npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1902-02-01 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

HOW MEN PROPOSE.  To a statistician the world is indebetd for some very interesting data in regard to the most approved methods of courtship in civilized countries. These data were compiled from several novels and romances, the object tieing to show how men propose and how women res ceive the proposals. From one hundred tvnicai cases of accepted declarations of love the statistician obtained the following figures : Eighty-one of the 100 men vowed that they could not live any longer without the adored ones; 72 held the ladies' hands in a tight grip; 60 kissed them on the lips, 10 on the right hand, 2 on the tip of the nose, and 1 on the shoulder; 18 were so excited that they could hardly speak; 26 lost their eloquence through certain qualms of conscience • 12 said in deep chest tones, "Thank God," and eight frankly admitted that they were "inexpressibly happy." By studying the conduct of the one hundred men whose suits were rejected the statistician obtained the following equally interesting figures : —Forty of them rushed in a frenzy out of the ve,--1 • tv-e-n,, said 4ht life henceforth had no more value in their eyes and that they would commit suicide; 14 became suddenly tongue-tied and irrational; 6 calmly resigned themselves to the inevitable; 5 avowed their intention of immediately emigrating to America • 3 tore out some of their hair; 2 bit ;heir lips till the blood came:l stuck his hands into his trousers pockets and whistled a popular song, and another looked up toward heaven and began to say the Lord's Prayer. Of the ladies 87 per cent. knew beI fore-hand that the proposals were about to made to them. Seventy of them sank, as though embarrassed, into the arms of the loved ones, and only four fell gently down on a chair or sofa. Fourteen covered their blnhing faces with their hands, eight threw their arms passionately around the necks of the men; 2 said, "Please speak to mamma," and 1 sneered. One lady, who was forty-eight years old, protested vigorously against giving or receiving a kiss; another, who was of about the same age, said, "Yes, you may kiss me, but you must de it in a gentlemanly manner."
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1902-08-30 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

GENIUS AND  MATRIMONY.  Fielding, the novelist, married a maid servant. Sir Thomas More's wife scolded him on the eve of his execution. Haylitt's wife eared nothing for his ability. Her temper was an intensity, and the tragedy of the unsympathetic played itself to the bitter end. Milton had troubles with both of his wives. Nor was his monopoly of the martyrdom. Moliere, at the age of forty, married an actress aged seventeen summers. She ran away, and it snowed and covered her tracks. Coleridge left his wife and children without apology or farewell, and never would see them again. Napoleon conquered the world, material, but he often swore at Josephine (a woman who was once his wife), and when she cried said, "Hush; it makes your nose red." But he was a great man. Shelley married an innkeeper's daughter. It was a problem in inequality, with a. demonstration in the disaster that followed. He left , her. She committed suicide. But they did not hang the man. Alexander the Great was accustomed to beat his wives with the flat of his sword whenever they "talked back" at him. This was a custom peculiar to him, as old records show that the sword in the hand of a gentleman was used to protect the gentler sex. "Ben " Jonson's wife went to the inn after him if he stayed too long and brought him home, tongue lashing him all the way. And you all know 'en" Jonson. Boswell's "lixoriana " is a collection of his wife's sayings to him, which do little credit to her as a scold. Richard Wagner's first matrimonial venture was a pathetic sonato, the tragedy of the inharmonious. To his second wife,who impressed upon him what he had gained in the second instead of lost in the first, he owed a debt of gratitude, which speaks to the seeing in his latter works. Robert Schumann fell in love with the daughter of his piano teacher. The inspiration she gave him was the world's gain. When the irate father refused a union with the daughter, "Davidsbundler," "Kreisierana," and "Noveletten," were given to the world in a tangible form, and the wife he coveted becam3 his. So much for adversity. Robert Browning understood his wife and his wife understood him. George Washington had a wife who knew how to courtesy, and he sat in the presidential chair in peace. This was before a vestibule was added to the White House. Bach married on 35d015. a year and wrote immortal music. This was before automobiles.—Jas. Winn, Wheatley Hill, Thornley, R.S.O.
