Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1894 — The Dovers’ Leap. [ARTICLE]

The Dovers’ Leap.

Sappho killed herself by jumping from the Lovers’ Leap, a Leucadian cliff. This leap was often taken by lovesick persons, who believed that u they survived the fall they would be effectually cured of a hopeless passion. The leaps were always witnessed by crowds of spectators, and the. would-be suicides were in no way interfered with by the state. Boats were in attendance below to pick up the loapers if they came to the surface of the sea after the plunge.. Sapnho had a passion for a young man who did not return her love and leaped from the cliff in order to be cured. She perished in the fall. So also did Artemisia and many other celebreties. Plin.v tells a curious story of an old Athenian miser who was in love with his cook and desiring a cure, went to have a look at the cliff. He peeped over; khook his head, went home and married the cook.—St. Louis GlobeDemocrat.