Newspapers of the late 1800s and early 1900s regularly included stories about people who took their own lives by gun, rope, bridge or carbolic acid. But only in rare cases did an attempted suicide meet the news threshold of the era. The Minneapolis Tribune reports:

HAROLD GERBER
TAKES POISON

Claims Mistake, but the Police Sus-
pect Local Man Attempted
Suicide.

Harold Gerber, son of James A. Gerber, 2140 Lyndale avenue south, Minneapolis, was arraigned in the St. Paul police court yesterday on a charge of attempted suicide. He was taken from a restaurant near Third and St. Peter streets last night, suffering from carbolic acid poisoning. In court yesterday young Gerber told Judge Hanft that he had taken the acid by mistake.

He explained that he had a bottle of cough medicine and one containing the acid, and that he intended to use the latter for cuts and burns.

According to the elder Gerber, who conducts a sheet metal and iron works at 125 Sixth avenue south, Minneapolis, the young man has been away from home for some time, leading a wild and reckless life. He has been working as a cook recently on the Northern Pacific railroad.

Through the intercession of the father and the son’s promise to straighten up, the court allowed the defendant to plead guilty to disorderly conduct and suspended sentence of 30 days.

Streetcar lines and power lines intersected at Lake Street and Lyndale Avenue in 1906. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

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