Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1900 — DISSUADED A SUICIDE. [ARTICLE]

DISSUADED A SUICIDE.

The Preacher Pointed Out Why Buck a Death Was 11l Advised. _“Aji Arkansas country storekeeper of my acquaintance had a Bad attack of melancholy about a year ago,” said a drummer to a New Orleans Times-Dem-ocrat reporter, "and attempted to commit suicide. He put a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger, but the cartridge failed to explode, and before he could try it again the weapon was taken away. However, he swore he would do the deed the first chance he got, and he was, no doubt, really of that intention, when he was talked out of It by a little Itinerant preacher, who was a reformed gambler. The argument used by the parson was so peculiar and ingenious that it made a deep impression on my mind. ” 'You know you would he a dead man,’ he said, as nearly as I can remember, 'if it wasn't for the fact that there was a defective cartridge under the hammer of your revolver. Now, a defective cartridge is a very unusual thing,’ he went on. 'They calculate at the manufactory that there is possibly one to the quarter million turned out. The chance of that had cartridge being in the boxful that you bought for your gun was not over one to another quarter million; the chance of your getting hold of it when you loaded was exactly one to fifty, and the chance of it being under the hammer was ono to five That makes the total 1 to 500,055,' ” “At that-point the little preacher suG deuly straightened up; his eyes (lashed fire, his chest expanded, nml. he shook his forefinger under the storekeeper’ll uose. ‘You miserable sinner!' ho roared, ‘do you Imagine for a minute that tin I/ord would have given you that kind of odds and let you win out on the plas if He liadu't got some good and special use for your life? Don’t let me evet; hear of your trying to block Him again!’ The would-be suicide thought the tiling over and concluded that the parson was right. Ills melancholy promptly disappeared, nnd the last time I saw him ht was bubbling over with cheerfulness. He believes firmly he Is a mnn of des> tiny."