npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-10-27 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

HORRORS OF CHOKE-DAMP. (Prom the "Globe.") All authorities agree in pronouncing such a cattle tenpin) as that which occurred in the King Pit at Pemberton, on Thursday, to be one of the most awful to which the labouring man can be exposed. A French 'writer on the subject, who had perhaps more complete and varied information upon it than say author who ever wrote, speaks of an explosion in a mine in language which, but for the fact that everybody who understands the matter appears to endorse what he says, would be justly held to be violent exaggeration. "A thunderbolt, a hurricane, a cyclone, or a whirlwind—burning, overthrowing, destroying everything in their course," will, he says, produce effects less frightful than those brought about by an explosion of fire-damp. To add to the horrors of the occurrence, he sap, "the foul air, carbonic acid, the after-damp or choke-damp spreads through the mine, and suffocation terminates the existence of those in whom the explosion has left a spark of life "—and, as it has been seen in this melancholy instance near Wigan, sometimes involves those who go to the rescue in the general ruin. "In 1812," adds the authority from whom we have quoted, "a terrible explosion took place in a coal mine near Liege. Sixty - eight miners who had escaped the shock of the fire-damp were suffocated by the gas resulting from its combustion." The peril fro n this is, of course, very well known by all connected with mining operations, and this fact in itself lends a halo of heroism to men who, like the managers of the King Pit, are ready to make their way into the devastated galleries of a mine in which an explosion has occurred. It sometimes happens that this after. damp, though sufficiently dense to extinguish lights, will yet not prove immediately fatal to human life, and many instances are on record in which miners, in their anxiety to rescue their fellows, have worked on in total darkness, and all -but suffocating air, until they have had to be borne out in a state of asphyxiation—that condition which, in the annals of suicide, has often been attained by the brazier and charcoal, and which in a very short time results in death.
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-03-03 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF A MANCHESTER GENTLEMAN. An inquest was held on Wednesday at the Greyhound Ins, Partington, on the body of Charles HeLry Collins, of 92, Dorset-street, Hulme, Mancheater, who mysteriously disappeared from his home on the 31 d nit, between eight and nine o'clock at night, ence which time he hoe not been seen or heard of until Monday morning, when his body was found in the river Mersey at Partington. The deceased, who was so years of age, was a co .9dential clerk in the employment of Meseta. Callender, Sykes, and Mather, of Manchester, where he had been employed some eleven years. William Clarke, the leek-keeper, saw the body of the deceased floating in the river, and brought it te land.  _ _ Police-constable Nixon searched the deceased and found in his pockets his watch, which had mopped at 21 minutes to eleven. In hie pocketa were two pennies ia copper, a threepenny piece and Sixpence. _  tllenliarland, at whose house the deceased had lodged for five years, stated that when the deceased came home between six and seven o'olook, having been to tea at his brother-indaw's, he °leaned his flute, which he played for an hour. At ten minute. to nine o'clock he left the house, saying that he should be back in ten minute'. He appeared as usual, but did not say where he was going Befcre going out he had a biscuit and a glass of stout. _  - Ili. Thomas James Wilkinson, of Manchester, state.' that lie had examined the bale et the d.easel, upon which there was no exairrial marks of violence. The body was in such :.n advanced state of decomposition that no satiafactorily pat mor,•roa examination could 'be made. He found evidences of suffocation by drowning the Coroner (Mr. W. T. R. Dunston) said that there was no evidence of suicide, lie left Lie lodgings in his usual state, and there was no saying how he met with his death, and upon the evidence he thought that they coal(' not come to any other verdict than one of found drowned. The Jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of "Found drowned."  Dot,ctivemergeont Robinson watched tin cue on benalf of the Manchester police.  NOTICE  Our Reader i will find in the Examiner this (and every) week until further Notice, one of the newest and most popular songs of the day. Whoa a song is not inserted one of the newest recitations will be substitued in its stead.
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-03-17 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

