npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-11-10 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

MASSACHUSETTS.—Bet ween the years IE4O and 1881, inclusive, the number of trials for murder in the State of Massachusetts was 212, of whom only 15 were executed, one prisoner committed suicide the night before execution, and one is still waiting, during the arguing of certain technical objections. Fifty-three received life sentences, and 11 others had death sentences commuted to imprisonment for life. Forty-nine were found guilty of manslaughter, on their own pleas or by juries. Fourteen proved to be insane, and in two cases the juries could not agree. Thirteen were acquitted, one committed suicide before trial, 49 were discharged on their own recognizances, one escaped from prison and eight were awaiting trial. It is somewhat remarkable that out of 200 or more cases, there should be only 2R convictions of murder in the first degree, which alone carries the punishment of death. No accusation ever appears to have been made against the State that the criminals were shielded by political or other corrupt influence (as certainly appears to be the case in some of the States), for it is universally allowed that in Massachusetts the prosecutions have been most ably conducted and every effort made to secure a righteous conviction. The reason seems to be rather that jurymen are strongly impressed with the danger that the innocent may be executed instead of the guilty, and that they will always stretch a point to return a verdict of murder in the second degree when there is the slightest ground for it, and often when there is not, since such a verdict does not involve the life of the prisoner.  HONESTY 'THE BEST POLlCY.—Modest Youth, "May I have the pleasure of dancinz with you, Miss Lightfoot V'—Miss Lightfoot (to her Mother's horror). "Thanks—no ! My waistband is so tight I can't move and so are my shoes ! "—Modest Youth, who Is, let' us say, an Earl of Richard the First's creation, eix foot eight in his pumps, with eight hundred thousand a year, and in every respect the ideal of a young girl's dream—is so touched that he proposes on the spot !}—Punch.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-09-08 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUICIDES IN GREAT CITIES.—It appears from recent statiKti s on this subject that Paris occupies a very unenviable position. The ratio of suicide f* r every million inhabitants averages yearly 402, while in Naples it is only 34. The French capital is thus the saddest as well as the gayest city in Europe. The ratio for other cities is as follows :—Stockholm, 354 (this high average is quite unaccountable in tha northern city, where the pressure of life is not great) ; Copenhagen, 302; Vienna, 287; Brussels, 271; Dresden, 240; St. Petersburg, 206; Florence, 180; Berlin, 170; New York, 144; Genoa, 135; London, 87; and Rome, 74. London thus o =pies a very advuntageous position in the list. With regard to New York, it is said that the majority of the suicides in that city are Germans.  SUGAR CROPS IN BRAZIL —The Pernambuco Correspondent of The Times writing on the 13th of August, says :—" Receipts of sugar for the fortnight amount to 4,026 bags, of which a small portion consists of new sugar, taken over by local refiners. Entries from the Ist of September, 1881, to the 7th of August, 1882, were 2,039,165 bags, and during the same period of 1882 3 they were 1,210,285 bags, showing a deficiency of 828,880 bags between the two crops. The weather has been favourable, and several estates in this and adjacent provinces have commenced grinding, and unless rains intervene we expect the majurity of the plantations will be at work at the end of the month." A NATURAL Cuoss.—An extraordinary peari has been found at Nichol Bay. It is composed of nine distinct pearls about the size of peas, of a fine lustre, and firmly bedded together in t, e form of a perfect cross. It was found in the shell exactly as it now appears. The cross is about an inch and a half long. It is a perfectly unique cuziosity, and is expected (says the Melbourne Argus) to fetch a fabulous price, owing to the extraordinary coincidence of its perfectly representing the symbol of Christianity.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-11-17 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SINGULAR CASE OF SUICIDE.  In London, on Tuesday, Mr. W. J. Payne, City Coroner, held an inquiry at the Coroner's Court, Golden-lane, regarding the death of Joseph Holloway, aged 47, who committed suicide by taking a quantity of phosphorus paste. Mary Holloway, the sisterin-law of the deceased, said her brother was a coffee. housekeeper carrying on business in Westmorelandbuildings, Aldersgate•street, City. For some time past he had been very much depressed, as a young lady, with whom he was acquainted, had threatened to institute proceedings against him for breach of promise of marriage. As his business had fallen off very much lately, he greatly feared that the action would muin him, and he had expressed himself to that effect to witness. On Wednesday last the cass was tried in the Court of Queen's Bench, and a verdict was given for the plaintiff, but for nominal damages only and no costs. The deceased was very much pleased with the result, but told witness that before the trial came on he, fearing the result, had taken a quantity of phosphorus. He, howeser, did not appear to be ill, but on Thursday last he complained of pains about the body, and witness called in a medical man.—By the Coroner: The deceased attempted to hang himself a short time before the trial came off. He frequently expressed an opinion that it would ruin I him.  Dr. Adams said he was called to attend the de. ceased, who was suffering from the effects of poison and who told the witness that he bad taken some phosphorus paste. He died on Saturday last from the effects of the poison. He informed witness that he had taken it the day before the trial came off. Several days would elapse before the poison would take effect.  The jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased committed suicide while suffering from " Temporary insanity."
