The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-01-08
TRIED TO CUT OUT HER TONGUE.
She Heard a Sermon on Scan1al ana
Brooded Over it Too Long.
New York Star.

While suffering from temporary IN
sanity, caused partly by protracted
illness, but particularly by a religious
craze, Mrs. Catherine Thrope, aged
forty years, living in the Eastern Dis
trict of Brooklyn, made determined
effort yesterday to kill herself. The
weapons she used were a pearl handled
penknife and pair of scissors. She
failed in the attempt so far as immedi-
ate results are concerned, but the atten-
ding physician entertains grave fears
that her efforts may eventually prove
successful.
She now lies at her home in a crltl-
cal condition with her left breast and
throat cut, while her tongue is torn
into shreds. 4 small piece Of the tongue
is missing, she having cut it off in her
frantic attempt at self-destruction.
Mrs. Thorpe, who lives with her
husband on Vermont Street, at Ridge
wood Heights, became i'll some time
ago. Before that she was a regular
church attendant, and some days be-
fore she was obliged to take to her bed
she heard an impressive sermon on
"scandal." Left alone while sick, she
must have pondered on the sermon.
She has not an enemy in the world, SO
her husband says, and all her neigh
bors speak we'll of her. Nevertheless,
she apparently thought that she must
have at one time said something dero-
gatory to her neighbors. This idea,
hastened by the illness, made her, as it
would seem, determined to cut her
tongue, so that it could offend no one
again or give cause for scandal. The
fact that after cutting her r--throat and
stabbing herself, she tried deliberately,
with pair of scissors, to cut OF her
tongue, would tend to corroborate this
idea.
4 series Of piercing shrieks startled
several pedestrians on Vermont Street
shortly before noon yesterday, and
they rushed in the direction Of the
Thorpe residence, on the stoop OF
which they saw a woman frantlcally
wringing her hands and appealing for
assistance. In one of the rooms an
other woman, who proved to be Mrs.
Thorpe, was slashing her body with a
pair of scissors and penknife.
The neighbors who responded to the
cry of alarm rushed into the house, and
after a fierce struggle with the de-
mented W man, succeeded in disarming
her. Ow.1g to the length Of time Mrs.
Thorpe had been left alone and the
extreme violence she had used, the
floor and walls were covered with
blood.
In the struggle with her rescuers,
Mrs. Thorpe exhausted all her strength,
and sank to the floor unconscious, with
blood flowing freely from half dozen
wounds in her neck and breast.
A policeman Of the Seventeenth Pre-
cinct, who had been attracted by the
woman's screams, left his post and
entered the house. He sent out an
ambulance call, which was responded
to by St. GATHERINGS Hospital. DR..
Whalen accompanied the vehicle.
Meanwhile some one notified DR..
George Law of Pennsylvania and
Atlantic Avenues Of the occurrence, and
he assisted the ambulance surgeon in
dressing the woman's wounds. She was
not taken to the hospital, but remains
unguarded, except by her husband, at
her house. Being outside the city limits,
the case does not come under the juris-
diction of the authorities of the Eastern
District.
The instruments with which the
woman eHdeavored to end her life were
taken to the Seventeenth Precinct
police station. The police or the wo-
mans husband can assign no cause for
the deed, excepting her temporary
arrangement or, as stated, her religious
motives.