The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-06-29
TRIES 70 DROWN HERSELF.
MRS. CHARLES EBLE SOUGHT su.
IclDE IN RIVER TO-DAY.
A coLoRED MAN RESCUED HER
We'll Known Norfolk Woman. Mother
Of Fifteen Children, Plunged Into
Northfork's Cold Current at This
Morning. but Fisherman Was Near.
tFrom Wednesdays Dailyl

Morning, but Fisherman Was Near
tFrom Wednesdays Daily.l
Mrs. Eble, widow of the late Charles
, Eble who died June 4, and one of the
old settlers in this vicinity tried to
end her life in the Northfork river,
just around the bend from the mill
dam at o'clock this morning, and
was prevented from drowning in the
cold waters by John King, colored
man, who chanced to be fishing a
short distance from the place she went
into the stream.
King says that Mrs. Eble resisted
his efforts to rescue her and begged
him to allow her to drown, declaring
that she was of no more use in this
world and that she did not want to
live After she had been taken out
of the deep water to the shore. how
ever, she made no further efforts to re-
turn to the river.
Mrs. Eble is about sixty years of
age and the mother of fifteen chill
dren, thirteen living. Her husband
died three weeks ago, most of her
children are grown up and away from
home and it is supposed that her lone
illness led Mrs. Eble to seek relief
from life in the Northfork today. For
some weeks past she has been suffer
ing from insomnia and has been I'M
able to sleep at all at night for sew
eral weeks. Her husband was a pio-
neer here and left his family in COM
Portable circumstances.
After having been rescued, Mrs.
Eble was taken to her home in cab.
Kings Story of the Incident.
King, the colored man, is porter at
the Turf Exchange saloon. He went
to the river at o'clock this morning
for the purpose of looking after his
fish lines that he had set last night.
He told his story to The News as fol-
lows:
Il had just taken a fish off hook
and was rebaiting it, when / heard
someone breaking through the brush
about twenty feet away from me. A
moment later | heard a splash as of
someone jumping into the water, and
looked up to see a woman in the
stream, holding her head under the
water. She wore a mans coat and
this, together with her skirt tended
to hold her up on the surface and
made it impossible to sink. | waded
out and grabbed the woman. She told
me to let her drown as she did not
want to go back home, but | told her
she couldn't do that, and pulled her to
the bank The water was only up to
my boot tops.
She was so heavy with water-soaked
clothing that | was unable to carry
her out of the water. She remained
quiet on the shore, at the edge OF the
water, and made no further efforts to
get back into the stream, so | began
to look for assistance. After waiting
a time for someone to come along, and
finding no one, l walked to the near
est house and enlisted aid from a
man, who helped carry her up on the
high bank. A cab was telephoned for
and she was taken home. | did not
know who the lady was
was d SuceT = dlGs
A queer feature of the tragedy is
found in the fact that, although Mrs.
Eble chose an hour of the day when
the world was asleep and when she
supposed she could dive into the ST.
lent current of the Indifferent river,
there was, by some kindly provision
of chance or fate or whatever else 1t
may be termed, lone fisherman only
twenty feet away from the secluded
nook that she had selected, and that
he should have seized the drowning
woman before she was able to shut
life from her lungs with the water
seal. Had she seen the fisherman
there batting his hook, or had she ac-
cidentally entered the river for her
fatal plunge few yards further away,
or just around the bend-as she might
have done-there would have been
later in the death excepting the empty
couch at home when the woman's chill
dren would have missed their mother,
and then the dragging of the river
King, the colored boy who was thus
by accident placed at the very spot
where the tragedy was to be attempt
ed, and who was by further accident
hidden from the sight of the woman
seeking seclusion and death, said that
he was intensely frightened when he
saw the human form battling to get
underneath the covering of the rivers
surface, and, though he jumped out
into the stream by sudden and intui-
tive impulse, he was still shaking with
fear hours later, over the experience
that he had gone through.
WarnervilIe.