The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-21 00:00:00

THE TRAGEDY IN THE CITY.

The following particulars have been gathered respecting
the commission of the crime, and the antecedents of the
family. There are five children, and the wife, who is
thirty-nine years of age, is in the last stage of consump-
tion, her complaint having been seriously aggravated from
the want of food. Duke is said to be a highly respectable
man, a statement that is strengthened from the fact of his
having held but two situations after he completed his ap-
apprenticeship—one for fifteen years, the other for twelve
years. Owing, however, to the depreciation of his trade,
and the large number of hands out of employment con-
sequent upon the increasing importation of foreign cigars,
Duke was discharged from a situation he had held, as
stated above, for twelve years, taking with him an excel-
lent character, but that, unfortunately, failed to procure
him other employment, and the poor fellow and his
hapless wife have been half - starved during the last
six months. It appears that he resorted to every
probable and possible means to earn something like an
existence, but was totally unsuccessful. His invalided wife
earned a few pence a week by washing, which, together
with the broken food that was occasionally given them by
the lady who employed his daughter as a domestic ser-
vant, enabled them to struggle on. They, however,
became very emaciated, and it is believed that, fearing
that their strength would entirely fail them, and that they
would have to die literally of starvation, the unfortunate
man, in a fit of desperation and despondency, committed
the deed already mentioned.

Another report relates that a young girl named Elizabeth.
Gurling, living at 23, Bridgwater-gardens, which is just op-
posite that where the occurrence happened, states, that her
attention was directed to the first floor front room where
the Dukes lived, by seeing the man and woman
fighting. She saw Duke take his wife by
the shoulders, and draw something which he had
in his hand—she did not see what—across her throat.
He then appeared to lay her on the floor, and some
time after he went up to her and leaned down, and ap-
peared to be covering over the body, but she could not tell
exactly. Afterwards he went to the other side of the
room. She then ran over the way to No. 28, and told the
persons living downstairs what she had seen. These
persons had heard the scuffling, and the police were at once
sent for. City P.C. Wilson, 167, was soon on the spot, and
at once rushed upstairs. He went into one room which he
found empty, and then to the front room, which was
locked. He at once broke open the door, and he saw the
man Duke standing up with a razor in his left hand. The
constable saw that the man had cut all the right side of
his throat—this leading to the inference that he was
left-handed, and that the razor was in his left hand.
Wilson at once rushed upon him, when he
called out, " Leave me alone, I won't hurt you."
He succeeded in wrenching the razor out of his
hand and threw it into a corner of the room. They then
struggled together, and Duke in the struggle got his left
hand free, and plunged his forefinger into the flesh on the
right side of his throat. The policeman ealled out for as-
sistance, but nobody came for some time. The man Duke
called out to his wife, who was lying in a corner
of the room, " You asked me to cut your throat,
and afterwards to cut my own." The constable after some
time secured the man, and a young man and some other
persons came into the room. The room in which the
occurrence happened was not much disarranged, so that
ther' had not been much scuffling between the man and
his wife. She was lying on the floor bleeding profusely
from a terrible wound inflicted by the man with the
razor.

Mr. Childers' state of health is such that his medical
advisers will not allow of his leaving England for the pre-
sent, but prescribe a short period of rest within reach of
London.

The ship Fair Wind, Captain Symonds, which left
Rangoon for Europe early in May, had to put back under
very sad circumstances. It seems that one day the
captain, having called to the steward once or twice with-
out receiving any answer, left the deck and was heard
reprimanding the man for his inattention. A short time
afterwards the chief officer, happening to pass the
steward's cabin, found the steward and the captain
struggling. He at once separated them, when suddenly
the steward pulled out a knife and stabbed the captain to
the heart. The murderer is in custody.

The annual Blue-book on the state of the slave
trade is publisbed. From all parts nearly the reports are
the same that the trade is dying out. It only lingers in
diminishing strength in parts of Zanzibar, and a few ports
on the east coast. Havannah reports from our consuls
assure us that the Spanish Government is now sincere in
its desire, and most energetic in its action, to put a stop
to the trade. So completely has the trade been stopped,
and so little have the courts of adjudicature had to do,
that it is now intended to abolish entirely all the courts of
mixed commission at most of the chief stations.

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