Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1875 — Singular Case of Insanity and Suicide. [ARTICLE]

Singular Case of Insanity and Suicide.

Frank Rodecker, a prosperous German, proprietor of a large billiard hall and lager beer saloon at Third avenue and One Hundred and Thirty-fifth street, to accommodate a friend about three months ago, mortgaged some property in Greenbush for SBSO. After the transaction he returned to his saloon and began to think over what he had done, and concluded that all was not right. As he was not informed in legal matters he asked the opinion of a neighbor. “ Why,” said the man, “don’t you know you have placed yourself completely in his power* That paper empowers him to come down here, take away all your property, sell it, and pocket the money.” Rodecker heard'these words in despair, and became . moody to the verge of insanity. He told his brother, his partner, of what he had done, saying that everything that they had acquired by their eight years of business would be swept away. He added that he didn’t care for himself; “ but,” said he, “ everything that you have will go, too, and many others must suffer.” His brother reasoned with him, telling him that the mortgage was good only for SBSO, and that beyond that the holder of the claim had no power over them. “Explain it,” said Rodecker. .After tlie explanation he brightened up and said: “.I see it’s all right; I wish I had left the whole business to you.” Rodecker soon became moody again, and, sitting behind his bar, questioned his customers about the troublesome mortgage. He often stopped while playing billiards with his brother, and exclaimed: “ I am sure that all our property is going to be sw’ept away.” He awoke in the night and asked his brother to explain the whole matter. Whenever he saw a lawyer passing his saloon he ran out, and, reciting liis troubles, asked the attorney’s opinion of the case. Rodecker was an athletic man, and had been particularly fond of fishing and of out-door sports, but after executing the mortgage papers he thought of nothing but that difficulty. The brother laughed at the trouble, and told Rodecker that lie acted like a child. On Wednesday the brother came down to the city to visit his father and mother, and returned about tw-elve o’clock at night. He was met by Rodecker, who askeff how his father and mother were, and then said, Very impressively, that he w-as sure that all their property would betaken away, as the man to whom he had given the mortgage had just won a suit in the courts. Rodecker then went up-stairs, and in a moment there was the sound of a pistol shot. He was found sitting in his chair by a window, with a bullet in his brain, and with a revolver still smoking in his hand. His brother raised him in his arms, and, with an effort, he said: “ ¥ou take care of father and mother; kiss me,” and fell back unconscious. Rodecker was thirty-two years old and unmarried.—We-ic York Sun.

»—The printed official census of Newfoundland for 1874 has just come to hand. It shows that, including the French shore and Labrador, there are 59,057 adherents of tlie Church of England, 64,018 of the Church of Rome, 35,099 Wesleyans, 470 of the Kirk of Scotland, 697 of the Free Church of Scotland, ard 486 Congregationalists. During the last five years the Church of England has increased at the rate of 7 per cent., the Wesleyans at the rate of 21 per cent, the Kill of Scotland at the rate of 17 per cent., and the Free Kirk at the rate of 21U per cent. —The Captain and mate of the bark Union have been arrested at San Francisco on the charge of wrecking the vesstd to obtain the insurance money. The plottings between them were overheard by the cook, who has given his testimony against them, and one of the prisoners has made a full confession. The penalty lor this crime is death and the case is the first that has occurred fofmany years in America. —Suicide is getting to be more common in thisjeountry than it formerly was in France? -