npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1886-06-19 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

BAVARIA.  King Louis of Bavaria, whose strange freaks have been the talk of the Continent for sometime, has committed suicide. While taking a walk on Sunday evening in the park of the Berg Castle, Munich, he threw himself into the lake of Sternberg and was drowned. Dr. Guddeu, his Majesty's private physician, who MAI in attendance upon the King at the time, immediately jumped into the water ta order to rescue his Majesty, but lost his own life in the attempt. It will be remembered that King Louis was deposed afew days ago, "it being the unanimous opinion of the most enunentmedical authorities that he WAS suffering from a serious malady that would permanently prevent him from carrying on the government of the country." In other words, ho was insane. Prince Lnitpold was appoint Regent, and the deposed monarch, whose mental aberration was not so severe as to reticle- .1 impervious to rage and grief, has t h erratic life to an untimely end. Stor,... his eccentric doings are numerous. A Minister, Baron Feilitzsch, shows a pencilled note he received from the King, in which he is summoned to procure twenty million marks immediately, "without the usual subterfuges." The King adds: "Should a change of Ministers become necessary, make it; and name , whomsoever you think right." The Minister declared himself unable to carry out this command. When the Royal barber, who was the only intermediary between the monarch and the Ministers, brought this answer the King drew up and signed the death warrant of Baron Peilitzsch and his colleagues, and he firmly believed they were executed according to his command. He had a passion for music—a selfish passion, and some years ago insisted upon the grandest performances of Wagner's operas, at the Opera House in Munich, but no one must enjoy them except the King—he was the sole audience I Prince Otto, the late King's brother, succeeds to the throne under the title of King Otto L
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1886-11-27 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE TRADE IN HUMAN HAIR.  The trade in human hair is once more on the increase, and "artiste in human hair " keep a sharp look out for opportunities to buy. France, the leader of all female fashions, is naturally the country where the largest trade in this article is done. Whence the market is supplied with hair of all colours has often been a matter of speculation, which, however, has never been satisfactorily explained. A large quantity of black hair comes from China, but it appears that France herself provides a large quantity. Formerly the peasant women were often induced to part with their long hair for a few shillings ; in convents, where the hair is always shorn, a good trade was also done, and it is stated that not long ago &Albs. of hair were sold at one of the religious establishments for the sum of £1,500. It also frequently happens that the hair is cut from corpses, but this is of less value than what is generally called "living hair "--that is to say, hair cut off from living persons. Curiously enough, an important part of the business of collecting hair is done in the streets of Paris, where the rag gatherers are said to collect every day an average of Mho. of human hair. Some statistics which have recently been published on the different colours of hair collected on the pavement and in the dustbins of Paris show the following results :—Fair hair, 100 grammes; recldih, 50 graunnes I red, 25 grammes CiShick, 100 grammes; brown, 500 grammes; grey, -200 grammes; white, 25 grammes. It appears from these figures that white and red hair are rarest In France; while brown, which, however, has a great many different shades, is the most common colour of hair. It is interesting to compare these figures with those which Professor Vircbow has published in Germany as to the colour of hair of school children. According to these the three cOlours of hair in German schools are fair, light brown, and dark brown, the comparative numbers being thus :—Fair, 2,149,027; dark brown, 949,822 ; light brown, 3,659,978. The fair hair, , less frequent in the south than in the north of Germany, being in the north 43.3 per cent, of the total, 32-5 in the centre 244 in the south, and ' 184 per cent. in Alsace:Lorraine.  Dounul bodies of two women, tied togetherAtt, the waist, have been found in the Seine at Joinville-le-Pont. It is believed that they committed suicide in consequence of local gossip of a slanderous character, and the case is being thoroughly inveetigated by the authonties. ADVICE tO hicerstits4—Are you broken in I Spur rest by a sick child suffering with the panatela— tAuf_teethy sio at once tow
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-07-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

