npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-05-22 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE WAY HI SHOULD GO," &O.—Uncle, to the Collector: "I suppose you won't charge for this little man ?"—Tlze r to Child: "Hew old are you, little sir ?r—Boo.: "I am figs when I am at home, but three when travelling."--•• PAM  INCREASE or Stumm IN GrameNr.—According to an account compiled by Herr Hirsch, pastor and principal of an asylum for inebriates at Lintorf, there can be no doubt as to the large increase of suicide in most of 'the -countries trtuidcUs,Europe (says the Paris correspondent of the Standard). In Germany nearly all the separate States exhibit An increase varying from sixty to one hundred and eighty per cent. within the past thirty years.: Taking the average for the ten years since the foundation of the German Empire the annual num'ber of Suicides to every million inhabitants has been in Saxony three hundred; in Wurteinberg)One hundred- indisighty, in Mecklenburg one ` hundred and sixty-seven, in Baden one hundred and-fifty-six; in Prussia erre hundred said thirty-three, and ln Bavaria one hundred and three. InDeihmark the annual number cif suicides per million inhabitants 4:hiring -the same period has -.been- 'two hundred and eighty, in Austria one hundred and twenty-two, in Sweden eighty-one, in Belgium seventy-three, and in Norway furty. It is only in the last-mentioned country where a, decrease has taken place in the period under consideration—a change which Pastor -Hirsch - attributes to the rigorous legislation there -recently introduced asainst drunkennese. • TEM ONG= coe tax troko9N GArxrrz.—ln the year 1665 the first number of a newspaper *appeared which lives among us still. It was issued by a man who bore the strange cognomen of Roger L'Estrange. Roger was a great rogue, if history was true and .persecuted printers most unmercifully'. "Tie paper he began was first called the Oxfeed • Gradette. At the time it started the plague had . broken out in London, and the Court very wisely had retire& to 'Oxford. Some. news was wanted, and this paper 'was started. When Royalty ;returned to .London The Gazette came with them; and theri aPpliftriately changed to 27ie London -Gazette, and by that 'name it has been known up to' the present time.—Brilish and Colonial Printer and Siationer. IF A &immix " Trr."—Tramp. "Whose 'ouse is this; Sir?" Gardener. " &Niro Noakes." 'Tramp. "Do you think I could get anything there?" Gardener. "Well, I don't know—the last 'o your sort got-twenty-one days."--Punch. -
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-01-17 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

RESCUE OF A SHIP'S CREW.  During the last voyage of the British and African Royal mail steamer Kinsembo, from the West Coast of Africa, she was instrumental in saving from what appeared to be inevitable death the crew of the French schooner Victorine.  The Kinsembo, tinder the commando! Captain W. S. Folland, had left Madeira only three days when she sighted a vessel, disabled, and lying very low in the water. Distress signals were flying, and Captain Fulland at once made for the vessel, which proved to be the Victorine, and getting as near her as was a visable a boat was lowered, and the unfortunate Frenchmen were taken off the sinking schooner and taken on board the Kinsembo, though they were so exhausted by exposure and privation that most of them were helpless and had to be very carefully attended to. It was ascertained that the schooner was bound from St. Nazaire to Mil. ford Haven with a cargo of potatoes, and she had been fourteen days out. At one time she got within 30 miles of Scilly, when she encountered a series of heavy gales, became unmanageable, and was driven 600 miles out of her course. The crew of four hands had suffered terribly. The captain had been struck on the chest with the main boom, the mate had fallen from aloft and was severely injured, the third man had one of his eyes badly cut, and the fourth member of the crew, a young lad, was unable to walk from the constant exposure. When fallen in with the Victorine was 220 miles off Vigo and was quite a wreck, her sails and yards being gone and three feet of water being in the hold. She was settling down fast, and the poor fellowe on board were too worn cut to make any effort to keep her afloat.  A terrible case of suicide is reported from Mar. Bellies. An old man, who had long been suffering great torments from partial paralysis, while left alone in his house, saturated his clothes with oil, and setting fire to a bed of shavings previously prepared, laid himself down upon it. The flames quickly enveloped him, but his resolution was firm. He was found in a partly calcined state, but did uot die until some hours aiterwarts.—Psrla Correspondent A Daily Telegraph,
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-03-27 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SPECULATIONS ABOUT COMETS.  