Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1874-04-30 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

DOUBLE SUICIDE IN PARIS. We published on Saturday a despatch from Pane, announcing the suicide of a young English couple at the Hotel St. Petersburg, 85, Rue Caumartin. The Daily News' correspondent telegraphs the following particulars:  I have just returned from the Morgue, where the bodies, as is the French custom, are exposed to public view for identification- Immense crowds congregated at the door of, the Morgue, many people not having nerve enough to go in, but eagerly asking questions outside. ' The sight, indeed, was not one which it might be thought anyone would have cared to look upon from mere curiosity. The man's age appears to be about 30. He is of short stature, with very small hands and feet, great muscular delopment of the arms, shoulders, and chest, short brown beard and moustache. Altogether he has the air of a fashionable English athlete. His clothes (which, together with those of his companion, were hung above their heads to assist in their identification) were a morning suit, well cut, and of the first quality. I heard a Frenchman say that he looked as if he never had had a care in his life. His companion, presumably 18 or 19 years of age, looked as though not in the same station of life, though her clothes were good, and her linen fine. Her hair is singularly long, and dressed with curls turned up in Victoria bands, as was the fashion twenty years ago. Her height is 5 feet; plump in form, approaching stoutness. An Englishman present said he was familiar with the man's face, which he had seen for years in Rotten Row. The silver plates on the dressing cases have no marks or Cipher. This unfortunate couple arrived at the hotel on Wednesday afternoon, each carrying a small valise in hand. The gentleman asked for a good room. Being told that there was only one, on the fourth floor, the lady said, "Never mind, we can change tomorrow." They did not come down to dinner, which provoked notice, though not alarm; but at two on Thursday, no response being made to knocks, the door was broken open, and the strangprs, half undressed, were found dead in bed, locked each others arms. On the counterpane was an empty phial, which had contained prussic acid. A full bottle of laudanum was on the night table. The police report states that, whereas the woman had been dead ten hours, the body of the man was warm when found. Hence the conjecture that possibly the murder led to a remorseful suicide. The marks on the linen of both were clumsily cut out with scissors, and the rags burned in the fire place, but the ticket in the man's hat showed that it was bought of MacCarthy and Co., 30, Ludgate Hill and 30, Gresham Street, This is the only clue to the identity. Telegrams to the London police have not yot produced any information. The woman had no wedding ring, but a torquoise ring reversed to simulate one. She was °raciest!.  The lady,and gentleman who committed snieide at an hotel in Paris have been identified beyond all doubt by means of photographs and descriptions as Mr and Mrs Hall, who were sentenced to a nominal punishment at the Devon assizes last autumn, for having attempted to commit suicide by taking tincture of opium at Bfracome. They were members of respectable society at Bath, and their motive then was that he had lost his situation in London, just after marriage, owing to chronic ill health.