The Diamond Drill

TRAGIC END OF A LIFE

Ex-Secretary Herbert's Daughter
Leila Commits Suicide.

During a Fit of Melancholia the Unfortunate
Young Woman Plunges
from a Third-Story Window
and Is Killed.

Washington, Dec. 22. - Miss Leila
Herbert, daughter of ex-Secretary
of the Navy Herbert, of Alabama, died
at her home in this city as the result of
a fall from the third-story of her home
on New Hampshire avenue in the most
fashionable part of the city just off
Dupont Circle. The sudden death and
tragic features surrounding it were a
great shock to the great circle of
friends she had made in the course of
her life in Washington, as the daughter
of a popular representative in congress
from the south and later as one of the
cabinet circle of ladies when she pre-
sided over her father's household dur-
ing the four years he was secretary of
the navy under the last Cleveland ad-
ministration.

Her death was traceable indirectly to
an accident while horseback riding in
Virginia last September. She had always
been enthusiastically fond of riding, and
while paying a visit to friends started
home on a horse that had not been
broken. It stumbled and she was
thrown violently to the ground sus-
taining severe injuries to her back.
She was brought back to Washington,
but recovery was exceedingly slow and
it was not until last Sunday that she
was able to go out of the house. On
that day she went driving for the first
time since the accident and Dr. W. W.
Johnston, the attending physician, no-
ticed considerable improvement.

Tuesday afternoon the following au-
thorized statement was made by a gen-
tleman familiar with all the facts of the
suicide.

"Miss Herbert, at the time of the occur-
rence, was suffering from acute melan-
cholia. It developed several weeks ago as
the final result of injuries received by be-
ing thrown from her horse last spring.

"The melancholia was not insanity in
the sense of being accompanied by delu-
sions. At the same time there was pro-
found depression, and as is always the case
in this type of disease, there was great dan-
ger that suicidal tendencies would develop.
For this reason nurses were provided to
maintain the closest watchfulness. No su-
icidal tendency developed, however, until
Monday, when for the first time Miss
Herbert made an attempt to get out of
the window, but was restrained by the
nurse. This led to additional caution.
and two nurses alternated in constant
watchfulness of the patient. She was at all
times rational, quiet and gentle, and it
was supposed the disease would yield
to treatment. Early Tuesday morning the
nurse on duty noticed a small spot of blood
on the bed covering. She inquired what it
meant, but the invalid endeavored to pass
it by lightly. On making investigation,
however, the nurse found that the under-
bedclothes were saturated with blood, and
that Miss Herbert had severed an artery of
her wrist with a pair of scissors. Feeling
that the emergency was great, the nurse
hastened to the door and called an alarm.
In this momentary withdrawal from the
bedsides Miss Herbert leaped out and sprang
from the window. The plunge was made
headforemost, so that she lighted on the
top of her head on the asphalt pavement.
This injury alone was sufficient to have
caused death from concussion of the brain,
and it was doubtless the immediate cause.
Aside from this a cursory
examination
indicated that the skull was fractured. The
severing of the artery would also have re-
sulted fatally. When the physician reached
her Miss Herbert was still breathing, but
died about an hour after the leap.

The coroner returned a verdict of su-
icide during temporary insanity. As the
facts in the case were clear, he decided
the inquest was unnecessary.

Ex-Secretary Herbert reached Wash-
nington at ten o'clock Tuesday night,
having been on his way from Alabama
to spend the Christmas with his family.
when the news of his daughter's death
met him on the train.