MORDECAI'S DEFENCE.  As a rule, when persons are charged before justices with attempting to commit suicide, they look very penitent, and say as few words as possible, When, however, Mordecai Hart, a general dealer, was charged with that offence at Liverpool the other day, he read a long document in his defence, the eloquence of which affected not a few persons in Court. He spoke of his pecuniary troubles, and of his devoting his leisure time to ameliorating the social condition of the masses, and then, alluding to " the fiend who had been the cause of his unfortunate case," said : "For more subtle than the coiled serpent, which , Milton so graphically describes, who, with slippery swiftness, did urge frail Eve to err, even she, with the witchcraft of her wit and with poisonous calumny, went to the houses of my friends, and amongst other wicked falsehoods said that I was receiving large sums of money for what I was engaged in, and other venomous calumny to such an extent that many of the friends who were in the habit of visiting us discontinued doing eo, and others passed me in the street without scarcely recognising me." He bore this manfully until certain proceedings were taken against him in a local law court, and allegations were made in which he would "most solemnly and sacredly swear, by the Great God of Israel," there was not one word of truth. He went on:  " Oh, heavenly Father, You and You only know with what feelings I returned home, a fallen man, my reputation, the last remnant of hope, gone. Had I the gift of an Ezra, the eloquence of Isaiah, I could not describe my feelings on that dreadful night." _ _  To add to the bitterness of his cup of woe, it was the anniversary of the death of his father, twenty-two years previously. He rose to perform the religious duty required of him as a Jew on tbat occasion, but with his unsettled mind and brain on fire, he wandered, he knew not whither, until he saw a newspaper placard bearing, in large type, the words " Jew " and "disgraceful revelations:' "I returned home, but how, Ido not know. I had not been in long before strange voices were heard. My mind told me they were sheriffs' officers. My cup of bitterness was indeed full to the brim; the fiend had succeeded; my little household broken up, the savings of years cast to the winds; my sister driven for shelter amongst strangers ; and myself to close my eyes; upon a pauper's bed. I could not stand it; my brain was on fire. I ran about the house like one ' mad. I flew to the cupboard; the razor was there. Death better than poverty and disgrace. I heard a voice saying, 'Stretch not thy hand.' It was too late; the deed was done, when another voice said 'Pear not the evil, for lam with thee.' I knew no more until I was in the infirmary, surrounded by kind and sympathetic attendants." This address no far won the sympathies of the Court that the prisoner was discharged.
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-01-20 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A SWEETHEART.  At the AbingdOn. iettiSess- ions, before Mr. J. S. Bowles and a full bench of magistrates, Benjamin Marshall, 23, son of a draper, was charged on remand with attempting to murder Miss Elizabeth Beesley by shooting her with a revolver. The prisoner was also charged with shooting the yonag woman's father. The evidence showed that the prisoner had been court. tog Miss Beesley some seven or eight months. He frequently paid visits to her at her father's house at Drayton, Berke, but for a time discontinued them. On the evening after Ohristmas he went there, and Miss Beesley, saying to him, "I will have nothing to do with you," walked into another room. On the following Wedneeday the prisoner said to Mr. Beesley, in an angry way, "I don't think she will have any one else if she don't have me." On the following Friday evening he went to the house, and pressed the girl to go out with him, but she refused. He visited ! the house again on the neat evening, apparently ex- I cited by drink. The girl was sitting in the parlour at the time. On reading an account of a suicide in a newspaper, she remarked that it was a dreadful awe. The prisoner said, " Something worse than that will happen soon," adding, "Will you forgive me ?" She replied, "Oh, it is likely," and was about to leave when the prisoner took a revolver from his pocket and fired at her back twice. Mr. Bewley, hearing her fall, rushed towards the door, and the prisoner turned round and fired at him three times. Witness elosed with him and managed to throw the prisoner to the ground. Miss Beesley was found dangerously wounded, but her father was not injured. The prisoner, upon being arrested, said he was sorry for what he had done. On the previous evening it appeared he went to the shop of Mr. Cozeter, Abingdon, and asked to see some revolvers at 10e. or 12s. The shopman told him that revolvers at that price were neither safe nor durable. He replied, "One at a less price will do, as I may not be able to use it more than sore." The prisoner, however, left the shop without purchaeiwg one. He then proceeded to a guntnaker's at Ozford, where be paid 18s. for a revolver. This was the weapon he used at Mr. Besaley's house. Theprisoner was said to be perfectly sober when he purchased the revolver. The prisoner was further remanded.  A
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-11-24 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

FAMINE HORRORS.  Pitiful tales (says the Calcutta Leader) are reported from the famine districts. At Goa, a woman reduced , to despair threw her three boys into the river and plunged in after them. A witness of the scene exerted himself to save their lives, but succeeded only in rescuing one of the children. The two others with the mother was swept away by the stream and drowned. At Madura, another woman in a state of equal destitution cut the throat of her children, a boy and a girl, and would have cut her own had she not swooned away. Her husband had died a short tone before, and her little ones, on the point of starvation, had helped themselves to food where they could find it. The humiliation preyed upon her mind, already affected by privation, and she chose the horror of murder and suicide in preference to the meanness of theft. She has been sentenced to transportation for life, but her sentence will doubt. lees be mitigated. From North Malabar comes 0. story yet more distressing than these. This time the chief actor was a man. The father of a family, with his wife and an infant, had died of cholera, and were buried by the prisoner without assistance from anyone. There still survved a little girl 8 years ' of age, and an infant only three months old—the former prostrate with cholera in a deserted shop by ' the roadside. The poor fellow, himself exhausted by hunger, went about begging for food for his helpless charge. There was none to be had. In sheer desperation he flung the babe down a well. For this crime he was necessarily condemned to transportation for ' life, but on the earnest recommendation of Mr. LW. Reid, the merciful judge who tried him, the Governor in Council had remitted the sentence and pardoned the offender.
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-04-21 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

