“LIFE IS BUT A DREAM” (1894)
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(From The New York Herald, Wed., 7 March 1894.)
“LIFE IS BUT A DREAM.”
So wrote Morris Cohen to his mother before he killed himself.
Morris Cohen, thirty-five years old, committed suicide at his residence, No. 109A Bergen street, Brooklyn, yesterday afternoon by shooting himself in the heart. For a weak past, Cohen has complained of not feeling well. He believed the grip had attacked him. At noon yesterday he returned to his home from his place of business, No. 143 Smith street. He was met at the door by his mother, to who he said that he was going to his room to lie down. He asked her to call him at two o’clocl.
At that house his mother went to his room and foudn him on the bed. In his right hand, tightly clutched, was a .38 calibre revolver. His clothing was covered with blood. The suicide had sent but one bullet into his body and this, from all appearances, had caused instant death.
On the dressing case in the room was a letter written by Cohen to his mother as follows:
“Life is but a dream.”
My dream is o’er.
I am going crazy to lie in a silent tomb. Dear mother, don’t shed a tear or wear black, as I don’t believe in it. You are the only one to shed a tear for me. Plant a weeping willow over my tomb. May God, the all merciful God, give you health and strength. Try and forget your crazy son.
MORRIS
(You would be forgiven if you confused the above lines from Morris with those of another similarly named lyricist, the British singer/songwriter, Morrissey.)
Cohen was unmarried, and lived with his mother and two sisters.
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