The Tamworth Examiner and Working Men's Journal. — 1874-11-21 (Tamworth, Staffordshire, England)

THE SUICIDE FROM THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.  A question which will be in hundreds of mouths during the next few days is whether tne time has not arrived when some means shall be adopted, or at least attempted, to prevent weak-minded people from ending their career by leaping over our Suspension-bridge. It is only 3 months since the last life was sacrificed at this otherwise inviting spot; and the question arose at the time, and was widely canvassed, whether the bridge in its present form does not present some attraction to persons who may be nurturing a lurking inclination to ter. minate what may he an unhapoy career. The bridge wasopened in the year 1864, and we believe that the number of suicides since then has averaged one per annum; but when we find that there was a ease of self-destruction there only in August last, and another not very long before that, it becomes a serious question whether something ought not to be done to counteract the feeling of infatuation which would-be suicides must possess before they can summon up resolution to take the leap which must necessarily end in instant death. The last person who jumped over the bridge was an elderly man, and he seemed to have been driven to desperation by family trials. On Monday last there was another case, but of an entirely different kind. The victim was a woman, and a woman in her teens, and from what we can learn she was prompted to the commission of the act by a feeling of jealousy. The precise particulars we have not ascertained, but we heard that it was disappointment in a love affair that has led to the unhappy termination of her young life. About noon, yesterday, a girl of 19 or 20 years of age, named Lucy Emma Durrant, in service at Mr. Thomas Baker's, No. 13, Elgin-park, Redland,was sent out to purchase some milk, and never returned to her place. Shortly after three o'clock ia the afternoon, a woman (afterwards ascertained to be Lucy Durrant), was seen to scale the parapet•of the bridge, and jump off. She fell into the mud, and was there found quite lifeless. The attention of P.S. Snook, who was on duty in the Bridge Valley.road, was directed to the occurrence, and he hastened to the spot. The body had in the meanwhile been brought to the river bank by Joshua Evans, who lives at Long-row, opposite the Gloucester hotel, Hotwells, and another man named George Sheppard, residing at Oxford..treet St. Philip's, and the sergeant, assisted by P.C.'s 95 and 108 and a man named John Handy, who lives in the Pithay, and saw the fatal leap, removed it to The General Draper. On being searched, there NBA found upon the unfortunate woman a locket containing the portrait of a man, a silver ring, and a pocket handkerchief. In the meantime, the girl's mistress had made inquiries after her missing servant. Some three months ago the young woman attempted to destroy her life by taking laudanum, but a doctor was sent for and her intentions were frustrated. Since that she has threatened to jump over the bridge, and after she had been out of the house for some time yesterday a piece of paper was found in her bedroom, upon which were written the words, " Pay my, debts out of my wages, as you will not see me again.' This note was apparently intended for her fellow-servants, to whom her determination to destroy herself had been communicated. Fearing that what she had threatened she would carry into execution, her mistress at once sent a description of the girl to the Clifton reserve station. This description ran as follows : " About 20 years of age, rather short in stature, fair complexion; dressed in a light cotton dress, black jacket, and black felt hat." To this we may add that she was considered a pretty girl. A groom was also directed by Mrs. Baker to mount a horse and ride straight away to the bridge, describe the girl to the toll-takers, and so prevent her doing the act which she had contemplated. And here it will be necessary to cut the thread of the story and go back a little. The spot at which the girl threw herself over was on the Clifton side looking towards Rownham ferry, near where the last suicide occurred. She first made the attempt on the Leigh side, but she was stopped, and sent back by the tollkeeper there. She then, it is thought, went down to the ferry, crossed over at the Hotwells, and came up to the Clifton side. Meanwhile the Leigh gate-keeper had in. formed the Clifton gate-keeper of what he had seen, and of his belief that she meant to commit suicide. An honr or so after a young woman passed through the Clifton gate, who, the keeper thought somewhat answered the description he had got. He immediately followed her, and saw her sitting down close to the side, but directly she saw him she leaped on the railings with cat-like rapidity, and before he could interpose wlts over; though so close was he to her that, as he made a grab at her, her hand passed through his as she fell. We have already stated that a manservant rode up in hot haste to the Clifton gate-keeper, but, unfortunately, it was some ten minutes after the girl had jumped off the bridge. He, however, inquired of the toll-keeper if a girl, giving a description which answered to the misfortunate woman, had passed on to the bridge, and when told what had happened, said the girl's mistress had just found a letter giving an intimation of her intention to destroy herself, and had sent him off as fast as she could. George Edney, the toll.keeper who tried to prevent her last attempt, is quite unnerved by the shock which the terrible incident has caused him. The unfortunate girl's parents reside at Stowmarket, in Suffolk, and are respectable people in their station of life.