ASHES OF ASHMAN'S DREAMS

NZ Truth, Issue 1141, 13 October 1927, Page 3

ASHES OF ASHMAN'S DREAMS

When Slave of Bacchus Stood On Brink of Eternity (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) • "THE victims of potations deep pine on the couch of sadness; Some calling death to end their pain ..."

AS though he had stepped out from these very lines of the famous poem, "The Dream of the Reveller," Frank Charles Ashman (22). rl imbed to the parapet of Graf ton Bridge. Obsessed by the burnished offerings of Bacchus, the young, man had entered far into the temple of brimming bowls, until he was tethered •to the false-colored festoons of carousal and dissipation. The poor human mind was steeped m goblets of intoxication until reaaon was palsied and virtue gone. The gay tapestries of the throne of Bacchus gradually fell away, giving place to the sinister walls of dark despair. In a slough of despondency the frenzied brain was tortured by the cries of a million denizens of the mental dungeon — "Body and soul are mine!" Guided by a felonious finger pointing to the only visible exit, young Ashman followed down the gloomy halls that lead to suicide. He was found on the threshold of existence, peering into the realms of Beyond — from the parapet of Grafton

foofa-han? I™ 6 t^ty'minu'T past ten on the night of Friday, September 30, when two nurses from the public hospital proceeding homeward across the bridge noticed a figure climbing to the parapet. With courage and wonderful presence of mind, the two young women rushed to the scene of the intended tragedy and were m time to stay the man' ($ desperate action. . While one of the

, «' »"" '»'™» " " »* M UNPROFITABLE | | . = | THESE expensive hobbles! § | * Admittedly some men's | | hobby is beer. They will not | | dispute it. But such a hobbyist | | m Christchurch has to bear | | Magistrate Mosley very steadily = = m view. .- , i | Two men whose hobbies had | = descended to the level of utter = | drunkenness last week will have I | tq forget their side-lines for a i | while. I § For plain, common drunken- . § = nesSt one man was sent away by i | the magistrate for three months i | m gao\. The other received I = fourteen days. I | And the barometer says "dry." i = . 1 <: 7iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii)iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!iiiiii;

nurses clung to Ashman, the othei* raced away for assistance. To the plucky efforts of these two women, Ashman owes his life. Later the young man was charged before Magistrate Hunt at the Auckland Police Court with attempting to commit suicide. He pleaded guilty. Sergeant Calwell gave the information that Ashman had been a patient at the hospital suffering from the effects of alcoholism. He had been discharged only the Jay before, when he went straight back to liquor and m the evening attempted to take his life. Physically, said 'the sergeant, the man was now m good health. The S.M. remanded Ashman over the week-end for the purpose, as the bench suggested, of "getting the last lot of liquor out of his system." "Drink is his curse," said Lawyer Sullivan, for Ashman, when the young man again faced the court. "Well, what about the island for twelve months?" was S.M. Hunt's iocommendation. But the mother, said counsel, had instructed him to ask for a chance for her % son, whom she promised to look after. Ashman was

S^'prohSSSS order against him"Who is there here to take him away from the court if I let him go?" inquired his worship, The mother not being present m court, it was decided to detain the young man m custody until the afternoon, when someone could take charge of him. He was convicted and discharged on tne charge of attempted suicide and ordered to take out a prohibition order.