npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-12-10 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

MELANCHOLY SUICIDE.—in London, on Monday, Mr. William Carter, Coroner for the Eastern Division of Surrey, held an inquest in Lambeth relative to the death of Mr. W. W. Martin, aged 26. Police-constable Lawrence stated that at half-past ten o'clock on Thursday night, while he was on duty on Westminster Bridge, he noticed the man walking hurriedly on the south-west side. Immediately after he took off his overcoat, and before witness, could reach him he placed his hands on the iron balustrade and vaulted into the Thames. The moon was shining briglltly, and witness saw the man rise to the surface and then swim strongly towards the steps leading to the Albert Embankment, but before he could reach the Embankment wall he seemed to lose strength and was drowned. Witness ran across the bridge and obtained a boat and drags. He and a waterman dragged for some time, but failed to recover the body, which was, however, subsequently found.—Miss Alice Martin, sister of the deceased, said that he was employed in the registered letter department of the General Post Office. He had medical advice from the establishment, and the doctor told him that he was in a very bad state of health, which caused her brother to be much depressed in spirits, and he said he had no desire to live. He, however, had purchased a house, and was.engaged to be married next March.—A young lady said that'she saw the deceased (to whom she was engaged to be married on the 23rd of March next) on Wednesday in last week. He spoke about their approaching marriage, and parted on the best of terms. Witness had ne idea that he would commit suicide. For some time past she had noticed a strange look in his eyes.—The jury returned a verdict that the deceased committed suicide whilst suffering from temporary insanity, and they added a rider commending the conduct of the constable Lawrence.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-01-08 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

ROMANTIC SUICIDE.  On Saturday a man named Frederick Day, bebween fifty and sixty years of age, committed sincidein the New Swindon parish churchyard. tie formerly lived in Swindon, and kept a beerhouse ; but, his wife having died last May, he disposed of his business and left the town. He was recently heard of as living in London, whence he wrote and informed a friend that he was going to spend his Christmas holidays in Swindon. No one appears to have seen him alive in Swindon; but about eight o'clock on Saturday morning, as a gravedigger went into the churchyard, he saw his body lying across one of the graves, quite dead, with part of his face blown away and the right hand tightly clutching a pistol. Day had lain down on his wife's grave and shot himself. _ _  An inquest was held on Monday evening on the body. There was no doubt as to the identity of the deceased or that he premeditated the fatal act. A letter, apparently written not long before he shot himself, was found on him :—" New Swindon. lam tired of life and seek rest. 1\137 poor old girl (his wife] died here last April. I cannot live without her, and I thought of being a little bit nearer to her by doing this.. I am quite aware that my head is not quite so clear as it might be; at the same time, I should like to be buried in the same grave as she is. He then proceeded to say that his life was insured, and gave the name of the person holding the policy, who, he said, would pay the funeral expenses, &c., "which need not he much. I may as well be buried as you find me (clothes I'm in.) I don't want a lot of old women to mess me 'about. The sexton," he said, "can identify me. Relations I have none that I acknowledge. Friends are scarce, very scarce. Now, don't make a great bother about this little affair. I shan't.—FßED
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-01-08 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE WAR SYSTEM OF EUROPE. Mr. Henry Richara, M.P., lectured on Tuesday night in the Town-hall, Reading, on the war system of Europe. Mr. G. Palmer, M.P., presided, and remarked that there was no such party as a peace at any price party, though there were those- who would sacrifice almost anything for the interests of peace. Mr Richard said England maintained a bad eminence among civilized nations in the matter of war. A few years ago he made a speech in the House of Commong in which he said that they could not put their finger on any two consecutive years in the present century when Englishman were not fighting somewhere. Since 1817 we had been engaged in seventy-three wars. During the last twenty-five years two and a half millions of human beings in the prime of life had been sacrificed in wars, costing not less than three hundred million pounds. In Europe at present there were not less than twelve millions eight hundred and thirty-nine thousand men trained to arms, at least five millions being always under arms. No more absurd maxim had ever been palmed upon mankind or more at variance with human experience than that if we wished for peace we must be prepared for war. We might as well say that if they wished for sobriety they must prepare for drunkenness. Armaments were not preservatives of peace but provocatives of war. Germany was sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and debt under its stupendous war system, and it was a remarkable fact that within the last ten years the number of suicides there had increased 10 per cent. It should be the aim of the collective statesmanship of Europe to introduce a better mode of settling their differences than by the brutal arbitrament of war. Men of peace, though ridiculed as foolish and fanatical, had reason and common sense as well as Christianity and humanity on their side. They contended that the peoples of Europe were ripe for the substitution of arbitration for brute force.