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-11-17 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

TEMPERANCE PEDESTRIAN FEAT.—Mr. Charles Keeble, a temperance advocate of twenty years' stand. ing, on Saturday night, at nine o'clock, completed his great temperance feat' cf walking 1,025 miles in 456 hours, at the Metropolitan Grmnds, Ospery-road, Old Kent7.rOsid, London. He has, notwithstanding the severe weather during most of his performance, been sustained in health, and finished in excellent health and spirits. A meeting was held at the close on Saturday night, at which it was decided to have a collection in:all'the Plicentx and 'Good Templar Lodges for the benefit of Keeble, and medals were presented to him in recognition of his great feat, and it was announced that a gentleman who had Seen arid examined him during his walk was so satiified .that he had "posted" 300 guineas in favour of Keeble as a challenge to the wor:d to walk 2,500 miles in 1,000 hours in a building or hi the open in England or America, the winner to have the takings and a cup worth 100 guineas which the same gentleman will give.  SUICIDE OF A SOLDIER —ln Dublin, on Tuesday morning, Private John Speire;lst Battalion Highland Brigade, committed suicide at Ship•street Barracks. He had been on parade at seven o'clock, and then returned to his room, where he shaved and washed himself. While dressing it would appear he sat down on the edge of his bed, got his loaded rifle, placed the muzzle of it to the lower portion of his right breast, and discharged it by means of a string attached to the trigger. The bullet passed through his heart' and out under his left shoulder-blade, and lodged in the ceiling of the room. The doctor was in immediate attendance, but it is hardly necessary to say that any medical assistance was of no avail. Speirs died in about a quarter of an hour after the shot was heard. The deceased was a native of Greenock, and had been sixteen years in the army, and during that period always bore a good character,
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-08-18 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUPPOSED MURDER BY A MOTHER.  In London, on Monday riarning, the supposed murder of a child by its mother was brought to light at St. Thomas-road, Holloway. A joiner named George Ludlow, with his wife and their children re. sided at St. Thomas road, Hoil )way, and for some time past it had been noticed that the woman had been in a low and desponding state of mind. At times she acted very strangely. On Saturday morning the woman was seen by one of her elder daughters to take the child Emily Susan, aged two years, upstairs, and a few minutes afterwards to come down in an excited manner, and run out of the house. The father, on his return home, learning tie circumstances, went up to the second floor, and find. ing that the window was open, looked into the cistern that was underneath, and there he found the child, aged two years. Upon getting it out he found that was quite dead. Information was at once given to the police, and a description of the wife was circulated throughout the metropolis, it brivg stated that it was most likely she would commit suicnie. On Sunday, as Police-constable 164 N was on duty at Canonbury, near the New River, he saw the woman attempt to commit suicide, on which he took her into custody. She was taken to the Islington Police.station, where she was identified on Monday, and under medical advice she was removed to the Islington Workhouse, there being no doubt by the raving condition the poor creature was in that she was mad.  At the Clerkenwell Police-court on Monday afternoon, Inspector Finney, of the N Division, said the prisoner could not he brought up to be placed in the dock as she was quite mad, and was detained in the infirmary of the Islington Workhouse. She had often threatened to kill herself and the child, and was subject to temporary fits of insanity, when she was quite unanswerable for her actions. Early on Sunday morning she was pulled out of the New River, near Essex-road, just atter she had thrown herself in, by a constable, who had seen the womat during the night, sitting on the river bank, and had several times passed her while on his beat. ,
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-12-22 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUICIDE IN A RAILWAY TRAIN.—In London, on Monday, Dr. Diplock held an inquest on the body of James Henry Payne, aged flfty.eight, a coach•builder, lately residing at Shepherd'a•bush, who committed suicide on Friday morning in last week in a railway carriage. The body having been Identified, John Russell, a carriage-cleaner at the Hammersmith Station of the Metropolitan Railway, was called. He said he opened the door of a third-class compartment of a train that arrived at the station at 10.25 a.m. and found the deceased lying full length on the seat Of the compartment with his throat cut. A razor was on the floor, and the deceased's umbrella, hat, and necktie were on the seat opposite. The wife of the deceased, in answer to the coroner, said her husband had had no trouble. He left home on Friday morning to go to work. The jury returned as their verdict "That the deceased committed suicide while in a state of unsound mind."  ELBow-Rooit.