The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1875-06-26 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

SUICIDIL—On Tuesday morning an inquest was held at the Sydenham Palace, Lower Ford-street, before T. Dowes, Esq , coroner, on the body of John Parkes, a rimer, Hi years of age, who committed suicide on Monday morning in his bedroom.—The wife of deceased said she last saw her husband alive on Sunday night between & quarter and half-past ten o'clock, when he was going to bed.. He slept in an attic by himself, refusing to sleep in his own bed. About half-past seven on Monday morning witness heard a peculiar noise in his bedroom. She immediately jumped out of bed and ran up to him, when she saw him lying on the floor with • rope around his neck and making a gurgling noise as if he was choking. His eyes were closed, and lie did not speak when spoken to. Witness sent for Dr. Dresser, who attended immediately. Deceased had previously threatened to destroy himself. On Sunday morning his wife went up to him while in bed, and she saw some blood on his throat, but it was not cut. When spoken to he would not answer. It appeared I afterwards that he had scratched his arm and then put the blood on his throat to frighten his wife.—Dr. Wm. Dresser said he was called at 7.35 a.m. on Mon' day morning, and he saw deceased lying on the floor with a rope tied to the bedpost around his melt. He was dead, and from surrounding circumstances he believed deceased committed suicide. Witness had known deceased for seven or eight years, and within the past twelvemonths be bad noticed a great change in his manner, and he had been getting worm) lately. , He did not think deceased was responsible for his actions—lnspector Elms said he was called in on Monday morning, and deceased was then lying on the bed. Witness produced the rope, part of which he found around the bedpost and part on the floor.— It transpired that deceased had drank heavily of late. —The Coroner briefly summed up, and the jury returned a verdict of suicide while in an unsound state of mind.  Tax Fadeout's ACT CoamissioN.—The Royal Commission appcinted to collect evidence in different parts of the country as to the working of the Factories Act. 1871, and the Workshops Act, 1874, commenced its sitting at Leicester on Monday. Amongst the witnesses examined were the chairman and vicechairman of the Leicester School Board, the Rev. J. Wood and Mr. W. H. Walker, the latter a large employer of labonr, who said there were 1352 half. timers attending school under the Workshops Act, and the children in the workshops were in the habit of attending school in the afternoon only, when very little learning took plum. Ur. George Smith, Colville, author of 0 The Cry of the Brickyard Children," said he had seen a great improvement in the condition of women and children employed in brickyards since the Act of 1871. There was not now such a difficulty in getting juvenile labour as there was when the Act first came into operation. Referring to canal life, Mr. Smith said the canal population was from 80,000 to 90,000. Children should not be allowed to work in connection with canal boats. If they were kept away the wages of the men would increase. The great majority of the men had no home but the boats.