News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-11-11
A HEARTRENDING TRAGEDY.
A Wife browns Herself and -Four Chill
dren After n Quarrel With Her Hus-
band.


A Coroner of London is now impanel-
ling jury to investigate a domestic
tragedy of world wide interest. 1t
seems that resident of Fulham, 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 a roaring camel fire, he managed
to jerk out, Mother is dead in the wa
ter, with baby, sister and my brothers,
Harry and Frank. l want my father. ="
1t became evident that the boy was
shockingly frightened, yet sooner grow
ing Calmer under the reyiving influence
of heat and some food, he gave his
home as "133 Denmark road, Gambler
WE'LL" 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 a
well 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 a
story like this His mother left home
in the afternoon, carrying her babe, five
months old with heI 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 a penny steam
boat, got off at Chelsea stairs, walked
to Naux hall and entered a 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
q sudden impulse, the mother turned
into the Broomhouse dock yard, near
the Harlingham 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 a somewhat shallow
place, scrambled out, but was too much
scared to give a coherent account of his
escape. When the inspector questioned
child, said :-'My wife and l had
silly quarrel. 1t began on Sun
day last and was daily deepened by
mutual recrimination. Yesterday after
noon, as she still felt very badly, I sug-
gested little outing to a friends house,
and this this is the horrible ending of
a foolish tiff"
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
suicide. A little later the body of
Harry was found in five feet of water.
1t was neatly dressed and had on a gray
overcoat and knickerbockers. The face
wore a look of great terror. Soon after
midday one of the Thames vulture folk,
described IN the first chapter OF Dick
ems Mutual Friend,n recovered near
Fulham Bridge the body of Frank, clad
IN neat gray frock and pinafore, once
white, but now soiled with Thames sew
erage. 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 VINO 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-tive years old,
always heretofore lovingly maternal, the
only witness available being young and
having had his memory obscured by ter
ror. Psychologists thus have no clew
as to what was passing in the woman's
mind, and as to WI ether her act was
the result of generalization or of inn
pulse.