While he was in New York I was a reporter on the
_Evening Sun_, but I cannot recall ever having read his name in
the newspapers of that day, and I heard of him only twice; once as
giving an exhibition of his water-colors at the American Art
Galleries, and again as the author of a book I found in a store in
Twenty-second Street, just east of Broadway, then the home of the
Truth Seeker Publishing Company.
It was a grewsome compilation and had just appeared in print. It
was called "Euthanasia, or the Ethics of Suicide." This book was
an apology or plea for self-destruction. In it the baron laid down
those occasions when he considered suicide pardonable, and when
obligatory. To support his arguments and to show that suicide was
a noble act, he quoted Plato, Cicero, Shakespeare, and even
misquoted the Bible. He gave a list of poisons, and the amount of
each necessary to kill a human being. To show how one can depart
from life with the least pain, he illustrated the text with most
unpleasant pictures, drawn by himself.
The book showed how far Harden-Hickey had strayed from the
teachings of the Jesuit College at Namur, and of the Church that
had made him "noble."
All of these two years had not been spent only in New York.
Harden-Hickey made excursions to California, to Mexico, and to
Texas, and in each of these places bought cattle ranches and
mines.
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