LUCKY BEDFELLOW. A well-known man of Falkirk, filling an honourable industrious and humble sphere, has been unexpectedly bequeathed, by an old bed-fellow and fellow-servant--who, many years ago, went to India—a fortune, it is said, of £30,000.  . The Gardeners' Chronicle states that stock has been sold at Battersea Park, in largo numbers, at great prices, and a large sale of implements has taken place. Mr Fowler has already sold, at Battersea, some £14,000 worth of steam cultivating machinery, and Messrs Howard have disposed of 12 or 14 sets. . .  OD, Friday next, Mr findsay will call attention to our relations with the United States of America; and will move a resolution which has for its object the recognition of the Confederate States as an independent nation. . _ _  Ar. very horrible case of murder, and suicide of the murderer, happened in Shadwell, London, on Saturday. A Spaniard, who had been cohabiting with an Irish girl, murdered her in a fit of jealousy, and afterwards blew his brains out. In both instances the deed was of the most determined character.  - . On Trinity Sunday, the old Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Dover Castle, was reopened for Divine Service, after a lapse of nearly two centuries. The foundation of the Church is attributed to Lucius, A.D. 161-200, and history records that St. Augustiue said Mass at its altar. For more than a century it has been earth-buried, but recently it was excavated and restored for the purpose of a garrison chapel.  In consequence of a number of shipwrights having been placed on the iron steamer Achilles, 50, building at Chatham Dockyard, the whole of the hired platers, angle iron smiths, and rivetters, heretofore employed on that vessel, with the exception of some two or three men, left in a body on Thursday week, ,and refused to work any longer until the shipwrights were removed. Similar strikes are threatened at the other dockyards. Several very interesting rifle matches were decided at Wimbledon on Saturday. There was first the contest between eleven members of the House of Lords and an equal number of members of the House of Commons. The Peers were victorious,—beating their opponents by 62 points. Lord Wharncliffe made the highest score-47—registered in the match ; the next in point of merit being Lord Bury, who made 46. Lord Vernon and Lord Abercorn each scored 45; Lord Ducie, 43; Lord Bolton, 42 : the Duke of Marlborobigh and Lord Somers, 39 each; Lord Airlie, 37; and Lord Londesborough, 33. Among the Commons, Lord ;Bury was followed by Lord Elcho, who scored 41; the next highest being; Mr W. E. Forster (Bradford), who marked 35. The lowest number of points, 14, appears against the name of Lord Grey de Wilton. In the Public Schools match, Harrow was victorious; the Spencer Cup was won by Lord Eldon (Eton); and the Harold Cup by Michelle, 10th Stafford.
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-05-02 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE NORTH AMERICAN NEGROES.  No circumstance is more important than the absence of vindictiveness towards the dominant race. The negrees do not extensively impute cruelty, each to his own master, though in every neighbourhood there are some employers who have a bad name for rapacity and severity. Under their present guardianship there is no incitement to revenge; and nothing seems to be heard of any such idea. The people crave support against any attempt to reduce them to slavery again ; they are well understood to have prepared themselves to commit suicide, in considerable numbers, like so many Kroomen, rather than submit to the yoke any more; some of them have brought in their masters to the camps as prisoners of war; but there does not seem to have been a single instance known of outrage to slaveholders or their families. Yet the slaveholders have, with their own hands, shot many negroea in the woods And on the high roads, for refusing to be driven with the cattle into the interior. The strong religious tendency of the negroes has doubtless come in aid of their placable temper. Every possible use is made of it by the commissioners to restrain their passions. They seem to take their religion very much to heart where they really understand its requirements. Thus they swear very little, though their masters on the one hand, and the Federal soldiery on the other, sin terribly in that way. They seem fully disposed to be correct in their marriage relations, when once raised above the bruitish conditions in which they have been involved by the constant endeavour to increase the human stock on the plantation. Their religion is certainly not all sentiment or passionate excitement. They have their "glory shout " at the close of their prayer meetings, when they join hands and raise a cry which must be very like our harvest-home clamour ; but at the same meetings they ask and learn what their duty is with sincerity and zeal. It is a significant circumstance that in one place they held a general meeting with all the forms, to discuss a point of right and wrong, and settled by vote that they ought to subscribe to pay for their own candles for their own prayer meetings. The inegroes have no idea of abutting themselves into their closets to pray in silence, and their prayers are easily overheard from without. One of the Federal strangers passing a cabin, heard a negro praying that "the Lord would bless the damned Yankees." Some of the poor fellows, never having heard the name without the description, suppose the two together to be the title of the Northern men. So far from understanding the stigma, they believe in the oddest incarnatiou heard of for many centuries—that "the Lord has appeared in the form of a Yankee," and given forth a command that they should remain quietly on the plantations— advice which savours strongly of Yankee good sense and kindlinesa.—Once a weeA:.