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-03-19 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUICIDE AT AN HOTEL.  On Saturday, Mr. Paine, the Southwark and City of London Coroner, held an enquiry at the St. John's Vestry-hall, Horselydown, touching the death of Mr. E. Turner, a gentleman of independent means, lately residing in London at Melbourne-grove, Dulwich, who committed suicide at the Terminus Hotel, Londonbridge, under the following circumstances. On Tuesday in last week he left the residence of his son-in-law with the avowed intention of going to Manchester, but on the following morning a post card was received from him, stating that he had lost his train, and his return would, therefore, be delayed till Friday. He appears then to have gone to the Terminus Hotel, London-bridge, and taken apartments for the night. He was seen several times during the evening, and finally left the smoking-room between twelve and one a.m. and retired to his bedroom. Nothing was seen or heard of him on the next day (Wednesday), until one of the chambermaids, having tried the door several times and found it locked, opened it with her pass-key shortly before eight p.m. She discovered the deceased stretch at full length upon the floor in a pool of blood, with only his trousers and shirt on. His head was rest;ng upon a pillow, and a revolver was in his right hand. She at once gave the alarm, and upon the arrival of Dr. Larkin, it was found that he had shot himself through the roof of the mouth with a Colt's revolver. The bullet was discovered bet wen the scalp and the bone of the skull. The medical evidence was to the effect that death had taken place some 18 or 20 hours before the deceased was discovered, and that the injuries were selfinflicted.  The coroner elicited that no one in the hotel heard the report of a pistol, and that the probable cause for the act was that the deceased had been suffering from symptoms which threatened a paralytic stroke, of which he was in constant dread. He had also lately shown great irritability on account of the failure of some negotiations which would have enabled him to start again in business. The coroner having summed up the case, the jury returned a verdict of "Suicide during temporary insanity."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-08-20 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.  A Kinkinnati editor has just mitten a kolumn about the pronunciation of Kicker°.  - At Wame,go, a place in the extreme West, is a shanty which bears the sign—" Here's Where You Get a Meal Like Your Mother Used to Give You."  A Chicago policeman dodged four bullets easy enough, but then got tired and the fifth one fetched him. Even a policeman can't stand everything. A Connecticut man announces that he can play on seventeen different musical instruments. Ile is compelled to make the announcement himself because none of his recent neighbours are now living.  There are five women to one man in Holyoke, Mass., and the poor men have to enter ice cream offices by way of the back window, and they carry revolvers when they go to pie-nics.  In Canada, when a man is seen staggering along the street under the influence of liquor, he is described as "doing the outer edge."  "A Buffalo paper has an article on Giants Thirty Feet High.' Fhat last rain seems to have done a heap of good."—Peck's Sun.  A woman is going to try to keep her mouth shut three thousand quarter hours. If this new departure should become epidemic, what a mighty peace would settle down over this troubled land ! A travelling dentist invaded Burlington, U.S" last week and hung out the startling sign--" 21h pullin." A female lecturer in Boaton said : "Get married, young men, and be quick about it. Don't wait for the girls to become angels. You would look well beside angels, wouldn't you, you brutes After a Michigan farmer had committed suicide because there 1Y,.5 to show for his corn a soaking shower started every kernel into life and guaranteed a big crop. Some folks are always a day too late. A fisherman has found one place in Lake Erie where he sounded with a line two miles lug and could Mid no bottom. We trust that he will try again with a longer line, uzing for sinkers those people who point unloaded guns at friends and bring about a funeral.—Detroit Free  'Press. A Norwegian woman living in Nebraska, washed, baked, cut her wood, killed six rattlesnakes, run off two tramps, and shot an eagle, all in 011 G day, and it wasn't the longest day of the year, either. A canary in New York imitates the most difficult air performed on the piano. A smarter canary in Norio11.: warbles the choicest selections from the old composers and accompanies itself on the piano. It also plays very artistically on a Jewsharo and an accordion at the same time. The owner says he w,aldn't take a shilling for it.  Tea parties are all the rage in New Mexico just now. They always end up with a shooting match, with the host for a target, and hosts are growing scarce at the rate of a mile a minute.  The impecunious man who married an heiress always spoke of her as a capital wife.—[Exchange. It was to his interest to do so. If he had not done so she would have daily reminded him of " my money."—[New York Comfiercid Advertiser.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-09-24 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUICIDE IN HYDE PARK.  