The Potteries Examiner : — 1877-11-24 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

SUICIDE OF A BOY AT WEDNESDURY.  A F(LTHY lIONIE.  On Monday Mr. Hooper, coroner, held an lint the Talbot Inn. Market Plm;e, We.:neshmy, c.n the hotly of William Aston, a god fond eell, iii. a hung himself On the 10th not. Mr. Superintendent Holland was present on behalf of the autheritiee. :Matilda Smith, wife of John Smith, a strii.er, said the deceased was her illegitimate ,-12, and was iu the habit of hawking fire Wood, which she bought aml chopped up. His litalth and spirits had loon generally ,mal, aid he Lad never threatened to destroy himself. Her husband had had occasion to correct him at limos, but had never ill-treated him, nor had she dine so. Until the last fortnight her husband had beqn out of work for seven weeks, and they had all been half cleamied to death." There wire four other children younger than the deceased. On S,torday week there was n. disturbance Let %Veen her husband and herself hoc-nine she had upbraided him for taking drink. The &eel-mod then squealed oat, and scans of the neighbours br.,he open the door. The boy was not, ,truck on that John Smith, husband of this witness, also declared that- the lacy had not been ill-treated ; and Ellen Smith, deceased's lolf-sister, was called but not sworn. She said the deeet,ed said he was going Sc hang himself. Then he put an old Crook r.iand his ilea ar.d a rope, which blintz from the ceiling, out: tile the froek. Then he join pod olf it chair. Ile wade notions to have the chair put under him again. They did not do it, but ran for I some of the neighbours. No one had told her, 1 what to say. _ .  Spooner. the nelson who cut the Lwiy down, deposed that the doceasci hod boon rely badly treated both by his a! eprather at his mother, and that in connorpeireoi the pest 1,1 hod repeatedly threatened to destroy himself. tro Saturday night week John noliyhead, a neighbour, broke into the house awl struek Smith bet:atria of his ill-treatment of the boy. Ann Hollyhead, another of the neighbonrs, spoke to having heard the boy screaming several times when Ids stepfather, as she believed, was beating him. On the night of St.torday week the deceased and his mother stayed in her house till after one ('etch, becanee of Smith's ill-treat Inent of them. Harriet 'rooks, a neighbour, and Martha Marten, a neighbour, declared that they were not aware that the boy lid been ill-treated.  The Coroner, in Frimming hp. commented on the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence, and fl the fact that someone had cointnithvi gross perjnry, also remarking that the fact flint the I el had placed an old dress round his neck seemed to favour the idea that be was at play, and that he had hung himself accidentally..  „ The mother, on being re-called, said the deceased hung his brother about a tortni,,t ht ;tud was in the habit of banging a couple of kittens there  were in the house.  The Jury found that the deeeased had amis dentally hung himself while at play. On the so g. gestmn of tie Coroner, thy also appended a rider, to the effect that the attention of the Local Board should be drawn to the wretched condition of the tenement in which the family lived, and to the need of a public mortuary in the town, the Coroner. in making the recommend:dion, ,ttat:ng that if the heal authorities did rot proviLtsuth a place be should bring the matter under the notion of the Home Office. All the witnesses examined, six in nuntLer, hal to sign their depositions with a ores. Snperintendent Holland stated that ho had , received a cheque for £2 tts. train a gentlem,n in , London, who wished it to be applied to the retief of the f toily through the inemt,ent of the, parish. Sergeant Curtis, in deF wilting the boo jury, said there was no furniture whatever d...e41-. static, and upstairs there was only some str ald ta raw _  and a few bricks, eovered with a filthy 5t07...t. It appeared as if the family bad slept downst4rs, in used the npper rooms as closets, the firbemig covered with (adore. The stench was :IQ bad tha, be and otlicrs had to beat a retr,rt. ;hey ..ould not find a vacant spot en which pla the body.  i  11  ' A . !ti , ; . i i ill 0 1 11'11._ ; I , * ir '. 1241 ; I \ a ! " 1 -,, _ i , 1 , , I ,