In a few weeks the comet heralded by Don Pedro of Brazil is to make its appearance, and, as has been the casevn several former occasions of the lilt kind, there are not wanting praplieti to foretell, nor persons' to believe, that the end of the world is at hand. This event has, hpweves, been predicted so often that the announcenlent oomewhitt pn,his upon, the ptibFc, !rhih with a few exceptions,.. bef it with amazing sang froid, going about their usual work, buying, selling, and making provision for a future which they refuse to beheve will be limited to a few weeks. How and under what conditions will the world end? This is a question which many scientific brains have fatigued themselves in endeavouring ,to solve without reaching any hatisfactoiy conclusion. According to a French meteorologist, M. Vivacty, one planet will die, so to say, a natural death, and, after having passed through the successive stages of infancy, youth, Maturity, an& old age, will expire worn out for warmth. The Atmosphere which we breathe envelopes the earth in a sort of garment retaining the sun's heat. When this garment is worn out, the heat will vanish, and lilt!. mately a glacial cold, inexorable and relentless, will spread over nur sphere its mantle of death. Snow will invade valleys, plains, and cities with incessant but slow march, towns and villages will be abandoned to the silent destroyer, and our race will be driven to seek warmer climates; the tropics will in ther Conroe of time be the sole habitable region, the extent of which will itself 'become gradually restricted, and humanity, crowded together without sufficient elbow room, so to say, will commence a war of extermination, in which the weakei will go to the wall tcrmake iloom for the stronger to live. When affairs have reached this crisis European capitals will long have ceased to be, and will have become the subject of historical dissertation, ships being sent across seas of ice to verify the fact that vast deserts of icebergs, tenanted by wolves, were once centres of civilisation. The whole earth, says M. Vivarez, will be 'transformed kit°. a frozen and uninhabitable plidn, and.l' to • find :any vestige of great and popular France will be as hard a a task for the scientfiic explorer as is now that of reaching the roles. The human race will continue to carry on wars of extermination, animal life will become scarce, until one day the sun's rays will shine upon a lugubrious spectacle the frozen corpses of the last human family dead of cold and suffocation on the borders of the last sea dried up. Thus will the busy world of to-day end, according to this savant's hypothesis which, at any rate, is more rational than that of a German colleague, who predicts that the world will end by the unim* suicide of its inhabitants, grown weary of everything, having discovered everything, invented everything, :rayed everything, and who, to cure themselves y of ennui engendered by satiety, will unanimously decree universal death.—Evening Standard.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-03-27 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

RASTRICK.  SMOIDE.—On Tuesday, a young married !Nan named William Butterworth, of Elland Lower Edge, committed suicide by hanging himself in a hay-loft. He had been in a low state of mind for some time.  A WORD AND A BLOW AND SOIARTHIN4 BESIDES, —Joseph Bedford, delver, of Rastriok, was charged before the Halifax West-riding Magistrates, on Saturday with committing an assault upon David Aspinall, silk dresser, of Toothill Bank, Bastrick. Complainant stated that on the evening of the 15th inst., as he was on his way home from his work, he was met by the defendant, who made some offensive remark and then deliberately knocked him down with a blow, and also kicked him severely. Hannah Brocklehurst was called as a witness, and corroborated complainant's version of the affair. She added that she saw nothing in the complainant's conduct to justify the attack upon him. In defence Bedford said he was at the Thornhill Arms on Sunday night when the complainant and a number of his companions were there also, and were very insulting. On meeting complainant on this night he asked him if had as much steam as on Sunday, on which he struck defendant a blow on the forehead with his can. It was after this that defendant "gave him one which flattened him." Defendant was considered guilty, and had 16s. 6d. to pay, or 14 days to prison.—He was afterwards charged with refusing to quit the Delvers' Arms on the 17th inst. The landlady, Esther Bentley, @eve evidence to the effect that the defendant and several others came into her house and were very abusive and disorderly, refusing to leave when requested. She had to send for P.C. Beaumont, who put them out. For this offence he had £1 and lls. 6d. costa to pay, or a further term of one month's imprisonment.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-10-09 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE AT SILSDEN.  At the Skipton Police-court, on Wednesday, before Mr. R. H. Sidgwick, John Roberts, striker, aged twenty-two, of Silsden, was brought up in custody, charged with attempting to murder Mary Tillotson, his sweetheart, between the hours of nine and ten o'clock on Tuesday night, at Silsden, and afterwards attempting to commit suicide. After Superintendent Exton had briefly explained the case, the prisoner was remanded. The circumstances of the case are as follows :—Roberts and Miss Tillotson had been courting for about twelve months, and of late, owing to some circumstances not known, the young lady wished to break off the engagement. The young man was very much dissatisfied at this, and on Tuesday night, at about a quarter-past nine, he followed the young woman and her mother into the house of Mr. George Jackson, in Bridge-street, Silsden. Jackson and his wife were also in the house at the time. The prisoner several times asked Miss Tillotson and her mother to allow him to take them home (a distance of about 50 yards), but they both refused. He thereupon took out a six-chambered revolver, from the breast-pocket of his coat, and deliberately shot the girl, the bullet entering her face about half-an-inch below the left eye. The poor girl immediately fell td the floor. He then pointed the revolver at the girl's mother, but it struck Jackson on the knuckle of his right hand, cutting a piece of flesh off. He then ran into the street, and shouted out, "Let me shoot myself." He pointed the revolver at himself, and the third shot ettered his right cheek, and passed out at his chin. The affair has caused considtrable alarm and consternation in the neighbourhood of Silsden. The injured parties have been attended by Dr. Wylie, of Skipton, and Miss Tillotson is now in a very dangerous I state. The revolver was found lying in the street after the prisoner was apprehended, and 18 undischarged cartridges were found upon him when he was searched. The prisoner himself has received considerable injury, but he is now safely lodged in the Skipton police-cell, whither he was removed by Police-sergeant Morley on Wednesday morning.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-10-23 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