On Tuesday evening Mr. S. F. Langham, Deputy Coroner for Westminster, opened an inquiry at St. George's Hospital, Londcn, as to the death of a man unknown, but supposed to be a Frenchman, who was discovered in Hyde Parl., beormg apparently expired from the effects 01 a pistol-shot wound. Police-constable Taylor, stated that about 25 minutes to one on Friday moring in last week he was passing along the Ring-road in Hyde Park when he saw the deceased reclining on a seat. Witness took hold of his collar and placed him in sitting position, when he reeled and fell to the ground. Finding that he could not rouse him, witness got assistance and he was removed to the hospital, where in the centre of his shirt, over his breast, a small, square-cut hole was discovered. The garment was stained with blood, and a further examination revealed a small wound in the left breast. Witness sent a ccnstable to the seat from which the deceased was taken to make a search. OE the person of the deceased witness found a letter dated September, 1881, addressed to the French Embassy, which was handed to the surgeon in charge of the case, and the sum of is. Witness, in answer to questions, said that he saw no marks as of a struggle having taken place. Every one was supposed to be out of the park at the time. There was a constable on duty 200 yards off. Police constable Hayes stated that he was on duty at Apsley-gate, and let the last witness through. Five minutes afterwards, hearing shouts, he went round the Ring drive and saw the deceased lying on the ground. After taking the deceased to the hospital witness returned to the spot, and found within a couple of feet of the seat a revolver with five chambers, one of which had been discharged. Mr. Henry Roxburgh Fuller, house-surgeon, deposed to attending the deceased, who was quite dead on admission. Witness found a small bullet wound on the left breast, which was the cause of death. Witness then proceeded to translate the letter in question, written in French, in which the writer said "that he arrived from France to put an end to his days and save his wife and family the sad spectacle, and to put an end to his existence exposed to petty annoyances. He was a man honest and royal and had served his Fatherland, France, and hoped they ywould put him in a corner in a strange land." The writer then concluded by directing that "should a carte be taken of his features it may be sent to his wife." The letter was signed with a "Z." and two dots. A gentleman from the French Consulate stated that he knew nothing of the deceased. Verdict, "Temporary insanity."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-09-24 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUICIDE OF AN OFFICER.  In London, on Monday night, Mr. Langham held an inquest at Tavistock-chambers, Covent-garden, as to the death of Charles Mant, aged forty-two, a major in the Royal Engineers, who was found shot in the head on Saturday last in circumstances leading to the belief that he had comaiitted suicide. The court was crowded with brother officers and other friends of the deceased gentleman.—Mr. J. E. Clark, of the Junior United Service Club, deposed that he was a surgeon-major in the Army, awl knew the deceased well. The latter had been in India for a length of time, and while there was occupied in architectural designs for fortifications and other erections. He came to England on leave of absence in March last, and had been much depressed in consequence of the failure of his ' drawings. He had never threatened to commit suicide, nd so far as witness knew he had no reason for taking his own) life.—Alfred Scott, assistant housekeeper at Tavistock-chambers, stated that on Saturday morning last he saw the deceased at 9.25, when he asked for Ms letters. No letters had, however, arrived, and witness left him apparently in good health. At 11.30 he returned to the room, and then found the major sitting in a chair with a pistol tightly clasped in his hand and blood flowing from a woundi n his head. Dr. Carolai was at once summoned and pronounced life to be extinct.—Police-constable Baker proved that he searched the room and discovered deceased's watch, chain, and seals, £.3 4s. in money, and other property, and said there were no indications that the deceased had died otherwise than by his own hand.—Dr. Carolai having stated that the death of the deceased gentleman was due to a bullet in the brain and that everything pointed to suicide, the Coroner summed up and the jury immediately returned a verdict of "Suicide while of unsound mind."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-06-25 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

MENTAL DEPRESSION.—Mr. Payne,..the.City Coroner of London, has held an inquiry at St. Bartliolornel,v's Hospital as to the death of Mr. Thomas Watuin, *aged 60. He was a meinber of the Royal College of Surgeons,• England, and a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries, and for some time past had been librarien to the Obstetrical Society. At times he had fits of depression. On Sunday, the sth inst. the landlady of the house heard groans. Her husband freed Open the door of the deceased's room and found him on the bed in an unconscious state. A letter in his handwriting addressed to the hon, sec. of the Obstetrical Society, was read. It ran as follows :—" I write this to apprise you that when you receive it I shall be departed this life, in order that necessary arrangements may be made at the library. Long unable to properly perform the duties of my office, through the paralyzing influence of mental depression, I have come to the conviction that it is useless any longer to endeavour to do so." Mr. Hickman, surgeon, deposed to attending the deceased on the sth inst. He was unconscious and under the influence of narcotic posion. An emetic was administered, and at night the deceased recovered his senses. It was found that deceased had made up and taken a dose of 100 grains of chloral and two grains of acetate of morphia—an ordinary full dose would be 30 grains of chloral and half a grain of morphia. The deceased remained tender the witness's came until he got over the effects of poisoning. Mr. I.4aKing„ house physician' said the deceased was admitted to the hosprtalon the 10th inst. and died on the 12th. The immediate cause of death was phthisis, accelerated by taking poison. A verdict of' Suicide while of unsound mind" was returned.