Nelson Chronicle, Colne Observer, and Clitheroe Division News. — 1898-03-25 (Nelson, Lancashire, England)

WILFUL MURDER."  SELDOM, indeed, does it fall to the sad lct ef a Nelson jury to return a verdict of "wilful murder " against one of their own fellow townsmeu, but this was the melansholy duty of the jury who eat at the Nelson Town Hall on Monday afternoon to enquire into the circumstances attending the death of JOSEPH HOULDSWORTH, carter, 3, Elm-street, Loeds-road, which bad occurred the previous Saturday afternoon under circumstances too well known to need repetition. By that verdict, the prisoner, ROBERT THISTLETHWAITE, of back Joseph. street, Newbridge, now stands committed to take his trial at the Manchester Assizes on the capital charge of wilful murder, and that being the case we shall express DO word which may influence the minds of those who may possibly yet be called upon to officiate as his jurors there. But we can and do deplore the fact that the borough of Nelson should have been the wens of such a crime Hitherto Nelson has been more famous for its industrial enterprise, its religious and educational institutions, the sobriety of its sons and daughters, and everything else that exalts a town in the estimation of surrounding communities than for anything that dims the lustre of a good name, or disturbs one's faith in the ultimate supremacy of happiness and righteousness over misery and .in,—a faith in which so many men and women are hopefully striving in so many and various ways in this borough. After the most casual reflection on what has occurred, it is impossible not to recognise from what quarter this temporary reversal to our public tendencies has come. It is customary, we know, for some people to sneer at the earnest and continuous , efforts of religious and temperance workers, because sneering is a kind of mock bravado, contemptible and meaningless, but all the ' sneering in the world cannot prove that I crimes like the one just committed in our midst are an outcome of such efforts. They come nineteen times out of twenty from the epposite camp. The Nelson murder of to- ! day springs from drink. The precious life blood of a hard working man has been spilled through drink; drink has added another kingly and defenceless widow and four orphan children to the appallingly long list of those whom it has robbed of husband, father and wage earner; it has made two more homes desolate at once and broken a few more hearts) and lives. The triumph of drink, however, can only be short lived while those who labour amongst us for the sacred cause of humanity continue to fight against it, and to seek and to save its unhappy victims. The town, it is true, has not had many such stains upon the unsullied pages ~t its history, and we trust that in future by the grace of God and the /read of religion, temperance, education and general bettertent it will have fewer still. By the loss f their husbands, two women have been :waged itto poverty and want. Who will them? A relief fund has been started .14 whatever the christian public may think, we know they will aid and support it as they d and support everything that is in seal pity and sympathy.