The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-10 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—May 9.

THAMES.—DISSIPATION AND CRlME.—Sarah
Jacobs, a married woman, about 40 years of age, the
mother of nine children, one a daughter, 22 years
of age, and who is very respectably connected, was
brought before Mr. Woolrych, charged with at-
tempting to commit suicide.
The prisoner is the wife of an engineer, and
dwelling with her husband and some of her family
in John-street, Stepney-causeway. She has been
addicted to excessive drinking for several years,
and has ruined her husband, a most respectable and
worthy man, and ruined herself and family. On
Wednesday night a police-constable, named Alfred
Brown, 196 K, was called into the surgery of Mr.
Bennington, in Brook-street, Ratcliff, and found her
labouring under the effects of some narcotic poison,
and, by direction of the surgeon, his assistant and
the police-constable took her to the London Hos-
pital. She remained there under medical treatment
until four o'clock yesterday (Thursday) afternoon,
when the h......m-geon directed the policeman to
take her before a magistrate. The policeman. in
answer to a question, said the prisoner was quite
insensible when he was called into Mr. Benning-
ton's surgery.
Mr. H. D. Greenshields, assistant to Mr. Ben-
nington, said the prisoner came into the shop in
which he was engaged on Wednesday afternoon
and asked for four pennyworth of laudanum. Upon
asking her what she wanted it for, she said it was
to clean bonnets. He said that laudanum was rather
a strange thing to clean bonnets, and she said " bon-
nets were strange things now." At that moment a
man at the shop door nodded to him in a manner
which determined him not to serve the prisoner at
all. She then left the shop, and returned with a
neighbour, and again asked for the laudanum. He
refused to let her have any. The prisoner then said
she had already taken four pennyworth of laudanum,
and that would do for her, and that her husband
had been beating her all day. Believing from
her manner that her statement was true, he caused
her to be pinioned, and applied the stomach pump,
and dislodged from her stomach a large quantity of
rum intermixed with laudanum.
Mr. Woolrych—How much laudanum had she
swallowed.
Mr. Greenshields—l do not know, sir ; the rum
almost neutralised the smell of the laudanum.
She was in a very bad state indeed.
In answer to other questions by the magistrate,
The witness said the quantity of laudanum sold
for 4d. was not the same at every shop, nor was it
always of the same strength. He mentioned the
quantity likely to destroy the life of any person.
He was not aware who sold four pennyworth of
laudanum to the prisoner.
Mr. Woolrych—Medicine vendors ought not to
sell laudanum to any one unless it is a person well
known to them, and are perfectly satisfied it will
not be misapplied.
The prisoner said she was very sorry indeed for
what had happened, and it should not occur again.
She had taken too much drink on Wednesday and
her husband had beaten her.
Mr. Woolrych—You are a very wicked woman
to do this, and guilty of great folly. You are
remanded to prison for a week, and I hope under
the good advice of the chaplain you will be made
sensible of the rash and foolish act you have com-
mitted, and be brought to a proper state of mind.
The husband of the prisoner implored of the
magistrate to allow him to take his wife home.
Mr. Woolrych—She says you have beaten her.
The husband, who is a respectable and indns-
trious man, declared his wife's assertion was false.
He had never beaten her. She was addicted to
drink and was a lost woman.
Mr. Woclrych—This comes of habitual drunken-
ness. The prisoner had lost her reason and made
an attempt on her life. He allowed her husband
to take her home.
A FEMALE OUTRAGE. -- DISGRACEFUL SCENE,
—Mary Ann White a woman of the town, was
brought before Mr, Woolrycb , charged with assault-
ing and wounding Ann Barry.
The rrosecutrix, whose nose had been frightfully
cut, and was bound up with surgical plasters, said
she was a married woman and the mother of six
children, On Wednesday evening she had occasion
to go into the Cock and Neptune public-house, in
Ratcliff-highway, and saw a sailor, who was very
drunk, being robbed by a soldier, who was taking
his money from him. She exclaimed, " What a
shame it is to rob the man." The prisoner, who
was present, immediately assailed her with the
most horrible and vulgar abuse, and took up a pint
pot, with which she belaboured her over the head
and face, and wounded her. Her nose was cut in
several places, and she was also wounded on the
cheek, and lost a good deal of blood.
• George Brown, a police-constable, 181 H, said
ho saw the prisoner strike the complainant three
times with a pint pot over the head and face with
considerable force, and she was about to strike a
fourth blow, when he took the pot from her. The
complainant was dreadfully cut, and he had to send
for a surgeon to dress her wounds. The prisoner
was a desperate and savage woman, who pretended
to sell oranges in the Highway.
Mr. Woelrich, after hearing a 'rambling otAtg.