Holmes County Farmer

Distressing Suicide.

John Hall, of Middletown, in this County, on Thursday morning last, shot himself through the head with a pistol loaded with a large nail. The charge entered in front of the right ear and passed out back of the left ear. He lingered in unconsciousness until about nine o'clock P. M. of the same day, when he died. Mr. Hall was an old resident of this county, a highly respected citizen, in good circumstances, aged sixty-two years on the day he died. Some eighteen months ago he had a thigh broken by being thrown from a buggy in Cincinnati, which produced intense suffering, and from which he never had, and probably never would fully recover.

It is thought this was what induced him to put an end to his earthly existence. He left a family, and numerous friends to mourn his untimely death. His funeral, on Saturday, was very largely attended. He left the following note:

"I wish no one living to be censured for this act. It is done wholly on the grounds of my long suffering, too strong to endure. Having lost all hope of ever getting well enough to enjoy my life any more, I prefer leaving this life with the best kind of feelings to all my children, and a short exhortation to them: That is do all the good you can, and as little wrong as possible through the balance of your days. So farewell to one and all.

JOHN HALL."

In reference to this sad occurrence Dr. Pomerene says of Mr. Hall: "After receiving the fracture of the thigh he kept himself under the influence of Chloroform almost constantly for some weeks, and until denied any further use of it by his physician. He then resorted to Morphine as a substitute in which is a similar exhilarating and sedative effects on the nervous system. The continued and excessive use of the Morphine had a tendency to depress his mental and physical energies to such a degree that he became melancholy, and frequently expressed himself tired of life. This condition of mind was evidently brought about by the baneful influence of the drug; the effect of which cannot be better expressed than it is in the language of one of our best medical authors: "It is a vice that hurls from the loftiest elevation the most towering intellect, dissipates into thin vapor the solid lore of age, transforms the giant into the veriest pigmy, sinks lower than the brute the being made in the image of his God."