Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express, etc. — 1909-05-22 (Penistone, South Yorkshire, England)

FORMER DINNINCTON MINER CUTS HIS 'THROAT.  EICHT CHILDREN NEARLY ASPHYXIATED,  Driven to desperation by a long run pi dcmeatic misfortune, lieurge Brown, a miner, jiving fat 12, Mare St.. New louisboro' corn toitted criine in the early bourn of &ilia day morning, with created no ',mall sensation throughout the entire mighbourMum A rumour ic.laned currency as, re.r away aSheffield before tea o'clock ILL the morning the effect that a murder had been cominitte_ Conishono'. This v-as found to be in correct, but a tragedy lead indeed been en acted, anal enquiries brought to light sone truly remarkable eirettin.t4ners. At abou, balf-past four in the morning Brown wa, fcund _lcing in bed with kis throat cut, hi. Little thirtermyrstr-old son, James, beat th, cam tu first discover lun father', terribl, plight. This was a tragedy in itself, but it MID not all. When the rest oi the family were aroused it was found that all the gas jets in the house had been turned on, and the chimneys staffed np with pillows. The gas eseaned freely, and the children. eight :n number. come very close indeed to being asphyxiated. In order to discover what led up to the perpetration of a crime of no unumud a character it it. nweenary to go beck some eighteen months. Blown then became out of employment. and had not worked :dace. two months afterwards hie wife died in giving birth to a baby boy, now sixteen mouths of age Some time aftsr that one of the boys:. •,.,  there were nine children—met wirh an dent in in the pit, as a result of which be died. More recently still. Brown had some difference will a neighbour, and as a consequence his name appeared as a defendant on the charge shot of the Doncaster West Hiding Court on Saturday The ease was. of course, not called. Thus left a widower with a large family to support, trouble seems ;to har, doggedly followed the unfortunate miner, and eventually to have eauaed a great depreasiou of mind, as a result of which. it may be naturally concluded, he committed his terrible act. It is extremely fortunate that the tragedy was not a more complete one. involving the ex-termination of a whole family. One strange point is that although the gas had beeu escaping freely during the night the jets were found to be turned oft when the police arrived in the morning, but of this there is an explanation. The first suspicion that something was wrong Can-ne in the very small hours of the morning. The father bad been the hint to hod overnight. leaving the eight children up in charge of his eldest slaughter, Prances, a girl of only sixteen, who had had to mother the family as well masts' could since her mother's death. Frances and the rest of the children rethed at about half-past eleven, but during the right the girl was awakened by the 'baby, who was gasping for breath. She found that ga, Wan escaping in the house and called in her father. She says that he went downstairs before returning to bed, and the police take the new that when he went down he turned off the gas. 'Phie is a reasonable theory, and who shall say that the father, half desnented though be undoubtedly inuet have been, wat not filled with bitter remorse as be saw his youngest offspring, bottling against the overpowering fumes of the gas, and going downatairs, resolved to remedy the wrong to some extent by stopping the escape? lt was not long after this that little James. who slept in the front bedroom with his father and his fifteen-year-old brother, Jewell, woke up to hear groans earning from his father's bed. He got up, and was horrified to see a razor, almost covered with blood, lying on the chair by the side of his father's bed. Then he looked at kis unfortunate father in whose throat was a horrible gash some five inches long, from which the blood towed freely. James called his sister, the alarm was given, and eventually P.c. I Orimshaw arrived on the scene. By this I time Brown was dead.