DISTRESSING SUICIDE AT NOTTINGHAM.—A of the Lord Chamberlain just before licensing distressing suicide occurred at the Maypole Hotel, day—the 29th of September—and the condition Nottingham. A commercial traveller named Robert of the doors and the state of the gas fittings Denison, about 55 years of age, of Deringham-street, of the chandeliers, the cellars, and the water Hull,bad been stayinginthehouse forebear. a fortnight. supply were carefully examined. The Lord Chamber- He did not leave his bedroom iat his usual tune, and lain laid down regulations for the observance early in the afternoon his room was broken into, and of the managers of theatres, but he had no power of it was then found that he bad shot himself in the enforcing them, except he took the extreme course of breast with an old pistol. He was lying on the floor refusing to grant a license. At present be had no partially dressed, and was quite dead. A paper, staff to undertake the duties and responsibilities which written as follows, was found upon him "I think the public were desirous of imposing on him, and he there is nothing on earth more pure and good than ife ad family. I die the death of a doe, and _ .  say wife am .silt. _ . iprb . I richly deserve it" The only money found upon to resist them they withdrew. Besides OafierUi, two him wan a French coin. There was also a revolver, other members of this band are known. They have NEW WORK FOR YANKEE GlRLS.—Yankee endeavoured to make recruits by offering rewa•ds of girls are now cutting and polishing diamonds. The money, but no one joined them. The gendarmerie are art has been monopolised by Amsterdam experts, who guarding all the paths leading to their whereabouts, have uniformly refused to teach any apprentices except and their escape is deemed impossible. Dutch boys of their own selection. Henry D. SloNe, AN
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-04-21 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE LIFE OF A "BOHEMIAN.'  The Echo says: The French are not usually no backward in filling up the niches of their literary I Walhalla as they have beea in the case of Henri Murger, that exquisite, but unhappy poet who died in a hospital at the age of 39, reminding an in some respects of Edgar roe's sad fate. Their monuments to men of this class are numerous beyond comparison with our own, and even with those of Germany. But until now, the memory of Murger has been honoured in no conspicuous manner. It is true that bewas a Bohemian, who talked of his garret as " that alma little kingdom up three pair of stairs," never thoughtof the morrow, kept a skull on hus mantlepiece; lived one day on potatoes and bayleaves, and dined sumptuously the next; sometimes wrote poems, every line of which was a charm ; sometimes dir-cted envelopes at a franc a hundred—doing two hundred to pay the price of a breakfast; and sometimes sat from morning till evening smoking, "with his legs crossed under his arms." But, upon the whole, his life lay along one continuous path of misery. It is a wonder how, under the circumstances, he could sink so joyously the while that rich friends were sounding his praises in terms ef extravagant adulation. "I would," said the elder Dumas, "give all my novels for his one song to Musette." But the day came, after one brief period of triumph and prosperity, when he spoke of his life "sea ruined drawn," threatened to commit suicide or enlist as a soldier, and broke into bitter lamentations over his OWR wretchedness, while Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Dumas, and the rest were applauding, nattering, ' loving," and leaving him to starve. "Crowned by women with roses," he said, "and by men with laurels, I am another of those to whom they will give a stone instead of bread." And he was.  FIVE SEAMEN OF THE CAROLINE SAINTY have been charged at Margate, two with disobedience and three with absconding from their vessel. The prisoners were sentenced to one month's hard labour. A
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-08-04 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

CASE OF SUSPECTED SUICIDE BY  DROWNING AT DROYLSDEN.  A melancholy affair has just occuared in this district, which involves a suspicion of suicide. Tbe body of William Taylor, a young man of sixteen ears of age, was taken out of the Manchester and Ashton Canal at the lock immediately behind the Half-Way House ("Pretty Wench,") Manchesterroad, on Saturday night. The youth, icappears, had been employed as:an assistant in the Open. siiaw Branch of the Droy:sden le-operative Stores, Ashton Old-road, Higher Openshaw. It appears that for some family indiscretion in which a young woman was also involved tha youth had been taken to task both by his parents and the managing parties of the stores, and this is alleged to be the cause of what followed. At all events he is said to have r xpr. s.ed a determination to make away with himself. He had left his home, at 500, Ashton Old. rose, on Thursday morning week, and about seven o'clock he was seen travelling along the canal side at the Junction locks, under the presumption that he had got on to the towing path at Openshaw Bridge. Ile passed up the canal side in the direction of Fairfield, and nothing more was heard of him until he was taken out on Saturday night. In the meantime nis threat bad got wind, and scarab was made for him,the canal naturally being thought of. The search was at first fruitless, but some young girls, who had been watching the operation of emptying the lock at the rear of the " Pretty Wench" saw some object being floated upwards in the water, which they took to be the head of a boy. They gave the alarm, and after a brief search at the spot indicated, a youth named Etehells bee. needed in taking the body from the water with a grappling iron. It was then, of course, stiff and cold, and bore evidence of having lain in the water for about three days. The youth woe the eon of Edward Taylor, of 500, Ashton Old-street
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-06-30 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

