The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1874-04-10 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

SUICIDE'S LETTER.  A young man, respectably dressed, while crossing the Mersey in the steamer Cheshire, a night or two ago, leaped overboard, and was carried away with the tide. The crew of the boat made every possible effort to find him, but without effect. Before jumping overboard, the man handed a couple of slips of paper to a fellow-passenger, on which there was written, in Pitman's style of shorthand, the following:— This is an awful trial through which I am now beginning to pas=, and to bring it to an end I have resolved, and that very firmly, to commit an act of destruction. When I think of the ills a,1:1 follies of my youth, even at the very moment I now write, I cannot but look back upon them with the utmost amount of pain and reprobation. I seem, in fact, I to have no friends in this world to pity or sympathise with me. I know that the thought of such an act will cause an amount of pain and sorrow to my parents and relations such as very few can hardly describe. But what otherwise can I do under the circumstances? lam living in the world just now in utter destitution. My own shortcomings have placed me in such a position that I am entirely destitute of anything in the shape of garments, and walking about only as a perfect apology. There in, moreover, a very grave and awful crime, for which I was to be charged, denies me the means of obtaining a resting-place during the silence of night. Indeed the word "sought" is being applied to me wherever I go, and my only desire and pras er to God is that I may be soon freed from the anguish and pain of mind that seem at present to have fallen upon me. I suppose every one will agree with me when I say that no one can be capable of performing a day's wort if denied a ni :ht's rest; but apart from tat [think of the very grave crime which I shall expect to be laid to my charge renders me altogether totally incapable of reconciling my mind to work. I am w-ilking about now as a maniac; and in a few hors, perhaps moments, my mind shall be at rest.. It is sad, very sad, to part with friends and relatives in such a position, but part I must; and I do hope that the blemishes and stains which have been 90 very numerously heaped upon my character will soon find me free from sorrow. . . Of my parents I naturally speak in the highest possible praise. My father loved me well, and seemed to think more of me perhaps than even a father ought; and my mother was always kind and true towards me, and always showed a very great amount of mercy, and even compassion towards me, when troubles seemed to beset me. My brothers John. James, and George were each possessed with thorough brotherly feelings, while my sisters, Betsy and Mary Ann, shared each alike the feelings of true kindred and relationship, which can only be participated by those family ties and relationship which bind. . . . I take leave of all, and do hope and trust that Heaven will be the future parent of you all. . . . My trials I do trust will speedily be over, and my sins, very many and aggravated, judged of by God.  When he handed the paper to the passenger he remarked, "This is an interesting piece of poetry, perhaps it will amuse you," and immediately afterwards, without giving any one near him an indication of his intention, he leaped overboard. The characters are written apparently by a nervous hand, and in some places the writing is obliterated. The body has not yet been recovered, and no trace of the young man's identity has been discovered by the polioe.—Liverpool Albion.