A ROMANTIC SUICIDE AT MELBOURNE.

Evening Star, Issue 3099, 24 January 1873, Page 3

A ROMANTIC SUICIDE AT MELBOURNE.

Dr Youl held an inquest on the 17th December (says the Melbourne Argn*), entire body of Charles Ferres, aged 37 cooper, Irelonging to the engineer volunteer corps. Fvidcnce was given that the deceased, who rented a room in Latrohe street, had been low spirited for the last six weeks, and was found dead on the l(sth instant, hanging to the post of his bed by a scarf. A savings hank book, with a credit of L 122, a receipt for LSO in the Victorian Permanent Building Society, a watch and chain, some silver, and wearing apparel were found in the room. Deceased was unmarried, and was never known td be out of his mind, though he had seemed a little strange, and lately more so than usual. He was affect'd about three months ago by being for some weeks out of employment, and about two months ago his head was hurt by a beam falling upon him. His ways were queer and stupid, but were more so since the beam fell on him. He wasted to marry tfco water of a

Queen street, named John E. Rigby. The letters found in the deceased’s room were as follows :—“Melbourne, September 29, 1872. —My Dearest Friend, —I am indeed very sorry to have to write to yvu like this. I have now lost Bella. This is the second Sunday now that I have to walk out without her. I feel it more on Sunday than any other day. She said that she was disgusted with me. That went to my heart Ike a knife. 1 asked her to take it back, thinking she did not mean it, but she would not. 1 asked her again and again, but she became more and more determined, and said, “No, 1 won’t; I’ll rather die first.’ Tear friend, I believed then that she meant it. I was then compelled to leave her, and so I supposed that she wished it, even though she said that I wished it. She no doubt had her reasons for saying I wished it. perhaps to throw dust in my eyes. Well, 1 don't know what to think of it sometimes. Perhaps it might lie as well for both of us. My misfortunes, some of them, have come on mo since I became acquainted with her. I sometimes thought of telling her, but I was afraid of losing her, .and I wai told that all would soon be right again, but I must avow' that it is possible if 1 had only a little more money ] would try and make it up again, and marry her right off if I could. lam afraid that she expects a better home than 1 would be able to give her, and then what may be the result ? lam sure that I would work my fingers’ ends off for her, but I don’t suppose that she would believe me if I were to tell her that. You know how ray trade has gone to wreck lately, and I am trying to (as it were) s’ eal into another, and I get on very well with it, lam happy to say. I will not' say any more at present, as I am not very w 11.—1 am, Ac., C. F.” [Another unfinished letter, of a similar character, was found ] The jury found that the deceased committed suicide by hanging himself while of unsound mind.

Life-prolonging Power : “ Whom the gods love die early” receives no confirmation from the two men who are probably most admired, reverenced, or talked of at present. Thiers and Livingstone, tho one beyond, the other a little short (f, the term of years allowed to man by the Psalmist,' are striking examples of what we have more than once maintained —the life-prolonging power of keen mental occupation and successful enterprise. The witty and accomplished author of the “Secret of Long Life,” sees most chance for longevity in tho “Stillleben” of the country, witji its gentle Horatian enjoyments, moral and intellectual. We doubt this view. Hermits are not longlived, and if country gentlemen survive the threescore years and ten, it is by a mode of life precisely the reverse of tho louftging dilettante. Town life stimulates the brain and nervous system—the reservoir of vitality —far more than rural, as is seen in the much rarer occurre ce of idiocy or imbecility of tho gamin of the busy street than in the child of the torpid village. And as with the child so with the man. Providence seems wisely to have ordained that life should be prolonged in proportion to the value of its possessor as a man and a citizen.— Lancet.