Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-03-23
A porIoN.
Mrs. CrOmer Swallows Nearly Two
unc Of CarbOiic Acia.

Mrs. CrOmer Swallows Nearly Two
ounces Of tarbOiic Acia.
In the course Of our duty as q ~chronicler
OF local events, we are called upon to give
the details of a distressing incident which
occurred in Eureka yesterday. Between 4
and 5 O'Clock in the afternoon Mrs. Bayse,
who lives with ther daughter, Mrs. L. W.
Cromer, was not feeling well, and lay
down on the sofa to rest. Mrs. Cromer
advised her mother to get up and walk. as
the air is the best thing for a headache.
She urged her advice SO strongly that
Mrs. Bayse got up and vent out. She was
gone out in the neighborhood about an
hour and q quarter. When she came back
she found her daughter, Mrs. Cromer,
lying on the sofa in an unconscious state,
her face black and froth coming out of
her mouth. She ran back to the front
door and screamed, "HelpI HelpI" Some
%neighbors came in and applied what
simple remedies they knew, while Mr..
Cromer. being called, ran off to summon
the family physician, DR.. Hagar. DR..
Hagar, assisted by DR.. Williams, applied
the stomach pump, but the case appeared
hopeless. The poison had been in the sys-
tenn so long and in such q frightful guam
tity that, to all seeming, no remedy could
be OF any avail, although the physicians
left nothing untried that might be Of effect
to resuscitate their patient. She lay un-
conscious until about s O'Clock, receiving
the closest and kindest attention from the
ladies Of the neighborhood, and then she
began to revive from the death-like stupor
into which she had fallen. Her agony when
~sensibility returned, car be well enough
imagined, for the poison she took, carbolic
acid undiluted, is one of the most powerful
caustics, and hardly less rapid in its
ravages upon the v:tals than sulphuric acid.
There is hardly any doubt that she took
nearly two ounces Of the terrible poison.
There was . two-ounce bottle on her
bureau. plainly marked "CARBoLIc ACID"
from which ii is positively known that
only 20 drops had previously been taken.
There is mot any doubt that she took the
whole fiery dose at a gulp, with the delib-
crate purpose to make suicide certain.
Though apparently a healthy woman, she
has nos been perfectly well for a long time,
and she has had, during the last year, fire.
quent spells OF depressing sickness. The
family physician was careful, in treating
her, never to leave any medicine at the
house that could be taken as a poison, for
he had discovered her mania for suicide.
When he took her the carbolic acid,
some time ago, to be used as a lotion,
she asked him il it was poisonous. He
told her yes, but that il anybody took it
it would throw him into spasms, burn up
his insides and make him die in frightful
agony. He intended to brighten her, but,
IL arlaarc that M tQrrnr WOO nraot annlOh
to deter her from the act. Mrs. Cromer
attempted suicide by inhaling chloroform
some seven years ago. but was detected be-
fore she had gone to the fatal extent and
was resuscitated. Since then she has
talked frequently Of taking her life, and
she begged her mother, Mrs. Bayse, If she
was found trying to destroy herself not to
interfere but to let her die, for whenever
she tried il again she would be in earnest
and she didn't want anybody to touch her.
She sometimes discussed the methods of
suicide, and when she read a few days ago
about a woman in Oakland cutting
her throat with a knife, an account
of which was t~elegraphed to the
SENTINEL, she said she thought she could
not take her life in that way. She reasoned
about suicide. She said she was tired of
living; her life was q burden to her, and
she would throw it off. In all probability
she has tested the validity Of the argu-
ment, for the physicians think it impossi-
BILE for her to recover. She was subject to
fits of melancholy, which can be accounted
for only by reference to her i'll health. Her
husband is a worthy, Woodworking man,
and respected by everybody in the COM
munity. He has always been a kind and
tender husband and has devoted himself
to her and their children. 1t is q very sad
affair and the whole community sympa-
thizes with Mr.. Cromer, the three children
and Mrs. Bayse in their present distress
and their prospective bereavement.
At seven minutes to IL o'clock, after
suffering untold agony from s O'Clock, at
which hour she recovered consciousness, |
Mrs. Cromer breathed her last. Her
symptoms for two hours preceding her
death showed that the acid had done its
terrible work. She vomited blood
continuously, and DR.. Hagar says that her
stomach and the lining of the intestines
were consumed. She was conscious for
the last three hours of her torture, |
but could not speak, except once when
being urged by the physician to put out
her tongue, she answered as though still
determined not TO live: 81 WON'T" The
deceased, Mary Ellen Cromer, was IS
years old last April. Besides her imme-
date family here, she leaves two sisters
Mrs. +. E. Fiske. Dalles, Or, and Mrs. q.
l.. King, Tombstone, A. T. The grief in
the bereaved household last night was
heartrending, for the deceased was dearly