Swansea Journal and South Wales Liberal. — 1895-04-13 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

SUICIDE OF A LLANELLY CONFECTIONER.  Some sensation was created at Llanelly on Monday morning by the knowledge that Henry Lewis, a well-known confectioner, had committed suicide by drowning himself in the pond at the Old Castle Tinplate Works. The deceased, who was only 32 years of age, and who lived at Station-road, • had been in some trouble lately. He was an undischarged bankrupt, and about a month ago was arrested and brought before the magistrates on a charge of obtaining credit from Mr. J. Aurelias. The case was dismissed, but since then Lewis has been very depressed. On Sunday night, when his wife retired to rest, he said he would not go to bed then, but would follow her later, as he could not sleep if he went to bed. He would, he continued, stay up and read the Bible and smoke. He seems to have done this for some time, for his wife did not hear him leave the house, but the following morning, when she awoke she found a note on which was written words to the effect that the troubles of this world had been too much for him, and had caused him to end his life. His body was subsequently found in the Old Castle Pond.  The inquest on the .body of Henry Levi, who committed suicide by drowning himstaf ift a pond near the Old .Castle Works, Llanelly was held at the Station Hotel, on Monday afternoon, before Mr. W. Buckley Roderk. the district coroner. The evidence went to slurthat the deceased...,apho was a married man and was for some time foreman in a large grocery estab:ishment in the town, and, subsequently, at Neath, returning again to Llanelly, left his home on Sunday night last just before eleven o'clock. He had not been able to sleep for several weeks past owing to a troubled mind, due to depression in trade. In fact, be had never been the same since an attack of influenza, which prostrate.d him last winter. Mrs. Lewis, when she got up on Monday morning, found a letter on the Bible. It was a letter from deceased, and ran :—"Monday, April 8, 1895, 12.30 a.m.—My Dear Sal,—l am about to commit a rash act. May God fotgive me. I cannot avoid it. You know the state of Inv mind, and that I go many nights without sleep. I am sorry to leave you. I am sure God will bless and protect you; that is my prayer now. My body will be found at the Old Castle Pond, rear the big gate.—Heary Lewis."—'fhe jury returned a verdict of suicide whilst cf unsaund mind. A the readir  _ missionary meeting was held in _Jo room of the Young Men's Christian Association, Swansea, on Monday evening, when an address was given by Mr. J. A. Stooke, who has been, for seven years, labouring in Cliefoo' North China. There was a very large attendance. The chair was taken by Mr. Dowle Jones, who, after the singing of a hymn, read a portion of Scripture and offered up, prayer. "From Greenland's Icy Mountains was heartily sung before Mr. Stooke began his address. Mr. Stooke appeared in native costume, and on the table before him were a number of Chinese exhibits, while hung up on the wall were two maps of North China and six Chinese drawings, illustrating the parable of the "Prodigal. Son.'' At the commencement of his address, Mr. Stooke said he did not come down to Swansea merely to deliver a lecture on China," but to endeavour to get young men and women to go out there as missionaries. The China Inland Mission had now a number of sisters very successfully working for Christ in China, more especially on the banks of the rang-tse-Kiang. When Mr. Taylor, the head of the mission, first proposed to send out women as missionaries, he was laughed at, and some even went as far as to call him a lunatic. The Churches and Christian Endeavour Societies of England and Wales were not alive to the responsibilities of foreign missiou work—they were asleep on the question. It was only a very subordinate mattev with some, but be generally found that the Churches which took the greatest interest in missionary work flourished tOtqr. Mr. Stooke west on to speak of the various institutions withal' lad been started in the province of Shantung. They had in Chefoo a school for the children of the missionaries native schools, two dispensariesand a hospital. It was by, ktealLS of the medico? work that the missaaries were chiefly enabled to win souls 13), Ood. The Chinese 'were an intensely Nuservative people. Sometimes they would mot listen to the Word of Clod. But when any of them were taken ill, they usually sent for the missionary doctor, and ;:lien came their chance of speaking to theln. In five months the doctors in Chefoo had about eight thousand cases passed through their hands. English people had no knowledge, of what a converted Chinaman had to bear, but they stood their trials with far greater fortitude than did persons at home. The second part of the lecture deals with the explanation of the models which the lecturer had with him. . I explained by means of several of these the barbarous c_ustsun of binding the feet of the women, and stated that it was a great hindrance to their work. He also showed the various means by which the missionaries travelled, and that great bliglat on China—the opium pipe. At the conclusion of the lectnne the chairman moved A vote of thanks to Mr.. Stooke, which was seartirnously accorded. Ti pronouncement.w the Benediction brought the meeting to, a, Ouse.  The likst of the breakfasts to poor children was gi,ven at the Corn Exchange, Swansea. about a v;eek ago. The secretary of the fund (Mr. W. Nichols, Y.M.C.A.) very grateful for the generous contributions received during the recen, severe weather in aid of this 131014, mut,