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From Holer oft’s travels in France.
PARISIAN SUICIDE.
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There is a place in Paris lit
tle known to foreigners, and,
it range to fay, became so fami
liar as to be lirrle noticed by the
natives, called la Margu; ; its
dimensions are final!, its situa
tion is in 3 court, tip a gate ;
nearly opposite le Pontau Change ,
and beside where the prison cal
led le Grand Chatelct flood ; and
it has a door with an iron gra
ting through which perlons may
look, who are brought there by
curioficy, or by the sudden ab
sence of their friends, or relati
ons, for which they cannot ac
count. ‘
Should a Granger accident
al) v patting, and feeing, as he
probably would, people go and
peep through this gate into the
park chamber, or rather hole,
and be tempted by curiosity to
look himfeif, before his eyes
could discover the objeft of
search, the stench ifluing from
the place would l’nftantly drive
him back. Should he then im
itate others who come and put
a handkerchief to his mouth,
that he might look more steadi
ly, he would fee—what ?—one,
two, or it may be more dead
bodies.
But would he fee such every
day ? With very few exceptions
h j would. I never looked thro*
tics gT‘ r :ng but once : it was
m >re 1 jin enough: however,
wh n I patted that way I never
fin! and to enquire, and never
like wife but once found it emp
• . The last time but one that
1 was there three dead bodies
where exposed: a husband, wife,
and child ; and the last time I
law this dismal cell there were
four.
On this visit I purpoftly fell
into converfafion with the man
who told me the number then
in the cell.
“ Pray Sir, do you often
com? to this place ?”
“ Yes, Sir: 1 have lived in
.the neighborhood three and
twenty years, and except when
1 was ill, have scarcely milled a
day.”
<f And have you found the
cell often empty ?”
“ No : very rarely indeed.’*
c< Once a week perhaps!”
“ Not as I fnould think twice
a month, upon an average.—
I never remember to have seen
it two days lucceflively vacant.”
“ Do you imagine dead bo
dies were as frequently brought
before the revolution as they
have been lince ?”
“ Much the lame : I cannot fa\
that I perceive any difference.”
Desirous of obtaining authen
tic information on liich a fubjeft,
1 made many enquiries, and was
informed it could only be accu
rately procured at the Bureau of
the secret police, and to this I had
no means of gaining admission.
I then appiitd to a man, who
told me he could cafuy make an
acquaintance with the concierge,
or keeper of the cell, at the
cheap ex pence of a bottle of
wine, lie was accordingly em
ploy'd, and allured me the con
cierge had let him fee his book ;
and that, in the year VIII. a
hundred and thirty dead bodies
had been brought! twelve of
whom had been aflaflinated ; &
in the year IX. a hundred and
ninety, eleven of them aflfaflina
ted.
I place but little confidence
in this man’s information, know
ing him to be wholly void of
principles ; but a gentleman on
whose honor I can depend, and
who was once high in office un
der the minister of police, told
me that within the last ten
months, there had been a hun
dred and ninety-three filicides
in the department, and about
the fame number in the metro
polis i that upwa’rds of seven
hundred murders had been com
mitted within the fame period of
time ; that efFcfts to the value
of about a million of livers, lit
tle short of forty-two thousand
pounds sterling, and nearly the
lame loss had been sustained by
fire, that is in rhe department.
Including all France, he estima
ted the number of filicides at
from two to three per day, or
five in two days.
I must not here omit to men
tion, that it was with difficulty,
that is, it was with the trouble
of going myfelf or of fending
a voucher with the servant, that
I obtained aquafortis, of which
I was in want from an apotheca
ry ttiop. Suicide, and I fear
murder, by poison, has been so
frequent, that the ftrifteft injunc
tions are ifiued not to fell any
drugs that can give sudden death.
Os the filicides which were
thus daily happening in France,
who daily read the journals law,
during my whole ftav, only two
mentioned, and thele I was lur
prifed to fee. One was an of
ficer of the army, who pistoled
himfeif at the public audience
of the war minister and the
ether of a poor wretch, who,
the moment before he threw
himfeif from the upper story of
one of their high houses, in mer
cy to the paflengers called aloud
gare /’ eau ! the phrase used by
Parisians when they throw wa
ter out of a window.
I was told of another silicide
of the fame kind, and with the
fame humane caution while I
was in Paris.
I likewise law the body of a
man borne through the street,
where we lived, on abier, who
after having breakfafted at a hut
in less Champs Elysees put an end
to his existence. Before the
aft, he told the people he had
been a subaltern officer of a re
giment then reduced, and that
all means of procuring a liveli
hood were loft.
But the moft customary mode
of silicide is that of drowning.
A public journal complained
that modern improvements had
robbed fome of the bridges of
the houses which formerly were
the guards of public fafety, for
they prevented people from
drowning thcmfelves !
I heard of fcveral of these
deaths at the time that they hap
pened. One day as I was pas
sing the pout r.euf, the people
were ftiii aflembled, who had
teen a woman throw herfelf into
the river from the bridge.