CHURCH BELLS AND THE BURIALS  ACT.  The Times fiaii publisliWls6l2slMstorietter7..* Sir,—There seetns to be some doubt whether tne clergy should allow a bell to be tolled at funerals taking place under the new Burials Act. One of the Bishops lately observed teat it would be ungracious to refuse. I venture to think it would also be illegal. By the 67th canon, "when any is passing out of this life a bell shall be tolled. . . . And after the party's death, if it so fall out, there shall ' be rung no more than one short peal, and one other peal before the burial and one other after the burial." No reference is made to any kind of service, and doubtless thee peals may be rung at the,: burial of the excommunicate, the unbaptized, or suicides. How much rather, then, at burials under the , new Act? Moreover, the "passing bell," which now takes the place* of the one short peal immediately -1 after the death is known to the sexton, must almost of necessity be rung before the friends have elected to avail themselves of the Act. Would it not be at least unreasonable to forbid the same bell to be tolled at the funeral a day or two later? It has been decided by some modern judgments ' that the possession of the church key belongs to the incumbent. This, however, does not give him the right to control the ringing of the bells, as stated in the Bishop of Oxford's recent letter to his archdeacons. The bells are parish property, but the custody thercnf belongs to the churchwardens, who are directed by the 88th canon not to allow the use of the bells on superstitious occasions "nor at any other time without good cause, to be allowed by the minister of the place and themselves." It is clear ' that the control of the bells is canonically vested in the churchwardens, but that both they and the clergy are equal judges of what is a "good cause" for ringing. Neither can act without the other. Doubtless, if the minister or churchwardens tried to hinder the ' ringing pi' the bells on usual and proper occasions, ' such as the burial of a parishioner, they would be set right on application to a higher authority. The canons allow all the bells to be rung at the I burial of a parishioner, and it is clearly not competent for a clergyman to take away a privilege common to all parishioners merely because the relatives of the deceased choose to avail themselves of another privilege granted to certain classes by a modern statute.— I am, yours obediently. W. P. W.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-04-24 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SUICIDE AT MIRFIELD.—At a quarter-past ten o'clock on Thursday morning, John Oakes, fiftyeight years of age, wheelwright, Mitt°ld, was found by his wife Mary in a closet attached to the house he occupied, with his throat cut and bleeding. She immediately raised an alarm, and Drs. Ramsden and Arthur were sent for. These gentlemen sewed the wound up but the unfortunate man died at half-past two in the afternoon. A razor covered with blood Was found on the seat in the closet. Deceased had been in a low state of mind for some time on account of family troubles.  THE DEWSBURY LICENSED VICTUALLERS AND THE SUNDAY CLOSING QUESTION,-At a meeting of the Executive of the Dewsbury Licensed Victuallers' Association, held at the Ravensthorpe Hotel, on Tuesday afternoon, Mr. James Watson presiding, a conversation took place on the Sunday closing question, and it was resolved that a vigorous effort be made by the association to promote peti tons against the bills to be introduced into the new Parliament having for their object the closing of public houses on Sundays in England and Wales. Steps were taken to make the petitons general ones, and it was specially impressed on members that they should not accept the signatures of youths of both sexes, as was the case with the total abstinence party.  WAKEFIELD, Wednesday. —At our market to-day there was a full supply of fat beasts, but generally the quality was rough. The stock included a large number of American animals, and several considerable droves of Jutlanders. Of buyers there was quite an average attendance, and beef of the best description meeting with a good inquiry, prices were decidedly a farthing per pound in advance of last Wednesday's. Prime Scotch and north-country bullocks made fully Rd, per good useful animals, 80., and rough ones which were freely offered, Bd. Last Wednesday's quotations for mutton were maintained, and in some cases dealers obtained a slight advance. Choice small sheep sold at 9d. per lb., and now and again that figure was exceeded ; heavier sorts made from Bd. to 80. Lambs were again very dear, prices ranging from 465. to 545. each. There was a good show of fat calves, which made 9d. per lb. Pigs also were freely offered, and met with a steady inquiry at last week's prices. Nearly 200 lean beasts and much cows were exhibited, but buyers being scarce, trade was quiet. Milch cows, Al 4 to 1494 least bealtst /IV to 414 gash.