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1902-01-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER IV.  Astley Darwen, though he was not yet seven and twenty, had knocked about the world, and seen something of life, both in peace and war, and at home and abroad. But never had it occurred to him before to meet with a girl like this one, who was both shy and bold, innocent and yet shrewd, at the same time.  Never befere, either, had it happened to him to have an offer of marriage made to him by a lady, and the conjunction of such singular circumstances went nigh to overwhelming him. Norma guessed something of what was passing in his mind, and the blush which had rapidly overspread her face suddenly died away. "You're disgusted with me, of course," said she, biting her lip, and turning away her head, while her eyes filled with tears.  Astley answered her quickly, with a warmth and kindness there was no mistaking. _  , "Indeed I'm not. The feeling uppermost in me at this moment is the most intense sympathy for you, the strongest wish to be of use to you. I'm only wondering what I eau do. What you suggest wouldn't do anything but plunge you into fresh troubles." "I suppose I was mad to suggest it," mumbled Norma, "but it would have set me free. And as you're always protesting you vould never marry any woman, and complaining of your poverty at the same time, why I thought you might help me, and let me help you at the same time. For we would have gone shares in what I have, and I should have been grateful to you to my life's end." Astley felt a natural difficulty in realising the intense force of passionate feeling in this girl, which made her so unable to face common accidents of life squarely and sanely. That she should have attempted suicide; that she should now suggest the maddest of mad experiments, merely to free herself from the society of uncongenial companions, did indeed suggest a nature so out of the common run that to suppose her mad would have be ppardonable assumpuon. But, pardonable as it would hay. been, Astley did not fall into tbi. nano 7API7ART IL
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1902-10-04 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER XXDI.  "I know all about that--perhape more than you do. But I doset see how it effects you or me."  "The point is this, dad," Neils continued. "He's tried to commit suicide —he's so hipped. Yes, real suicide. He took laudanum last night. It didn't kill him straight off—he's got over the first shock, but he's in a very weak state, and he says he means to die. And I truly believe he will die. Now, if you would let him have that million, dad, you would save his life." . _  _ Netla's item of news wae a considerable and disconcerting surprise to Racksole, but he hid his feelings fairly well.  "I haven't the least desire to save his life, Nell. I don't over-much respect your Prince 4,ugen. Tve done what I  a 6 a subject. He w mitt; to marry a woman who ian't a Princess." "Is she rich ?"  "Her father is," said the girl. "Oh, dad, can't you guess ? He—he loves me." Her head fell on Theodore's shoulder and she began to cry.  The millionaire whistled a very high note. "Nell," he said, at length. "And you? Do you sort of cling to him?"  " Dad," she answered, "you are stupid. Do you imagine I should worry myself like this if I didn't r She smiled through her teaxs. She knew from her father's tone that she had accomplished a victory.  "It's a mighty queer arrangement," Theodore remarked. "But, of course, if you think it'll be of any use, you had better go down and tell your Prince Eugen that that million can be fixed up, if he really needs it. I expect there'll be decent security, or Sampson Levi wouldn't have mixed himself up in it." "Thanks, dad. Don't come with me; I may manage better alone." She gave a formal little curtesy and disappeared. Racksole, who bad the talent, so necessary to millionaires, of
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1910-07-16 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER IV.  LADY EVESHAM'S MASCOT.  Sir John Eveshara, tct all appeara.nce, was as hale and hearty as the average man wno has livect through the calms and storms of sixtyeight winters, but his family knew that he possealed a heart which, according to the opinion 01 several medical men, at any moment might suddenly refuse to perform the task allotted to it. Doubtless this, coupled with Lady Evesham distroseed implorations that he would refrain from further .worry, and Marwood McEwan's advice. was the reason why he decided it would be advisable to let the investigation of the supposed suicide rest.  The body had been interred in Minsterley churchyard as "unknown," Sir John personali attending and defraying the cost of the funeral. Now. after the lapse of a month, curiosity had sutesided. and the subject hacl ceased to be mentioned either at the manor or in the village.  Dennis .Fitzroy was once more back in London, working tremndously hard at a picture which was Attended to decorate the line at the Academy exhibition of the forthcoming spring. He wrote to his sweetheart daily, each letter breathing his undyiny devotion more vehemently than the preueding one.  Lilian had almost given up hunting. The exdement of thoee wild, headlong gallops over grass and plough, hedge and ditch, had taken her completely away from all thought beyond them; now her wm world had become so sunny a spat that she wished for nothing to carry her out of it. She preferre4 to sit in her favourite nook by the hall fire, her hands idle, her mind wearing bright fancies of the time Alien Dennis and she should give the secret of their love to the world. Lady Evesham's nerves were not so easily restored to tranquillity as was expected, and on this particular evening he had only consented to Come down to dinner as a favour to Lilian. Early in the morning had come a telegram from MarvoodEwan, asking Sir John to dine with him that night at the HADOS6 and Crown, Keverston, where he should break his jcurney in going north. Sir John Evesharn bated hotel wines, and he hated hotel cookery more, so he had replied bidding the millionaire come to Evecham to dine aad sleep, an arrangement Mr McEwan ardently approved. _  Non must oome down. mother," Lilian had naid decidedly. "Father's ra. darling, but he atfards tne no protection. He'll leave me to Me MeEdwan all through dinner, then afterwards he'll slioep in the drawing-room," and Lilian ended with a little shrug of her shoulders. So her ladyship, protesting that ahe was not equal to the e,xertion, had come down, and. instcad of her (laughter, claimed the support' of Mr MeEwan's atm to the dining-room.
