The Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Advertiser. — 1876-05-06 (Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England)

STORY OF THE SEA.  A New York paper has the following :—Mrs. Jersey is at the bottom of the Atlantic, her demented husband is chattering to himself in the sunshine up in Rockland county, Dr. Hammond is dead by his own hand, and a stramely-assorted man and wife, the daughter of the murdered woman and the son of the man who probable killed her, are left to explain to their curious neighbours and a host of detectives a drama they do not, understand. No more startling story of the set has come to hand lately than this fragmentary history of the woman committed to the waves from the steamship Cuba, November 29, last year. Nineteen years ego this woman was a handsome girl of 17, and married a person of " feeble intellect "—that is, a gibbering imbecile—possessed of enough money to be called rich in the country. East November she left her home, and came to this el' v on her way to Europe, as given out. With her was a fri, rd of the family, Dr. Hammond, the father of her son-in law. Here she drew nearly 111,000 dole. in money, and on the 27th of November she took passage on the steamer for Fernandina, Florida. Site seemed to be alone. On the first night out she was ill, and a medical passenger went to the rescue, and gave her a dose of hydrate of chloral. One woman, with keen feminine instinct, saw the two together, and concluded that they were not strangers to each other. From the dose of shloral Mrs. Jersey never recovered. All the next day she lay unconscious, breathing stertorously, the brain oppressed so far that death by paralysis of the muscle. that carry on the vital machinery was imminent. Had the medical passenger been so disposed he could at almost, any moment early in that day have saved her life, for strychnia, the efficient antidote, is in every steamer's medicine chest. He was in her room a great part of the time. She died that night, was buried almost immediately, and the medical passenger left at the first port they reached, though he had taken papsage for another port. With him went, apparently, the money the woman had drawn from her banker's, as it was not found in her effects, and is not accounted for. Now, the problem of the story is, was this medical passenger on board the ship the Dr. Hatnmor,d who was with her when she left home for this city? Dr. Hammond returned to his home on December 10. The steamer lel, this port on November 27, and reached Fernandina in ten days, say December 7. It reached Poet Royal the day before, or the second day before, and there the medical passenger went ashore. 8, art,ing from Port Royal on either the sth or tdh, therefore, he lied ample time to reach Rockland county hr the 10th. He gave out on his return that be had been to Alabama, which would agree happily if he had been seen on a Southern train by any person that k•ate hint. If the medical passenger was Dr. Hammond, he had every reason to suppose the wit, an would never agaM be heard of by her friends. They believed he,. in 'Europe, and he believed that he had dewroyed that day in her stateroom all papers that cold ever give a chid to the identity of the woman so hastily buried at sea. But a solitary envelope had been overlooked, on which was written her daughter's address. in Rockland county. That sent the detectives thither. and when they appeared Dr. Hammond committed sickle. Suicide in such circumstances is confession.  Mr. C. R. Ross has In rehearsal, at the Open Comique. a piece entitled "Prisoner at the Blr, a 1 opera buffet.'  TIMES, MiAirl'6,