SUICIDES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1625, 25 August 1887, Page 2

SUICIDES.

An epidemic of suicides appears to , have broken out in Melbourne. A very singular case has occurred at Fitroy suburb. Augustus Sollom, a young chemist in the employ of Ford and Co., took a dose of prussic acid at his boarding house, and left the following letter for his employers :—“ I wish to be thoroughly understood, that this is no sudden or impulsive deed. I have come to the same conclusion as my own friend Charles Wilson, that life is not worth living, and people will see this by this last testament. All necessary arrangements have been made for our burial.” The Charles Wilson referred to was a fellow boarder, and had slept in the same bed with the deceased for the ' past two months. There was no evidence, however, that any agreement had been come to between the two to commit suicide, else Wilson would have been liable to a charge of murder, - Additional interest was attached to the case because several years ago a somewhat similar case happened. Two men, named Marks and Feeney, had agreed to destroy each other. They presented pistols each at the other’* head in the Treasury Gardens, Feeney was shot dead, but, either through accident or design, the pistol in the hand of Feeney did no t explode. The. case created,a great sensation, and Marks was hanged for the murder of Feeney. On the night following the suicide of Sollom a young man of apparently 25 years of age, well attired, committed suicide in one of the Brighton trains, the guard finding him in the smoking carriage with a wound in his head. In one of his pockets was found an unsealed ai.d unaddressed envelope, containing a sheet of paper, on which was written in a fair hand—“Do not tell my dear father . and mother of this act.— Arthur D. Brown.” There was also the likeness of a handsome young woman, about 21 years of age, on glass, with a gilt frame, apd a look of female hair, braided, and of a brown color. The only: article tf jewellery was a'gold pin, and there w&a not anything else to lead to hig identification.