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-08-01 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

EXTRAORDINARY CASE.  A young girl, named Somerville, was charged before one of the London police magistrates, on Monday, with several attempts at suicide. It appears that she had fallen desperately in love with a German tailor, named 31arks, who had 'taken up" with another young woman named Owen. Somerville was driven almost, if not entirely, mad by the coolness of the fascinating tailor, and on Monday morning she penned the following letter to her rival :  Dear Friend.—l write these few lines to you hoping to find you in good health, as I am not at the present time. Oh, Catherine, Catherine, what shall I do? my heart is broken. I know not where to go and what to do. Oh, pity me, Catherine, my life is nothing to me now. Mr Marks has taken my heart away—he has broken my heart. Oh, Catherine! you say it is not too late now. Oh, Catherine, it is in your power to &tire me. Oh, save me if you can. Save me! save me! Catherine, you say you care for him no longer. Oh, Catherine, give him up if you can, or if you cannot, I must put an end to my miserable life for ever. Catherine, Catherine, on my bended knees I beg of you to intercede for me. Oh, my God, my God, what shall I do? Oh, my brains are mad. I know not what to do. Oh, Catherine, he sits all day and does not speak to me. He will not walk in the street with me. When we were coming home from work on Thursday we came out horn work together, and we walked a little way together, and then he ran away from me, and I met him and he ran away again. Catherine, at that moment I was mad, mad; I had a great mind to throw myself under the wheels of a waggon, and end my miserable existence altogether; but, oh no, I will wait a little longer, and see what time does, and then, if it is no better, I must die, but he shall see me, and he shall never forget it the longest day he lives. Oh, by Heavens! gracious heavens ! I swear it! Catherine, oh Catherine, Catherine, I swear it! I will make away with myself. Oh, Catherine, Catherine, do what you can for me, and may God bless you wherever you go ; oh, merciful Heavens, what shall I do? lam going mad. God only knows how I love that man Marks. Catherine, I cannot write to you half what I feel If you could but read my poor heart you would know how I love him. Oh! again I say, on my knees I beg of you to plead for me. Oh, Catherine, if you do not, this night shall be my last. I wish you goodbye for the present.
