married twice. His conjugal life with his first wife was a very
unhappy one. He attributes this entirely to his own fault. There were
three children from this union, all of whom died in infancy. He left
his first wife without obtaining a divorce from her and subsequently,
in 1898, married again. This union was happier than the former one.
His second wife, however, died in 1905. There were no children from
this union. He acquired gonorrhœa and syphilis in 1899. In 1907 he
prepared an elaborate attempt at suicide, purchased a dagger for this
purpose, and set June 13th for the date. He was, however, arrested
shortly before this and thus his plan was frustrated. He stated that
it was not disgust of life that drove him to do this. He simply had a
desire to see whether he had the nerve to execute such an act. On
February 2, 1910, was arrested for vagrancy and begging, and given a
sentence of 180 days in the workhouse. While in his cell he attempted
suicide by inflicting superficial cuts over the præcordium, wrists and
calves of his legs with a piece of broken table knife. These were very
insignificant in nature. While confined in the workhouse he developed
various fallacious sense perceptions, saw visions of weird and
fantastic nature, and frequently these would take on a religious and
sexual coloring--he would see nuns' heads. He also developed auditory
hallucinations and would hear voices of a disagreeable nature. He was
subject to peculiar sensations as though there was a wire framework
inside him which made him squirm. This necessitated his transfer to
this institution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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