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-11-13 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SINGULAR CASE OF SUICIDE.  The Portsmouth coroner held an inquest on Friday %veiling In last week on the body of Thomas Howell Davies, which had been picked up off Southsea beach.  The brother of the deceased, a master mariner, living at Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, said his brother was 25 years of age, and though of no occupatioh, was supposed to be reading for the ministry of the Church of England. Two letters were found upon the body addressed to his landlady. The first was as fdllo ws  "I hope my dear sisters will go ir to a nunnery and consecrate their lives to religious work, that they may go to Heaven, as there are many mansions there and let them try and get a place of honour there. Oh! I wish I had always acted according to the dictates of my conscience. What a blessing it would be!"  In the second letter the deceased wrote :—" I am distracted to tell you, but I must die. I must implore you in the name of the Almighty not to tell my dear sisters and poor mother, especiaily my younger sister, for I am afraid it will send her insane. . . . Tell my dear frierrds and my brothers not to do anything against their conscience. Oh, tell them my last words are to be good, and they shall certainly enter Heaven."  The following was run through with a pen : "My property I wish to give to the Catholic Church as I know it is the true one, being the mother Church to say mass for me." Then followed the words,— "This do not mind, as I am afraid it will not do. Never mind my property."  An envelope addressed to a Catholic _priest of Portsmouth was alsc found upon the body. A witness stated that she met the deceased in a stationer's shop, and that, having learnt that she was a Catholic, he had asked her what he had to do in order to get masses said fpr the dead. He also stated that he had been to a theological college, that his father belonged to the Low Church, that his mother was a Unitarian, and that he had revelations which had convinced him that the Roman Catholic Church was the true Church on earth. For three years he had been studying Roman Catholicism, and as he appeared distracted she advised him to consult Father Conrwlly, whose address she gave him. When the body was discovered two flat-irons, weighing 81b., were found in the side pockets of his coat.  The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide while of unsound mind."
Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1880-09-11 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

SUCCESSFUL HOAX.  The Nets York Times of the 20th of August gives an account of 2, curious hoax perpetrated in that city on the previous day. Somebody wrote a letter to a ,morning newspaper, which was printed, saying that he desired to give notice of his intention to commit suicide in Central Park, Thursday afternoon, at precisely three o'clock. He invited the world to come and see him shoot himself through the heart and then dive into the water of the lake. He even selected the spot, which was "the rock near the summer-house on the opposite side of the lake, just across from the terrace, on the right-hand side as you stand on the terrace and look across the water.' The lettet was signed, "A man whp has nothing left him but to leave a world that will not let him exist." The New York paper conthwes : When Captain Beatty of the Park 'Police, was on his way to the station in the Arsenal early in the morning, he was saluted on all sides with " Goin' to be at the shoptini and "Give the old man a chance." The captain'had not seen the remarkable letter, and was puzzled at these remarks. He was annoyed beyond measures when he did read it. .. . . He called out his reserve force of officers, and the letter was read to them. While he did not, he said, believe that the writer intended to kill himself in the way described in the letter, yet it was his duty, as captain of the police, to take all precautions to prevent- any such tragic exhibition in the park. He thereupon detailed men to guard all the pathways leading to the lake, and to especially keep a sharp look-out for any one who might appear on any of the rocks close to the water. The officers carried clubs, and it would have been a sorry day for any man to have climbed on one of those rocks yesterday. Men and women who stood on the terrace, or who lingered near the edge of the lake, we seen to cast wistful and hurried glances at the rocks. They would not admit, of course, that they were awaiting the appearance of the man who was to blow out his so-called brains and then plu9ge into the lake; yet it was perfectly plain to every careful observer that many were there to see this man. Men and women watched each other suspiciously, and the measure of every new comer was carefully taken. The reporter heard one man quietly inform a policecfficer that he was satisfied he had discovered the man; he had watched him for two hours There was a constant fumbling of watch-chains, and those who had watches attached stared at the hands until three o'clock was marked. Then they pocket:A their watches, and rivetted their attention upon the rocks across the lake. Some of the spectators seemed to hold their breath, and were motionless, as though anticipating an explosion. But there was no man, no pistol, and no explosion on any of the rocks. The crowd lingered for nearly an hour, and then, with disappointment written all over their countenances, men and women began to stroll away.