(will be expecting to see booths like the one described in the repairer of reputation set up in our parks and gardens in the years to come as enthusiasm for the idea of assisted suicide becomes more widespread in canada.)
“It was, I remember, the I3th day of April, 1920, that the first Government Lethal Cham ber was established on the south side of Washington Square, between Wooster Street and South Fifth Avenue. The block which had formerly consisted of a lot of shabby old buildings, used as care's and restaurants for foreigners, had been acquired by the Govern ment in the winter of 1898. The French and Italian cafe's and restaurants were torn down ; the whole block was enclosed by a gilded iron railing, and converted into a lovely gar den with lawns, flowers and fountains. In the centre of the garden stood a small, white building”
“severely classical in architecture, and surrounded by thickets of flowers. Six Ionic columns supported the roof, and the single door was of bronze. A splendid mar ble group of " The Fates " stood before the door, the work of a young American sculptor, Boris Yvain, who had died in Paris when only twenty-three years old.
The inauguration ceremonies were in prog ress as I crossed University Place and en tered the square. I threaded my way through the silent throng of spectators, but was stopped at Fourth Street by a cordon of police. A regiment of United States lancers were drawn up in a hollow square around the Lethal Chamber. On a raised tribune facing Washington Park stood the Governor of New
York, and behind him were grouped the Mayor of New York and Brooklyn, the Inspector-General of Police, the Commandant of the state troops, Colonel Livingston, military aid to the President of the United States, General Blount, commanding at Governor's Island, Major-General Hamilton, commanding the garrison of New York and Brooklyn, Admiral Buftby of the fleet in the North River, Surgeon General Lanceford, the staff of the National[…]”
“of the United States, General Blount, commanding at Governor's Island, Major-General Hamilton, commanding the garrison of New York and Brooklyn, Admiral Buftby of the fleet in the North River, Surgeon General Lanceford, the staff of the National Free Hospital, Senators Wyse and Franklin of New York, and the Commissioner of Public Works. The tribune was surrounded by a squadron of hussars of the National Guard.
The Governor was finishing his reply to the short speech of the Surgeon-General. I heard him say : " The laws prohibiting suicide and providing punishment for any attempt at self-destruction have been repealed. The Govern ment has seen fit to acknowledge the right of man to end an existence which may have become intolerable to him, through physical suffering or mental despair. It is believed that the community will be benefited by the removal of such people from their midst. Since the passage of this law, the number of suicides in the United States has not increased. Now that the Government has determined to establish”
“a Lethal Chamber in every city, town and village in the country, it remains to be seen whether or not that class of human creatures from whose desponding ranks new victims of self-destruction fall daily will ac» cept the relief thus provided." He paused, and turned to the white Lethal Chamber. The silence in the street was absolute. *' There a painless death awaits him who can no longer bear the sorrows of this life. I
death is welcome let him seek it there." Then quickly turning to the military aid of the President's household, he said, "I declare the Lethal Chamber open," and again facing the vast crowd he cried in a clear voice : " Citizens of New York and of the United States of America, through me the Government de clares the Lethal Chamber to be open.”
Excerpt From: Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William), 1865-1933. “The king in yellow.” New York : F. Tennyson Neely, 1895. iBooks.
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