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-01-17 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

DARING BURGLARY IN NOTTINGRAIL—OR Friday night a very daring burglary was committed on the premises of Mr. F. Gibbs, watchmaker and jeweller, Sumey-street, Nottingham. Mr. Gibbs does not sleep upon the premises, and left all safe on the evening in question. It appeared, however, that the burglars had secreted themselves in the dust-hole near the shop, the door ot which was fastened when he left the premises. By the aid of jemmies the shop door was forced open, and a number of brooches, chains, rings, and other jewellery, as well as a few wate& were conveyed away. Fortunately a quantity of the most valuable jewellery had been removed by Mr. Gibbs on the night of the robbery. The pollee have not as yet been able to find any clue to the robbera.— Sheffield Independent.  THREATENED PROSECUTION FOR MARRIAGE WITH A DRCRASED SISTRR —A labouring man named William Hunt, residing at. Whalpole, having married the sister of his deceased wife, the Rev. J. F. Franklin, the vicar of the parish, wrote to the RegistrarGeneral, and has been informed that the marriage is illegal, and that the witnesses have incurred the penalties of perjury. The Rev Gentleman, alter declaring the marriage to be no marriage at a I, adds—" You must now be aware that any child or children born of Sarah Taylor by you are illegitimate, and that you can leave your so-called wife any time, and contract any other marriage you think fit; consequently, to prevent any further mischief, I shall immediately instruct my attorney to prosecute )ou fiir wilful and corrupt perjury, unless you at once give up the illegal course upon which you have entered.' An awful suicide was committed on Wednesday, by Mr. Holloway, merchant tailor and clothier, of Grey-street- The unfortunate mail resided in Lena s Terrace, and had come into the town on Wednesday morninglin the usual way of business. On arriving at his office, he found a letter, which led him to destroy himself. It al-.o shows the cause of the fearful act. lie was in difficulties, and his London creditors had determined upon proceedings in bankruptcy. He went home, presented the letter to his wife and her qister, without making any remark; and then, walking quietly up stairs to his bed-room, he discharged a pistol, loaded with ball, against his forehead. The report alarmed his wife, who rushed up stairs, and tried in vain to stop the flow of blood, by pleasing her hand on the wound—death ensuing in a few minutes.
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-11-14 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SUICIDE OF A SOLICITOR—The usually quiet town of Henley, in Oxfordshire, was alarmed on Friday afternoon by the rumour that Mr Lediard, solicitor, and Registrar of the County Court of that district, had committed suicide. Mr Lediard occupied a large house in Bell-street, and was observed to leave the front door between nine and ten o'clock in the morning, going in the direction of the Fairmile, as was supposed for the purpose of Writ% a morning's walk. The County Court Treasurer, pursuant to notice, called at the office to see Mr Lediard for the purpose of examining his accounts between ten and eleven o'clock, but Mr Lediard was not then within. In anticipation of his return, he waited at the office, but time passed on, and Mr Lediard did not appear. A little before two o'clock in the afternoon a boy employed in the house went into the garden at the back of the dwelling, and proceeded to the arbour at the bottom. Here the little fellow was horror-stricken at finding his master with his bead nearly severed from his body. The unfortunate gentleman had a razor in his hand, showing that his death was the result of his own rash act. Pecuniary embarrassment is supposed to have led to the lamentable act. The accounts of the County Court have not yet been examined, but it is generally believed that his defalcations are considerable. An inquest on the body was held on Saturday. The jury returned a verdict of "Temporary insanity." Mr Lediard leaves a widow and six children unprovided for.  -•  Madame Anna Bishop, the vocalist, has been burnt to death at St.. raw, Minnesota, by her clothes taking fire. One Vienna manufacturer alone has, it is stated, received orders for upwards of £lO,OOO worth of goods from private persons, though until the Exhibition his very name was unknown in this country. A
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-11-14 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

PONTRY.  EXTRAVAGANZA. The Devil, aroused by a dreadful yell, That rang like a peal through the vault of hell, Sprung up from his pillow of flame to see Whence such a wonderful sound could be; He roved about in his dark domain, And glutted his eyes with sights of pain, And laughed in his sleeve wheu he saw lost souls, Flounder about in the fire in shoals; lii the infernal abyss he espied The horrified soul of a suicide; He call'd his minions around him then, Who had just returned from abodes of men, And ask'd of each what report had he To give of his night's diablerie? A fiend then started forth from the crowd, With an air of triumph proudly bow'd, And vauntingly pointed the spirit out, Who, in surges of brimstone writhed about, And said—" I saw him in yonder earth, Boasting of riches and noble birth; He pass'd his time in mirth and riot, But often he eurs'd his heart's disquiet; I saw him go to a peaceful cot, That virtue call'd her favourite spot, And pluck a beauteous flower that grew On a fair one's breast, and then withdrew, And he left the fair one all forlorn, To her bosom's woe, and bitter scorn; And then I saw him her brother seek,. And plunge a sword in his injured breast, Till the latest life-drops ooze and reek; He left him alone in his blood to rest, His heart all throbleas and pale his cheek; And then he went to a guilded hall, To amuse himself with an ivory ball,— He curs'd as he shuffled the painted card, Or rattled the die on the table hard; Then rose when the last of his cash was gone, To wander Vretehedly all alone, Sick to satiety with desires, Away from his haunts he now retires; I follow'd him home, the clock struck four, As he turn'd the key of his chamber door. A pang of remorse through his bosom shot, He thought of the fair and her peaceful cot; The spirit of him he had rashly slain Travers'd the field of his fevered brain; The profligate oath on his lips still hung, The rattling die on his ears still rung; He look'd at his purse, there was not a note, And he dash'd a razor across his throat." His spirit came rushing through the wound, And fell into hell with an awful sound ; And the shriek it gave when it plunged below, Was that which had started the Devil so! Stockton-on-Tees.
