The Grand Hotel Suicide and the Two Men Who Weren't There
Carl Eggert's letters, translated after his death, describe imaginary pursuers, a son lost to suicide and a small estate divided with jarring practicality.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Carl Eggert, the German who committed suicide in his room in the Grand hotel Sunday evening while police officers were pounding on the door, was demented, according to letters written by him to persons in Oshkosh, Wis., which were translated today. The letters were written in maudlin fashion, and no meaning whatever can be construed from several paragraphs. Eggert continually referred to two mysterious men whom he thought were following him about to kill him. He said in one letter that these two men had led his son Herman to kill himself in San Francisco. The letter to a Mr. Finsch, a lawyer of Oshkosh, appoints him sole executor and makes the following disposition of the property: two hundred dollars to bury the son, Herman Eggert; $200 to bury himself; $500 for his daughter Emma Eggert and $500 for his other daughter Rose. Six hundred dollars is to be used, he says, in fighting a possible case should the will be contested. The remainder of his money, $100, is to go to the poor. The impression that Eggert was wealthy was caused by his statements before his death that he was worth $20,000. No word has been received from Eggert's relatives.
“"The remainder of his money, $100, is to go to the poor."”
Eggert's story is a reminder that newspapers once routinely turned private grief into public spectacle. Today, mental-health crises are more likely to meet crisis responders than police pounding on a hotel door—though stigma and isolation remain recognizable.
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