Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1875 — Suicides in the Prussian Army. [ARTICLE]

Suicides in the Prussian Army.

A Berlin correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette writes: “ The mania for suicides is becoming so general in the Prussian army that a proposition has been made to investigate the cause and devise means to remedy this deplorable evil. Jn the last health statistics of the army the percentage of suicides over natural deaths was alarmingly great. The following letter, written by a soldier to his parents before seeking a watery grave in the Rhine, will throw some light on one cause of the suicidal mania, and also give an idea of the severe drilling the poor fellows undergo before they are turned out on exhibition as specimens of the best military system in the world: “Maykncs, April 28. “ Dear Parents— When this letter reaches you I will be no longer among the living, for to-dav I have determined to put an end to my life. \Tntil now 1 have borne everything with patience, and always hoped that after this dreadful time a better would soon come. But what is madness is too much. To-day we had turning and bayonet exercise the first time, and I must strike ana parry like a threeyear recruit Because all did not go as it should Lieut G. gave me a box on the ear, something to which I have never been subjected before in all my recruiting years. I cannot endure it any longer, and must put an end to the matter. Dear mother, I beg a thousand times your forgiveness for what I am about to do, but it is not to change. Console yourself and pray to God that he will graciously receive my poor soul. You have carried me in your heart, you have raised me with great pain, and now 1 return all your care with so sad an end. My dear, good mother, do not cry too much for your poor son, and try and think that I have died a natural death, and there is nothing in this world worth living for. I cannot write any more, for my heart is aching with such great pain. I would like to write to uncle and many others, but I cannot 'With much love and a thousand kisses. From your faithful son Theodore. “ This is only & single instance of touching letters that are occasionally made public, and with its sad result one must not wonder that, with all the true love for the fatherland there still exists a strong current of feeling against the three years of soldier life enforced upon every young man. But those who live for military glory must have the means thereto, let the sacrifice be what it may.” 7*~--—A little Orange (N. J.) girl was seriously poisoned by eating “ monkshood,” the other day. It is a common garden plant. *