CHINESE SUICIDES.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 260, 12 September 1867, Page 3

CHINESE SUICIDES.

There is a well-known Greek stoiy of a penniless man who, going-. out with a rope in his hand to hang himself, found a purse of money, which induced him to throw the rope away, whereas the owner of the purse, coming back to look for his property, and finding only the tope instead, straightway hanged himself. A still more curious tale of a similar kind is told by the China papers. In the native city of Shanghai, the parents of a young lady, lately married, having fallen into distressed circumstances, applied to her for assistance, and her husband allowed her to give them a coat for the purpose of being pawned. The daughter however, being anxious to render further aid without her husband's knowledge, secreted 10 dollars in the pocket of the coat. The old man did not discover this, and <took it to a pawnbroker, who, noticiug the money on unfolding the garment, kept his counsel, and quietly advanced two dollars. Soon after, the husband discovered that his wife had given the 10 dollars to her father, and made so much noise about it that the young lady disposed of herself by hanging. In this ■way the news, of the robbery committed by the pawnbroker became . known to the parents, and the old mother took the matter so much to heait that she poisoned herself with opium. Lastly, the pawnbroker, getting alarmed on hearing that his dishonesty had already caused two deaths, drowned himself in a well.' This story is very characteristic of the Chinese feelings in regard to life, and similar incidents not unfrequently occur. Some years ago,

for instance, an accomplished young lady at Canton, who had unfortunately been married to a coarse and stupid husband, was bewailiug her fate to a party of sisters and female cousins, and declared her intention of committing s\iicide. On this the other young ladies declared that, since such was married life, they would die too ; and so the whole bevy of them joined hands together, and, walking into a fish-pond, deliberately drowned themselves. Again, three men imprisoned in Hong Kong* gaol on a charge of piracy determined to make away with themselves rather than have the bother of a trial. At some height in the cell where they were imprisoned was a small window guarded by two iron bars, and the problem which these worthies had to solve was how the three of them wp.re to be hanged upon the two bars. From the positions in which they were found in the 'morning, it would seem that the third man had assisted the two others I in hanging themselves from the bars by their tails ; that then he had cut down one of them by knawing through the tail with- his teeth ; and, using the dead body as a stool, to be afterwards kicked over, he had contrived to suspend himself. All this, too, was done so quietly as not to attract the notice of a sentry who was pacing outside beneath the window.—" Pall Mall Gazette."