Connecticut western news., 1886-10-27
A HEARTRENDING TRAGEDY,
Wife DrOwns Herself and Four Chill dren After a Quarrel With Her Hus- bund.

:. A Coroner of London is now impanel- ling jury to investigate domestic tragedy of world, wide interest. It seems that resident of Putnam, near the Thames, named Wilcox, passed boy, aged seven, sobbing so acutely that Wilcox felt that something unusual had happened. To all his questions the little fellow, who was soaking wet, muddy and hatless, could only answer by heartbreaking sobs. Nothing vas left except to take the wandering waif to the police station hard by, where, be- fore roaring camel fire, he managed to jerk out, 7.Mother is dead in the Wa ter, with baby, sister and my brothers, Harry and Frank. want my father" It became evident that the boy was shockingly frightened, yet sooner grow ing calmer under the reviving influence of heat and some food, he gave his home as ''133 Denmark road, Gambler well," a suburban district on the Surrey side of the Thames and miles distant.
 A telegram sent to the nearest station there soon produced the father; who is we'll to do butcher, and who, on seeing the child, seemed to realize that some tragedy had occurred and almost tainted before the story was told. To his eager questions the child, treasured, now gave coherent answers, and these made up story like this:- His mother left home in the afternoon, carrying her babe, five months old with her sons--Harry, aged nine; the narrator of the story himself, Charles, seven years old, and Frank. aged three. They took the tram car to the river side, boarded penny steam boat, got off at Chelsea stairs, walked to Vaux hall and entered penny tea garden, where buns, tea and milk were provided them.
 They left, walking, doubt ess, aim lessly along the embankment, beyond Wandsworth Bridge, when, perhaps by sudden impulse, the mother turned into the Broomhouse dock-yard, near the Birmingham Polo Grounds, and all at once pushed her three boys into the dock water, and with her babe in arms, herself jumped in. Charlie, who must have fallen in somewhat shallow place, scrambled out, but was too much scared to give a coherent account of his escape. When the inspector questioned the father, who, sobbing as badly as the child, said :-'My wife and I had a silly quarrel. It began on Sun day last and was daily deepened by mutual recrimination. Yesterday after noon, as she still felt very badly, sug- gested little outing to friends house, and this -thls is the horrible ending of foolish tlff.''
 The pair remained till dawn. at the station, when a search police party was organized, the members of which, with much difficulty, found, through the boy, the place of the catastrophe. Three little straw hats floating at the side of the dock gave the first corrobo- ration of the youthful tale of murder an l suicide. A little later the body of Harry was found in five feet of water. It was neatly dressed and had on gray overcoat and knickerbockcrs. The face wore look of great terror. Soon after midday one of the Thames vulture folk, described Tn the first chapter of Dick en's "Mutual Friend" recovered near Fulham Bridge the body of Frank, clad ln neat gray frock and pinafore, once white, but now soi!ed with Thames sew craze. The bodies lie at the Chelsea Mortuary, surrounded by an immense crowd of curiosity mongers, eagerly dis cussing the last London sensation The mother and the babe have not yet been found.
 Those in the tea garden who Saw the group of four when taking their last meal describe the mother as seeming perfectly sane and apparently happy. Unfortunately, very little can now be learned as to the cause of such an i'm pulse and of the manner of such re- solve in a mother thirty five years old, always heretofore lovingly maternal, the only witness available being young and having had his memory obscured by ter TOT. Psychologists thus have no clew as to what was passing in the woman s | mind, and as to w ether her act was the result of reconciliation or of i'm pulse.