The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-10-17
A Heartrending Story.

ALondon correspondent tells this sad
story Of a young American lady: God
help the poor women who have gone
down to the gates of death in London,
Paris, Dresden, Berlin and other places
victims of all ambition which, at home,
might have secured them employment
in some respectable capacity but
here, no door offering, they have per-
ished Is this q fancy sketchP Listen.
In 1872 there came q young lady from
America as governess. It appears that
the lady who engaged her discharged
her from no fault but that of refusing to
take servants situation in addition to
that of governess. The following letter
speaks for itself. In despair she went
to Westminster bridge, threw aside her
hat and shawl and plunged into the
Thames. A police officer who saw her
went to her rescue, but too late. Life
was extinct. Next funeral was gotten
up for her, and monument was erected
over her grave. Thus for bread she was
given q stone
This letter was found in her room:
"The crime am about to commit,
and that I must suffer for hereafter, is
nothing compared to my present misery.
Alone in London, not penny or friend
to advise or lend helping hand, tired
and weary with looking for something
to do, failing in every way, footsore and
heart weary, I prefer death to the
dawning of another wretched morning.
l have only been in Britain nine weeks.
4! came as nursery governess with q lady
from America to Wick, in Scotland,
whence she discharged me, refusing to
pay my passage back, giving me my
wages, which amounted to f3 los. After
my expenses to London, I found myself
in this great city with only five shillings.
What was to do2 I sold my watch.
The paltry sum I obtained from that
soon went in paying for my board and
| in looking for situation. Now am
destitute every day is a misery to me.
No friends-no hope-no money. Oh,
God Of heaven, have mercy upon poor,
helpless sinner Thou knowest how 1
have striven against this but fate is
against me. / cannot tread the path OF
sin, for my dead mother will be watch
ing me. Fatherless, motherless, home !
have none oh, for the rarity of Chris
tian hearts am not mad. For days
I have foreseen that this would be the
end. May all who hear of my end for.
give me, and may God Almighty do so,
before whom must soon appear. Fare.
we'll to all this beautiful and yet wretch.
ed world. ALICE BLANCHE OSWALD.
~ am twenty years Of age on the
fourteenth Of this month"
The Daily Ne,Os, touching the suicide
of this young person, says: The thought
of her awful situation - fatherless,
motherless, homeless-was too much
for her brain. The severe self-respeci
which restrained her from telling even
the people with whom she lodged of hel
difficulties, seemed, as her letter shows,
to shut her up to the fatal course she
adopted. That letter also shows how
tremendous was the struggle that took
place in her mind before the last resolu.
ton was taken. It was evident that she
had nothing to lean as to the character
of suicide. In the first line OF her letter
she designates her act as q crime, and in
the last she commends the whole cir.
cumstances of her case to the judgment
which is unerring and the mercy that il
infinite. And so she left the world
without vindictiveness-not SO much al
mentioning the name of the woman who
had used her harshly-but with humble
trustful prayers. sadder story it has
not been our lot to record-the more
sad because it seems that 80 little help
had it but come in time, would have
saved one for whom the world would
gladly have found or made place.