Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1876 — A Sensational Death. [ARTICLE]

A Sensational Death.

FkkDkrice. As Jeffhkya’ name will be misspelled in all the newspapers of the land, and known to all reading people for a few moments of a single day, and it waa for this he died. He was as druzy as a March hare; there is no doubt about that; but there was a singular method in his madness. He was evidently actuated by an insane desire to create a sensation by ids death—something he could probably never have achieved in life—and he set about it with a deliberation and a minuteness, of preparation which are not infrequently the accessories of mental derangement. Most suicides since the days of the old Grecian and Roman phllosoShers have been traceable to some great isappointment, to deep-set despondency, or a crazed condition of pain or sorrow; but here was a young man who was apparently prosperous, whose habits appear to have been good, who has had no unfortunate love affair, who had money enough to travel and pay his bills at fl?stcliss hotels, who seems to have possessed more than the average intelligence, and to have enjoyed an average education, and who says himself in the letter he left behind that “no one has ever passed four montlis of such genuine happiness as the last four montlis has been to me.” He was very solicitous to impress upon those who should read the letter he left that death had no terrors for him, that there was no particular reason for his committing suicide, and that he only sought for the greater blessings which are to be found (poasiUyjJ* the next life. The real reason was left for inference, and this is pretty clear from the following extract from the letter he left: “ When night comes on I shall draw a piece of wire across the bath-tub lengthwise, its use to be soon explained. The wire will be properly adjusted, the pistol loaded, and with the razor conveniently hung on strings where I can readily reach them. The poisons will then be carefully fixed and mixed. The rope, understand, is to come where it will suspend my body, when attached, exactly over the middle of the tank. Directly over this rope, and on the wire before mentioned, I shall attach cotton or something else which will burn well when alcohol is poured on it. The noose will have been made in the cord, and above my head on the rope shall be placed a like torch, which, when ignited, will burn the cord and let me dowm. I will then pack everything but the clothes which I am to wear, and then, being all ready, I’ll fill the tank with as hot water as I can get. Then mount the tub, with a foot on each side of it, carefully pour the liquor over my pants-legs and coat and shirt; will allow a rope of some soft material to fall from the torch above down my back; will then light the prepared torch on the wire which I then will be standing over; will raise myself upon tiptoe and fix the rope about my neck. It shall be well soaped, so that, when my feet leave the sides of the tank and my full weight comes upon it, it will draw up pretty tight. One thing I had almost forgotten to mention: lam going to put a mirror before me to see if I will be frightened. L think it is more likely that I shall laugh, but as I want to enjoy it all I’ll put the glass up anyhow. Next I reaffli for the tumbler of poisons, conveniently near, and swallow its contents entire, probably shall for more.’ Well, at tliis point I shall hurry up, for deadly acids work destruction quickly. I next grasp my pretty little dirk and send it with all my force into my breast as near to a blackened spot showing where the heart is as possible. The razor and pistol are all ready, and suspended by cords, it must be remembered. So after plunging the dagger in I do not want to withdraw it, but take the razor in my left hand, and as firmly as I am able under the circumstances to do, while I grasp and cock my little silver-mounted pistol; this I place to my head and pull the trigger as I draw the keen-bladed razor across my neck. My feet must slip from tjigir places-by tliis time, anti my legs will come into contact with the wire and the fire upon it, which will of course immediately set my clothing alight. I intend the flame shall run up the rope I shall allow to hang down my back to the place where the other torch will have been prepared. Tliis must sever the strands of rope, and I can but fall into the water below to cook and drown.” This programme was deliberately carried out to the letter, except that the dagger was not used, the pistol and razor having done.their work too effectually to permit of it. The death was also a partial failure, inasmuch as the preparations for cremation miscarried; but the suicide evidently anticipated something of the kind, for he left directions behind to consign his body to a Buffalo doctor. Still the partial failure shows that there are disappoint meats in death as well as life, and Jeffrey’s soul, if still marching on like John Brown’s, must be considerably harrowed up by the reflection. Nevertheless, he is ■entitled :to the satisfaction of knowing that he achieved, on the whole, a remarkablysuccessful and superlatively sensational death. Chicago should hasten to Site him credit for tins much, because he ose this city as tiler scene of hts takingoff in pure deference to its superior merits, ana to encourage us in our progress. He says in his posthumous publication: “There is an emulation and generous rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago whieh I’like, and Chicago being my favorite I shall help her in my humble way, and knock the spots off St. Lobis iffcelebrating the Centennial Fourth.” And he did. We boldly and confidently challenge St. Louis to point to a parallel in the way or suicide at any time during the recently departed century. Now, having given Jeffreys proper recognition for an exceptional degree of success in the death-struggle, which every man ought to have, we are tempted to ask; “Where is this tiling going to stop?” This poor fool, who courted death to make a sensation, was evidently prompted to it by the Lafayette idiot, who was only less ingenious in the invention of an amateur guillotine. If the Utter inspired emulation, the Chicago suicide will excite a ! very general rivalry, and we may expect to hear men embarking for the river Styx in all sorts of barbarous and fantastic styles. Isn’t there some way to put a stop to it? At one time, when there was a mania funong young women in France for. committing suicide, it was checked "by the public exposure of the naked bodies of. those who killed themselves; but no poet mortem indignity Can deter men who butcher and mutilate their own bodies by the means they adopt for severing ties which could be done with “ a bare bodkin. rr Our objection to a further continuation of these practices is not so much the loss of the suicides themselves, since the world.can very well spare men, but the danger that these novel experiments, looking at once to death and cremation, may possibly lead to the taking off of other people who are not yet ready and anxious to go. But perhaps the hopelessness of exceeding the sensationalism of this latest death will deter other young

men ambitious in the same direction .mid Jeffreys may be dismissed with tlie epitaph Shakspeare wrote for him; 1 Nothing In hl* Ute Became him like the leaving it; he died A* one that had been studied 1» hie death. To throw eway the dearest thin* he owned, Aa’t were a carelee* trifle. —CAtcapo Tribune.