Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1877 — Attempted Suicide by Starvation. [ARTICLE]

Attempted Suicide by Starvation.

Six months ago a gentleman and his wife registered their names in the best hotel in Sonora, Cal. They made few acquaintances ; they seemed to court seclusion ; they wandered up and down the grassy hills ; occasionally they were seen sitting under a tall pine; anon the man carried a pick-ax on his shoulder and had the air of a man who was hunting for a pocket vein ; they were eccentric and mysterious. On*June 30 they disappeared, and, after their fellowboarders had gossiped about them for a day or two, search was made for them. The queer couple were found on the top of Bald mountain, not far from the town. They had been out-doors about ninety hours; they had not lost their way ; they had gone out into the woods with the deliberate purpose of starving to death ; they had eaten nothing ; they had a four-ounce bottle filled with water, with which they had moistened their parehed lips; they were dying by inches. The neighbors carried them to a cabin and induced them to eat something. The husband is a graduate of a Pennsylvania medical college, and owns a homestead in New Jersey. Once he was very wealthy, but he lost everything in stock speculations in San Francisco. He had been waiting for remittances from that city ; his last penuv was gone; ho was in debt to the hotel proprietor ; he resolved to go up to the mountain and starve, and his wife went with him. The Alta is unable to determine whether these people are lunatics or Spiritualists.