The Baker Who Left a Sign Reading 'Out Painting'
Christian Gutheil's morphine suicide and the cryptic notice on his Second Avenue bakery door.
Christian F. Gutheil, the proprietor of the bakery and restaurant on Second street, between Madison and Spring streets, who attempted suicide by morphine last week, died yesterday afternoon at his room on Fifth street, near Seneca. He left Providence hospital last Tuesday and returned to his room, where he was attended by Dr. J. H. Lyons. The first day he was all right, but later his condition changed for the worse, and he went down hill rapidly until death came to his relief.
He took thirty grains of morphine when he tried suicide, and it was many hours before the truth of his condition was found out. Even if he had recovered it would have taken months for him to have gotten over the terrible effects of the dose. The remains were taken to Bonney Stewart's undertaking rooms, and will probably be buried today.
Yesterday there was a sign on Gutheil's bakery, informing the public that it was closed because of the death of the proprietor. The day that it was discovered that Gutheil had taken poison a sign had been placed which read as follows: 'Closed; proprietor out painting.'
“Closed; proprietor out painting.”
The cryptic 'out painting' sign turned a private suicide into public notice, and the long delay before anyone understood his condition is a reminder of how isolated a health crisis could be in 1895. The little bakery on Second Avenue carried a private tragedy that the paper could only glimpse after it was too late.
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