The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-09-08
TRAINED NURSE,
OLD, FORGOTTEN
COMMITS SUICIDE
af -----1-
Son Hayward. Friends Gone,
Mrs. Isabel Maxwell Drinks
Oxalic Acid.

ner own manu- as inc only suiSeoSo y
those Ills of life she was no longer able
to combat.
When. the. body Of the woman was
found yesterday In a rear room of the
sorry little ground floor apartment she
occupied, by nelghbors, and the police
of the Fourth Precinct were summoned
1t was evident to them that she had
been dead for d long time. perhaps two
weeks or more. No attention had been
paid to her absence before that time,
because 1t was known In the .netghbor-
hood that Mrs. Maxwell was a trained
nurse by profession, and that despite
her advanced years she occa sionally OBJ.
tained employment, which kept her
away from the house for a week or tive
at a time. But finally Mrs. Christine
the second floor, spoke of the matter
to Mrs. John M. Mentz, wife OF the
landlord.
1t vas not until yesterday that Mrs.
Scherer started an Investigation on her
own %account. Convinced that the, Q
was something am!ss in the rooms OF
her neighbor, she went to Mrs. Susan
Markowltch, who occupies the ground
floor fiat in the house in front. The
two women placed a barrel on q chair
and while Mrs. Scherer steadied this
uncertain support Mrs. Markowitch
mounted It and peered through the
window OF the Maxwell apartment.
What she saw there caused her to start
back screaming and almost to fall from
the barrel. When she reached the
ground she was trembling and white
and told her ncfghbor that she had seen
a pair OF stockinTed feet p~rotrudfng
from the sheets Of a shakedown bed on
the floor of the rear room OF the apart
ment.
The two women hurried again to the
house Of the landlord, and Mrs. Mentx
summoned the police from the Fourth
precinct station. The door to the lower
nat IN the rear house Was battered
down and the policemen who had been
sent. from the station house found
the woman. Near her lay two
letters addressed to her, which
had been unopened Indicating
that the aged recluse had be-
come so weary OF the world that curios-
ity concerning even the Identity and
business of people who were writing
to her was dead. A note also was
found, In which the suicide said that
she was tired of this World and that
she had taken oxalic acid that she
might get to the next. A cup. with
traces OK white powder In It was near
at hand. 1t was evident the woman
had been dead for two or three, weeks.
County Physician William II. Mckenzie
was notified. ana. after examining the
body. ordered Its removal to Holes
mersue. sl. ga
The hare little rooms in which Mrs.
Maxwell had lived and. by her own
hand, died, bore pathetic testimony t.
the struggle for existence which she
had been making and which she had
finally found too much for her failing
strength On the table lay a little boob
in which she had kept of hei
rent. 1t showed that for the past two
months she had been unable fully to
meet the rental OF IS. q'
Neighbors declared that occasionally
Mrs. Maxwell complained of a way
ward son In New York who lac failed
to contribute anything 10 her support,
She felt very bitterly toward him and
insisted he had destroyed all the at.
fiction She had once felt for him. On
the wall. In a frame. hung a certificate
from the Toronto General Hospital,
dated, July, ., 1883, In which the world
at large was informed that Mrs. Isabei
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