Mess They Leave

           Some made the long drop from the apartment or the office window ; some took it quietly in two-car garages with the motor running ; some used the native tradition of the Colt or Smith and Wesson ; those well-constructed implements that end insomnia, terminate remorse, cure cancer, avoid bankruptcy, and blast an exit from intolerable positions by the pressure of a finger ; those admirable American instruments so carried, so sure of effect, so well designed to end the American dream when it becomes a nightmare, their only drawback the mess they leave for relatives to clean up.

Ernest Hemingway
To Have and Have Not
1937