“Is Life Worth Living?”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 412, 4 February 1890, Page 2

“Is Life Worth Living?”

A STRANGE LETTER. Melbourne, January 24. A carpenter named Stubbs, who was thirty-three years of age and unmarried, committed suicide by shooting himself in the Brighton train one day last week. In the pockets of his clothes were found several letters, which showed clearly that he intended to commit suicide. Amongst them was one addressed to the Coroner, Dr Youl, which was as follows :—“ My dear Doctor, — Whilst still in the flesh, and ere my soul take its flight from its frail tenement or clay, the body, allow me, with all due respect to the serious functions of your high and im portent office, to tender yen my hearty congratulations on the business like and oouaistent manner in which you have, for a considerable length of tima, performed the onerous duties of Coroner to the city of Melbourne. As you are aware, I have not the pleasure of your personal acquaintance, and in anticipation I cannot but regret the fact that when we do meet I shall have to occupy such an unconscious position in the interview, besides having to suffer without opposition the indignity of being sot on, However, dear doctor, I feel assured that you and the respectable company who may assist in the ceremony of inquiry will do so with becoming respect and decorum, if not for my own memory’s sake, at all events for the sake of those who have the misfortune to be connected with me by ties of blood. The question has been raised, •Is life worth living?’ Well, aa the Yankee says, it all depends- Speaking personally, I must say in many respects I have found it a jolly old world, and if I have a goodly share of its illluck, I have also had a fair share of its pleasure. Therefore, I think that I and this ancient planet may cry quits. I dare say, dear doctor, you find life on the whole pretty jolly. It is just possible that if I possessed your ability, and the good fat screw attached to your office, I would not be in such a hurry to leave this sphere. However, we ! can't all be City Coroners, and even you, t dear doctor, must at times encounter vexa- ' ttons. In conclusion, let me express the hope | that your remaining years may be charao i tensed with an abundance ot the joys of life I and few of its ills, and that when your time I for disunion arrives, It may be at a period of contented old age, unattended by violence and in the orthodox manner, thus avoiding the necessity and unenviable notoriety of being sat upon. In prospect of an early meeting, I remain, with due respects, yours in Varne,"