—According to the calculations of the Registrar-General the area of England and Wales at the time of taking the last census was equal to nearly acres for every human being, so that if the population had been equally distributed the distance between any two neighbouring individuals would have been ninety yards. Saxony and Belgium are the only two other European countries where the population is as dense as this. Our elbow room, however, is constantly diminishing. About the commencement of the prsent century the proximity of individual to individual on' an equal distribution would have been 153 yards; in 1821, 132 yards; in 1851, 108 yards; in 1871, 96 yards. A PRACTICAL VlEW.—First Parishioner (to recently appointed Minister) : " Verra gled to fall in wi' ye sir, an' maki yer acquaintance ! I hinna been at the Kirk syne ye cam', as I wis in Ross-shire."—Parson : " Well, I am very pleased to meet you. You may have heard whether my Ser—"—Parishioner : "Oh, a' the fowk are greatly taken wi' yer menners an appearance, yer attention to the puir bodies o the parish, yer visitin' the sick, an'—wha cares for preachin' I "—Punch.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1883-08-11 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SUICIDE.—An inquest was held on Thursday last, at the Vine Hotel, High—street, before R. Docker, Esq., touching the death of Henry Pratt (55), parchment maker.—Sarah Pratt, wife of the deceased, said that she last saw her husband alive at about 10 o'clock on Sunday night, As he was going to bed he complained of having a violent pain in his head. He kept getting in and out of bed for some time. At last he said he should go down stairs and make a fire and sit by it. He did not make a fire, but brought some ginger beer up stairs and asked her to have some, He went down stairs again and did not return. About 1 o'clock she went down stairs to see where lie was. She found him behind the kitchen door suspended by a cord from the chimney piece. When she found bin she went up stairs, opened the window, and called for ;,tbel police. P.C. Tarlton came in directly afterward-. Deceased had been strange of late, hut was perfectly sober that .night.—PC. Teuton sad that about 20 minutes past 1 o'clock on _holiday in Tiling 11.3 was on duty ii H;gh Street. lie was called to deceased's house by his wife. Ile went through the shop and into the back kitchen. She said "My husband is behind the door." He looked round the door and saw the deceased - there suspended by the rope produced. His feet touched the ground, but the weight of the body was on the neck. He cut the rope and laid the body on the floor. He then went and fetched Dr Evar, who said life was extinct.—Dr. Eger stated that he had attended the deceased for about 8 weeks. He had been suffering from the effects of drink. He had not got the delirium tremens but w,fs on the very verge. He had very violent • pains in the head. Teat would very likely help to overthrow the balance of his mind. He was not surprised at what deceaqed had done. He thought that in all probaliility his mind was affected When he saw the body it standing erect with the cord round his neck, but life was extinct. The body was quite warm and bad not been dead more than half-an-hour. He could have placed himself in that position. Strangulation producing suffocation was the cause of death.—The jury returned a verdict" that deceaseil committed suicide whilst in an unsound state of mind."  Boeunfor
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-03-13 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SINGULAR CASE.—A singular case has come under the notice of Mr. Humphreys, the coroner for Middlesex. John Carter, 13 years of age' of Barking, had been in excellent health until the Saturday previous, when he was suddenly seized with convulsive fits, and became so much worse that the local surgeon advised his removal to the London Hospital. Tam Dr. Hoskey found that he was suffering from tetanus. He died on Monday following. All efforts te ascertain the cause of the disease were fruitless. At the inquest the doctor said that the case was probably unique, for no injuries whatever were found to account for the tetanus. The case was a complete mystery. A verdict of" Death from tetanus" was recorded. SOBER Sarrs.—The first of the line of Temperance Ship' has just been launched on the Clyde. This vessel is warranted to draw water only, and is very different from a drinking vesscl.—Funny Folks. SUICIDES IN DENSfARIL.—From official statistics recently published in Copenhagen, it appears that in ten years, from 1869 to 1878, there were 4,770 cases of suicide ascertained to have been committed in the kingdom of Denmark. Of this number of persons 3,709 were males and 1,061 females. As regards age, 58 were those of persons under 15 years; 2OB between 15 and 20 years; 549 between 20 and 30 years; 617 between SO and 40 years; 888 between 40 and 50 years 1,153 between 50 and 6) years; 818 between 60 and 70 years; and 465 above 70 years. The mode of death was in 3,714 cases by hanging; in 754 cases by drowning ; in 154 ca4es by shooting ; in 80 by stabbing; and in 43, of whom 25 were women, by poison; while in the remaining 20 cases, various methods were adopted. In respect to the seasons of the year, , suicides were most frequent in winter and spring, showing a continuous increase from Deceillber, when they numbered 255, all through the succeeding months to May, when they numbered 567, after which they rapidly declined in the summer and autumn months.  1F You WOULD BE SO OBLIGING, "Weather Authorties prophesy that the coming Spring will be mild, and not characterised by the periodic gales we are at present experiencing."—American papers, please copy.—Punch,
