr Rock said that he was told the boy had used the shed for experiments, but he did not know what kind of experiments. There were three Wo mirrors in the shed. From where ho was hanging the boy could, if he had turned; sideways, have seen himself in one mirror. In the dust on the mirror it looked as if the figure of a man had been aratfn.

The Coroner (Mr G. J. M. AVhyley) • Have you ever known him experiment with ropes or cord 2

Mr Rock: I have not seen him do it, bpt I have been told Do you know if he threatened that if he were not taken away from his 4ioKd 54 he had given exceptional siti^faef salary. The impression he gave was that he had something he \ V; >s ing about apart from his job spoke like a lad far older th-m’ifi , *«sfar ,rn.ro tatolUgM tha „\i,. \

* Recording ; t verdl.-i ~l* - u-n.por.ril/ J4 K ‘ m 0 / St b ? .viop„,“44: r./sih.” disposed of the theory that r th ? was due to some experiment H;- ” ! '™ s somewhat overbalanced T through overstudy or PRECOCIOUS. •V little buv, the youih.w il family, was tak°en married sister’s new baby Jr* ,U ? moro interested in the™,,* f seenißfl »%•* teket . -*"t after examining the trine, •, • a,ld Isn t sho rather you no* fm* +1 ' tiling?’ * Uti * Xov H'ls sort- of Wood* Creat PenDd-inint r,, -, Coughs cJTSS