DEATH OF A PRISONER FROM STRANGULATION. —Dr. Hardwicke held an in inquiry at the Middlesex House of Detention, Clerkenwell, as to the death of John Smith, 21, a prisoner, who was found dead in his cell from strangulation. Mary Maloney, a sister, stated that the deceased was undergoing eighteen calendar months' imprisonment with hard labour. Two months ago she came to the prison to see the deceased, and was told by the warder that she could not see him, as he was under punishment, but that she had better come again in • month. She then went again, when she was told that he was sob under punishment. She received a letter from the governor telling lier of her brother's death. She had since heard that he had strangled himself, and that he had attempted it three or four times. The deceased was a delicate young man, and she believed that he bad been driven to do the act through the punishment that he had received. 2he deceased had never threatened to take his life a v., before being admitted to the prison. Warder James Mills said that he remembered the deceased for the past two or three months. On the eveuing of the 18th June, he visited him in his cell and took from him his clothing and gave him a bed, dm The following morning on going in he found the deceased lying on the floor quite dead, while tied tightly round his neck was a piece of shirting. He believed that ; the deecased was of sound mind. Ohief Warder Moore said that while under punishment the prisoner could not be visited. He was a very troublesome man. During his punishment he three or four times tied tightly round his neck pieces of his shirt, after which he kicked and rung the bells to alarm the ;warders no that he might be taken into the infirmary. , Dr. William Smiles, surgeon, said he saw the deceased daily while under punishment, and put him on the first.class diet, which was bread, cocoa, and meat four times a week. He believed that the deceased had no intention to commit suicide. The jury returned a verdict that "the deceased died from strangulation produced by a twisted piece of shirting being tied round his neck by himself, but whether from suicide or otherwise there was not sufficient evidence to show."
Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-06-16 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

SUICIDE BY POISONING AT DUKIN FIELD.  At en early hour on Wednesday merning the residents of Creereut-road, Dukinfield, were startled by a report that a man named Tom Birch, a moulder, who keeps a smell shop in Creseout-rmul, had poiaoued himself. The re port was only too true. It appears that Birdie wife died about seven mouths ago, and ever since the event he has been depressed in spirits and mrlaucholious. About 10 o'clock on Tuesday tight lie went to beil in his usual health. and there were no intlicatione iu his eouOtiet that he contemplated auicid-. At seven o'clock on Wednesday morning, Mary Ann Mose, mother-in law of the unfortunate ~,au, who at. tends to the houae,got up, and on coming down stairs the found his oreakfast on the table, besides which was the following remarkable letter:—  You must bury me like a dog i buried Lucy ! (his wife) respectably and honourably having loved her as a husband and a wifo but it has been drink the cause of it 15 years since Lucy knew about it bless her i told her i told her my fears years gone by i went to %newtons last night thinking him an • friend and a Christian and he told me God helped those as helped themselves so i cannot atand the reprosch and remorse so you dont know who are • Christian and friend but i will forgive him and everybody else i dont know that i have done anybody any harm wilfnlly, the children some of them will soon be ready to come down. Upon seeing this note, she suspected that something was wrong, and she called in a neighbour named Thomas Bardsley. On going into the cellar, Bardsley found Birch lying on the cellar floor quite dead. On a table in the kitchen an ordinary sized medicine bott!e was found with a label upoil it on which was printed the inscription, "Poison. James Avisou, dispensing chemist, corner shops 13 and 115, King street, Dukinfield." The bottle contained a few drops of a d irk fluid smelling very strongly of tar, and it is supposed that he had bought the liquid the previous night, and got up early in the morning and swelled the contents of the bottle with tie express intention of destroying himself. The deceased, it is said, has been a teetotaller for the past four years, which is rather inconsistent with the remark in the letter that "drink is the cause of it." The death of his wife, and the fact that she left six very young children, has doubtlees weighed heavily upou him and unhinged his mind. He was 38 years of age.