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-03-27 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

SPECULATIONS ABOUT COMETS.  In a few weeks the comet heralded by Don Pedro of Brazil is to make its appearance, and, as has been the case on several former occasions of the like kind, there are not wanting prophets to foretell, nor persons to believe, that the end of the world is at hand. This event has, however, been predicted so often that the announcement somewhat palls upon the public, who, with a few exceptions, bear it with amazing sang froid, going about their usual work, buying, selling, and making provision for a future which they refuse to believe will be limited to a few weeks. How and under what conditions will the world end? This is a question which many scientific brains have fatigued themselves in endeavouring to solve without reaching any satisfactory conclusion. According to a French meteorologist, M. Vivacey, one planet will die, so to say, a natural death, and, after having passed through the successive stages of infancy, youth, maturity, and old age, will expire worn out for warmth. The atmosphere which we breathe envelopes the earth in a sort of garment retaining the sun's heat. When this garment is worn out, the heat will vanish, and ultimately a glacial cold, inexorable and relentless, will spread over our sphere its mantle of death. Snow will invade valleys, plains, and cities with incessant but slow march, towns and villages will be abandoned to the silent destroyer, and our race will be driven to seek warmer climates; the tropics will in the course of time be the sole habitable region, the extent of which will itself become gradually restricted, and humanity, crowded together without sufficient elbow room, so to say, will commence a war of extermination, in which the weaker will go to the wall to make room for the stronger to live, When affairs have reached this crisis European capitals will long have ceased. to be, and will have become the subject of historical dissertation, ships being sent across seas of ice to  .1a0.614,i .3vriatiP  verify the fact that vast deserts of icebergs, tenanted by wolves, were once centres of civilisation. The whole earth, says M. Vivarez, will be transformed into a frozen and uninhabitable plain, and to find any vestige of great and popular France will be as hard a a task for the scientfdic explorer as is now that of reaching the Poles. The human race will continue to carry on wars of extermination, animal life will become scarce, until one day the sun's rays will shine upon a lugubrious spectacle the frozen corpses of the last human, family dead of cold and suffocation on the borders of the last sea dried up. Thus will the busy world of to-day end, according to this savant's hypothesis, which, at any rate, is more rational than that of a German colleague, who predicts that the world will end by the universal suicide of its inhabitants, grown weary of everything, having discovered everything, invented everything, enjoyed everything, and who, to cure themselves radically of ennui engendered by satiety, will unanimously decree universal death.—Evening Standard.
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-06-12 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

NOVEL INCIDENT IN NATURAL HISTORY. story conies to us from Tasmania, which, from a point of view, as well as. from that of natural historic is interesting (says the Evening Standard). A there has committed suicide from the apparently 0,1 t instinct of saving itself from slaughter. There are l'ie three species of reptiles in the colony but they 0111„ii up for their want of numben by being extreol-0, venomous. What they lack in quantity they coinrch sate for in quality. The case of felo de se, to lila of allusion is made, is chronicled on the authoritY tlr a correspondent of a local paper. This gen 00 man, attempting to "scotch" a black snake by welhe of a forked stick, pinned it to the ground bY " middle of the body. No sooner had he done so t in a rage the snake "instantly buried his fang,s. himself, making the spot wet either with viscid gillo or the deadly poison. He had hardly unburied la, fangs when his coils round the stick suddenly relaxe A perceptible quiver ran through his body, end i.llO. few moments he lay extended and almost motl°o less, with his mouth opening and shiittin6 yt if he were gasping, but no forked tongue ttr.1.1,,1e out. In less than three minutes from the,,tPhe bit himself he was perfectly dead." om! post-mortem examination of the snake the  was found almost bloodless, as though the a° , of the poison had destroyed the colouring matter the blood. An hour after the death of the sr?, sonic of its poison remaining in the fangs was trio mouse, which died in five minutes, and on a lizato which died in fourteen minutes. To some, it appear rash to say that the wound of the snake intentional, no proper inquest having been held considering the evil traditions of this class of mint," it is not unjust to incline to the opinion f"t this was a genuine instance of self-destruction. aaity that such a habit should not become general among anakeff, particularly in India'