Another woman in company
with her hufbind, who reproach
ed her for her ill conduft, and
enreatened divorce, disposed of
herLU in the fame manner.—
A third was a young girl for
love, probably deferred by her
feduccr. . The women of France
are warm in their affieftions : &,
were they at firft well educated,
and afterwards hcneftly dealt
with by the men, must become
chaste and amiable wives; but
thele are conditions that will not
suddenly be fulfilled.
The perlon, whom I had met
and conversed with a la Morgue ,
told me he had a few days be
fore seen an old man take the
fame leap : the body was found
after no long fe irch ; but either
the people were ignorant of the
means, or he was past recovery.
A much more Angular trage
dy still was afted, of which I had
account from the gentleman be
fore mentioned who was once
of the police. Nine conscripts
who had for a time concealed
themselves, but who were at
last difcoveredi being determin
ed not to lerve, encouraged each
other rather to die, and volun*
tarily ended life together by
drowning.
I was present at two moft
painful feenes, produced by the
frequency of this practice.
I was patting le Pent les Thuil
levies after dark, and law a man
surrounded by other men : they
had deterred him on the bridge
from jumping over, but they
could not prevail on him to go
home, or to tell his name. He
appeared to be determined in
his purpose : the only resource
they had was, at last, to commit
him to the guard ; but, unless
hts state of mind could be alter
ed, fafety like this was merely
temporary.
Another evening, on the
fame bridge, and about the fame
hour, a woman Handing near the
centre parapet attracted my at
tendon by her look, and in the
manner in which Ihe seemed to
be examining the river. I Hop
ped j she desisted, but did not
remove. I was uncertain what
her intentions might be, and she
appeared to shun notice. Two
other paflengers, guefling my
doubts, halted ; but either their
fears are not so strong as mine,
or their patience was less, they
staid a few minutes and went. —
I felt as if I did not dare to go,
yet could not decide how to ad,
from the fear of doing wrong.
At length, the woman moved
towards the end of the bridge,
and I was obliged to It ave her
to her fate. 1 was not certain
her intentions were ill: to have
charged her with such, might
deeply have insulted her.—l
walked home, however, in a
moft diflatisfied state of mind :
at one minute proving to myfelf
I could not aft otherwise, and
at another making felf accufa
tio.ns, for having deferred the
duties of humanity.
There is a doubt concerning
bodies found in the Seine which
I cannot forbear to mention, but
do not know how to refSlve: it Is,
liow many of these victims have
been felf-devoted ; and new ma
ny have fallen by the crime of
murder ? I leldom was cut late
in the streets of Paris i and whtm
I happened so to be, a few very
great thorough fares excepted,
I found them enjoying fome thing
like the peace of a dtfi rc: often
there was neither fuldier nor
lidng creatuics m fight, and of
watchmen, they have none.
The gentleman who informed
me of the number of murders
that had happened in the depart
ments within ten months, which
number was inordinately great,
aflerted that the streets of Paris
are as fafe at midnight as at noon
day j But how do these accounts
accord ? Beside, streets are not
the only places in which men
can be afluflinated. I have heard
cries in the streets where we
lived, several times in the night.
In the history of thieves, I
doubt if any equal can be found
to Cartouch Manderin, and ma
ny others who have been the
terror of Paris and of France, or
the numerous and attrocious
murders they have committed.
I have also seen too many proofs
of the little refpeft here, in
which the life of many is held.
There are fufficient doubts to
excite research j but who fliaii
gain a single glance at the regis
ters of the secret police ? The
knowledge that such a police ex
ists is enough to raise Suspicion,
-—O’
11UMANITY TO ANIMAIrf.
From Southey j travels )n Spain*
I will relate to you a circum
stance which occurred at Abo
in Finland. You will admire
the despotic just ice of the ma
gistrates. A dog, who had been
run over by a carriage, crawled
to rhe door of a tanner in that
town ; the man’s son, a boy of
fifteen years of age, firft stoned
and then poured a vessel of boil
ing water upon the miserable
animal. This aft of diabolical
cruelty was witnefled by one of
the magistrates, who thought
that such barbarity deserved to
be publicly noticed. He there
fore informed the other magis
trates, who unanimoully agreed
in condemning the boy to rhis
puni foment; He was imprifen- ,
ed till the following market day;
then in the presence of all the
people, he was conducted to the
place of execution by an officer
of justice, who read to him his
sentence. “ Inhuman young
man, because you did not afiift
an animal who implored your
assistance by its cries, and who
derive his being from the fame
God who gave you life, because
you added to the tortures of the
agonizing beast, and murdered
it, the council of this city have
sentenced you to wear on your
breast the name you deserve, and
to receive fifty stripes.” tie
then hung a black board round
his neck with this infeription;
“ A savage and inhuman young
man !” and after infiifting on
him twenty-five stripes, lie pro
ceeded; “ inhuman young man
you have now felt a very fmali
degree of the pain with which
you tortured a helpless animal
in irs hour of death !—As you
wifti for mercy from that god
who created all that live, learn
humanity for the future.” He
then executed the remainder of
the sentence,
‘'-j'V-” s
A Dutchman and his wife fra
veiling, fat down by the road, ex
ceedingly fatigued. The wifefgh
ed, I wish I was in Heaven — To:
husband replied I wifti I was in a
tavern. Ob, you rc?ue, fays doe*
you always want to be in the best
place.