The sun., 1903-11-11
SUICIDE IN A FIT OF ANGER.
GIRL KILLS HERSELF IN AN
OFFICE BUILDING.

Charlotte Thomas. Young stcnosrapher,
Lost Her Temper Over Mistakes and
Took POison-Ead Grieved over Her
POverty-Other Girls Hysterical.
In At Of anger at having made several
mistakes in transcribing a letter on her
typewriter, Miss Charlotte Nj. Thomas Of
$50 East ls0th street. a pretty, young ste
nographer, employed in the Office OF the
Monopol Tobacco Company on the eighth
floor Of the Constable Building, III Fifth
avenue, committed suicide yesterday by
taking carbolic acid In the hallway just
outside the Office.
Miss Thomas had been employed by the
company for five months and on several
occasions had shown an ungovernable
temper, when she would kick the type
writer table and beat the keys Of her ma
chine, but her work was always we'll done.
She reported at the Office yesterday morn
ing as usual at about 8 o clock. She had
come downtown from her home with her
mother, a widow, and appeared to be in
the best of spirits. At about II o'clock
friend of s. Kelly, the manager of the Office.
asked for stenographer to take letter.
Miss Thomas took the dictation, but had
good deal of trouble in transcribing 1t and
was compelled to ask for information sew
eral times. MIR. Kelly and his friend. who
were sitting in the Same room with Miss
Thomas. bu' at some distance from her, were
laughing over a conversation which they
had had
Miss Thomas evidently thought they
were laughing at her and slapped the letter
down in front of the manager when she had
finished Going back to her typewriter
she showed in other ways, principally by
handling the machine roughly, that she
was iri ated and nervous. Nobody. ac-
cording to the manager. said anything
to her.
A few minutes after IL o'clock. she put
on her coat and left the room. ostensibry
to get her II ncheon. Five minutes later
she opened the door and walked back
into the office. She was pale and unsteady.
but at the time nobody noticed that par
ticlarly. She laid her gloves on chair
and walked across the room to a front
window. Then she sank to the floor. with
out lttering a word.
There were about twenty other EN-
women. Several OF them rushed to the
Thomas girl. As they did so, Miss Thomas
threw an. emmy two-ounce bottle labelled
.carbolc acid rom her and whispered to
those aro nd her:
You know nothing Of my troubles"
Then she became unconscious, and died
soon after Her body was taken to the
West Thirtie,h st rect police station.
Several Of the stenographers in the
Office became hysterical as result Of the
ehoc't. and had 10 leave the office.
The girls mt ther, who was sent for, said
that Charlotte had come downtown with
her in the morning in the best Of spirits.
she had been preparing to take part in
church fair in The Bronx. She had been
from nervousness recently, and
was very irritable her mother said.
According to her mother she had had
ters with her brother William, who is
torney Generals office In Albany, and
had felt keenly the straitened circumstances
in which the family is now. She had cried
for several nights because a clerk in the
Office in the Constable Building had made
some reference to the poor clothes which
she wore. She had never mentioned
suicide, her mother says, but the fact that
she had the acid in her pocket when she
came to work in the morning is sufficient
proof that she had contemplated taking
her life.
The Thomas family formerly was in
fairly good circumstances. The girls
father, Edwin w. Thomas, before his
death. nine years ago, was connected
with the Mutual Reserve Fund Life In
surance Company. Besides the brother
in Albany there is another. Edwin W.,
who studied medicine for year in the Uni
versity Of Pennsylvania but is now junior
in college Of pharmacy.