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-06-06 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

STRANGE STORY.—The American Correspondent of a contemporary says :—" You have all heard, or at least heard of, the 'Christy Minstrels.' On the Bth ult., E. P. Christy, the original negro minstrel, attempted to commit suicide by jumping out of the second storey window of his residence, 78, East Eighteenth-street. He is fatally injured, though not yet dead. His history is a singular one, lie made the first great success of the African opera. He was from Buffalo—a rough in that place, with a good voice; he got up a company of singers. He picked up a boy named George, to whom he gave his name, and he made it famous as George Christy. Succeeding so well in Buffalo, Ned Christy determined to try a larger field, and came to New York. Here he was almost drowned with success. Crowds thronged his place nightly, and hundreds were turned away because there was no room. He coined money, and was enabled to sport diamond breast pins and rings worth s,ooodollars. With his aptitude for the delineation of negro character he seemed to acquire also the peculiar habits of the negro, and a desire to display an enormous quantity of jewellery. Women fell in love with him. He was the rage. He bought houses—owned John Brougham's theatre—kept race horses—bought heavily in stocks— gave magnificent feeds—and this continued for years. When the war broke out he took into his head the rebels would land in the city, capture it, and deprive him of his property, in consequence of his endeavours to make the .negro character of consequence. The result has been very distressing. In the midst of affluence, he thought of nothing but his probable poverty, and he who has caused millions to be convulsed with laughter, sat by his own fireside day after day, a picture of the deepest woe. Such is life."
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-06-20 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

STOCKTON HERALD, SOUTH DURHAM AND CLEVELAND ADVERTISER, JUNE 20, 1862.  FISIIING IN FINLAND.—In autumn, when the frost begins to set in, and the ice is most transparent, the fisherman courses along the rivers with a wooden club or mallet in his hand, and when he observes a fish under the ice in shallow water, he strikes a violent blow perpendicularly above it, which at once breaks the ice and stuns the fish, so that he easily seizes it with an instrument made for the purpose. Details of the seizure of the British steamship Circassian, by the Federal Government of America, are published. They are from the log of the ship, and therefore authentic. The vessel belongs to Mr Z. C. Pearson, the Mayor of Hull, and was freighted with a general cargo of British and French property, for Havannah. She was seized by the American war steamer Somerset., the crew of which shewed how any kind of triumph over the British would delight them. Their satisfaction in the case is likely to be short-lived, the British Consul having demanded the restitution of the vessel, inasmuch as she was not attempting to break any blockade. Englishmen possess a wonderful instinct for imitation even in horrible things. A few days ago a man named George Hay committed suicide in one of the principal thoroughfares of London, by deliberately placing his head under the wheels of a heavily loaded waggon in motion. The coolness of the deed has not long been permitted to be noticeable for its "singularity." On Thursday, a person named James Davenport reenacted the terrible drama, the scene being merely shifted from a London street to the public railway station at Horwich, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire line, where, with the utmost apparent nicety of calculation, he sought death by placing his head under the wheels of a passing coal train. _ _  A