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-12-24 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT. -- Mr. G. Beasley reported that in the upper district there had been 45 deaths registered during the past month. The annual average per thousand was 21.6, an increase of 5 5 on last month and an increase of 5 5 on the corresponding period last year. Of the 45 deaths wh oh had occurred 7 were from bronchitis, 4 from pneumonia, 5 from senectus, 4 from debility of birth, 4 from convulsions, 3 fr im accidental death, 8 frum typhoid fever, 2 from diarrhcea, and 2 from heart disease. Zymotie disease was still very prevalent in the parish. Typhoid fever was slowly decreasing but scarlet fever was slightly increasing. The following tables would show the respective stages of the two epidemics, as far as he had been able to gather :—Typhoid fever, number of cases 32; cases under treatment 15, cases convalescent 15, cases dead 2. Scarlet fever, number of cases 106, cases under treatment 46, convalescent cases 60. The tables, he added, must needs be very inaccurate as to the extent of the fever, as only three practical men had sent in any reports for the past month. The precautions mentioned in his previous reports are being enforced, and the house to house inspection as to the water supply at Rowley and vicinity has been completed. Mr. T. V. de Denne (assistant medical officer) reported thai during the last four weeks the health of the dia riot was goed, there being no cases of symotio disease reported to him, the deaths being chiefly from ordinary causes. During the four weeks 22 deaths bad taken place, that being an average of 55 per week. It was considerably higher than the previous month, and the mean annual rate of 19.1 per 1,000 inhabitants. The Chairman said it was a very serious thing that there were 106 cases of scarlet fever in that p n.tion of the parish, and they might take it for granted that 99 cases out of 100 were due to the iaiproper pliatice of people going to visit cases of fe% er. It was vt r.) sad indeed and what to do to prevent it he did not know. It was just as bad as st toy o )mmittel suicide. Mr. Beasley: Coull not the people be summoned. The Chairman: You can ,;surnmon persons who appea in the pu .1 c istreets in an unfit state, but you aims t summon people for visiting others. After some further discussion on the subject the Chai man said that if the medical officer heard ot a bad case of exposure he was to bring it to the knowledge of the Board and they would at once take out a summons.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1881-01-22 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

WILLIAM.- The jury returned a verdict that the deceased was in an unsound state of intellect when he committed suicide.  The strike of colliers in the Ashton-under-Lyne and Oldham dishicts has come to an end. On Monday morning the men unanimously decided to reject the compromise offered by the employers, but since then an interview has taken place between the representatives of the masters and the men. The result is an understanding that the day men shall resume work. It is understood that the masters have conceded the men's demands in their entirety. The decision has given great satisfaction throughout the district, where great distress has been caused by the long continuance of the strike. Mr. J. Murray Graham, of Murray's Hall, Perthshire, died suddenly on Tuesday. He was upwards of seventy years of age. Two or three years ago he published a review of English literature, which was favourably noticed, and he was also the author of a "Life of Lord Stair." He was a direct descendent of Lord Lynedoch, and upon his lordship's death inherited part of his property. An inquest was held on Monday at Burrington, near Ludlow, before Mr. Moore, district coroner, on the body of James Wild, aged 70, who was found frozen to death in a barn. Dr. Cartwright gave it as his opinion that the deceased's death was caused by exposure to the cold, and the jury returned a verdict accordingly.  Last week 2,486 births and 1,604 deaths were registered in London. Allowing for increase of population, the births were 103, and the deaths 161 below, the average numbers in the corresponding week of the last ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes, which had been equal to 23-5 and 213 per 1,000 in the two preceding weeks, rose again to 22•6  An accident occurred at Accrington Station on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway on Monday afternoon. A luggage train was being shunted into a siding, when one of the waggons broke loose, the remaining part of the train ran down a steep incline and dashed into other luggage waggons in the siding, The buffers were smashed and much damage was done to rolling stock. The accident is said to have been caused by the frost. An inquest has been hela in London, at the Middlesex Hospital on the body of Thomas Dpnaldson, 51, a linkman, who was killed by being run oVEr by a private cab, Lord Duppiin and a friend were leaving the residence of the Bail of Fife, Cavendish-square, on Christmas 'night, when deceased came up to turn the handle of thd cabdoor fastener. Lord Dupplin told him to stand back, and he went round to the other side, where Lord Dupplin's friend was getting in. Before he reached there, however, the door was closed from the inside, and the horse started at the sound. Deceased fell under the fore-wheels, and was injured. A verdict of accidental death was returned.