"THE IMMORTAL KISS."

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5376, 18 January 1929, Page 4

"THE IMMORTAL KISS."

YOUTH’S REMARKABLE LETTER. PENNED BEFORE TAKING HIS LIFE The contents of a remarkable letter were disclosed at the inquest, on Philip Hugh Housell, 20, transport clerk, of Carholme; Road, Lincoln, who shot himself in the head with a gun. The letter, found near the body, read :—“ Seven p.in. The damned gun does pull hard. The next time I do it I will oil the thing. Eight P.m. So long, folks. How I have wept the; long night through! for the dear lady of the past. So beautiful, so tender, so sweet, whose arms have beep for the (here a few words were indecipherable), who is gone The kiss it is immortal. It passes from lip to lip, from century to century, from age to age. Men gather it to give it back and die. To my darling mother and family I leave all I possess. Think not too hardly of me, mother dear.”

The rest of letter was obliterated by blood. Mrs Hilda Rousell stated that she visited hey .son on the day of his death. Ts.ey had tea together, and went to the pictures. When he saw her off in the evening he remarked that he was looking forward to being home for Christmas,. In one of the last two letters she received from him hej referred to a girl named Nancy, and told witness to go straight to the mill where she worked and see her. She went, but found only a boy. Before parting with her son she asked him if. he was gping to the theatre with Nancy, and he said no. He seemed better than she had seen him for a long time. He told her he had had a letter from his bro-i ther, and would “tejll him off” when he saw him, but she was sure thepe was no ill-feeling between the brothers.

Mr Amos Waterfall, with whom Rousell lodged, stated that he was a bright- lad, and got up singing and whistling. Witness thouht as much of him as he did of his own lads.

■Medical evidence showed that the muzzle of the gun must have been pllaced' inside or close to the mouth.

The Coroner commented that the letter left by Rousell dlfl not seem to have been written by one who was quite master of himself. Apparently he ac,ted upon some crazy impulse, due to a love affair which he thought was hopeless. “I suppose,” added the coroner, “there; are thousands of young men who have had love affairs which they thought were hopeless, and who have thought of. putting an end to‘their lives. I suppose it is very common for young people to feel like that, but it passes off. Probably in another two or three minutes this lad would ahve pulled himself together, and this would not have happened.”

The jury found that Rousell died from a gunshot wound, self-dnflicted during a fit of depression.