Just because he did not want to go to school, it is said, James Barbour, 12-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Barbour of Bentonville township, attempted suicide Wednesday by tying a rope around his neck and jumping from a tree which he had climbed.
“I ain’t going to school,” he is said to have declared, and when his parents asserted that he would go, he went out and endeavored to end his life. He climbed the tree, according to our information, and swung off, but missed calculation and was only somewhat strangled. He swung back and though pale and weak from the effort jumped again. This time his mother watched him helplessly as he dangled from a rope 15 feet above until he was black in the face. He swung from the limb until Miss Pauline George, a school teacher, climbed the tree, grasped the tree with one arm and held the boy with the other until someone climbed up and cut the rope.
Medical aid was summoned immediately, but for 24 hours he lay unconscious. He has, however, recovered sufficiently to be up now.
From the front page of The Smithfield Herald, Tuesday morning, March 30, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1926-03-30/ed-1/seq-1/
Compare to another newspaper's account of the same suicide attempt:
Smithfield, March 26—Fear of a whipping by his school teacher is said to have prompted Richard Barber Jr., 12 years old, to attempt suicide. The boy climbed a tree, tied a rope around his neck and the end to a limb and jumped.
Meanwhile, his mother stood below pleading with the boy not to do it. The youngster’s weight was too slight to break his neck.
From page 6 of The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C., March 29, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn84026483/1926-03-29/ed-1/seq-6/
Both downplay the seriousness of a child's suicide attempt and the injury he did suffer from the attempt. The second jump with the rope around his neck, his hanging there until his face turned black, and his remaining unconscious for 24 hours all suggest injury.
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