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1910-04-09 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

LEGAL QUERY COUPON.  Name . - .. •""  Address - Nom de plume .  £2O foT six months, if repayable by, say, SiX instalments of £5 a month. Perhaps this is cleared off and confidence established. Then a larger sum is borrowed "to help in the business." Alas for such folly. It is the beginning of the end. The next step is £5O or £lOO. Instalments get into arrears. A writ follows immediately, and generally bankruptcy, exposure and ruin. No tradesman can make such profits, as will justify his borrowing, no matter what the pressure, at such rates. He cannot do it and survive. And yet it is done every day. Every day some unlucky man is committing financial suicide. Better, far better, to consult his friends—to consult some shrewd lawyer and frankly admit his difficulties.  The law as it stands is little protection, but the case just decided is a nasty blow to moneylenders. The whole question brings round the section dealing with name registration, and now the Court has decided—and the House of Lords, if it is taken there, is hardly likely to reverse the decision—(l) that "the defendants had not registered under their 'usual trade name' within the meaning of the Act; (2) that one of the defendants was carrying csa the business of money-lending in more names than one, and that the whole transaction (whicth was a bill of sale registered in another name) was illegal and void.  Borrowers would do well to remember that when they are borrowing through one man, the lender may be, and generally is, a representative of two or three names and addresses. That "A., 8., and C 0.," giving an address at Mancheser, "C. D.," with an address at Leeds, and "E. F. Ltd.," with an address in London, should be one and the same individual, never seems to occur to the man hard pressed, and thus he may disclose facts to "C. D." he would not disclose to "A., 8., and C 0.," and so on. The result of the case referred to will be some protection to borrowers, for the greater number of the money-lending tribe make use of two or three names and addresses, and it will probably be that 90 per cent• of the transactions entered into will be null and void, and the money irrecoverable in consequent.e.
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1910-06-04 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CURIOUS REQUESTS  IN WILLS.  Mr Albert C. Freeman, in a new edition of his "Antiquity of Cremation and Curious Funeral Customs," tells of some strange requests made by different persons in connection with the disposal of their remains. Mr Solomon Goldsehmidt, a rich Jewish merchant; of Frankfort and London, who died in 1906, directed that before his body should be placed in a coffin his heart should be pierced and his aorta severed, then that his remains should he cremated, Mr V. B. Corbett, of Crabwell Hall, Mollington, Cheshire, left directions in his will that he should be cremated, and added: "I should wish a £3 cup to be given to the Cheshire Golf Club to be competed for on the day of my cremation, and the six following anniversaries." Colonel S. H. Lucas, a retired army officer, who died at Los Angeles, California, left a will in which he made the request that his body should be cremated and the ashes placed inside a copper globe, with his name and age engraved on the outside, and, under the following words: "Rocked in the cradle of the deep, I lay me down to sleep." He then directed that this globe should be given to the officers in charge of some United States man-of-war, with the request that it be thrown overboard in the Pacific Ocean midway between San Francisco and Honolul u.  The following singular provision appears in the will of the .late Thomas Bevan, of Stone Park, Greenhithe, Kent, who died on March 18t, 1907, aged 73: "I desire and explicitly order and direct that at my death whether in England or elsewhere. my body shall be cremated, and that the ash residue--the product of such cremation—be ground to powder, and again (if necessary with the addition of any chemical) be burned and dissipated in the air." Mr Hermon Vnger, of Boston, Massachusetts, who committed suicide, left instructions that his body should be cremated, and that his ashes should be mixed with cement and then pressed into a solid brick, which was then to be buried.  Thos. Callow, 35, Twigel-avenue, Blaydon-onTyne.
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1907-10-05 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE WANDERING WAYS OF WILD LIFE.  The fable of the country mouse and the town mouse has a foundation in fact. Mice occasionally migrate in large numbers when food grows scarce, and travel considerable distances to fresh houses. Farmers in a Part of Perthshire had -a good reason to become aware of this fact when a couple ot years ago vast swarms of mice invaded their cornfields at•ha.rvest time. But the mouse only travels when it has to. The rat on the contrary, seems to take a yearly outing in very much the same fashion as do human beings. Rats are the most migratory creatures in .the world. Whole troops of rats leave the towns at the end of summer, and spend a month or two in the country, apparently in ordei to enjoy the change of food which the country affords at that time of year in the way of fresh fruit and grain. Before the cold weather sets in they are all back in their old quarters. Reindeer migrate with the same regularity as Swallows. They move south when winter sets in, but as soon as ever the snow begins to melt they travel steadily north, sometimes for as much as a thousand miles. A race from death. To end a holiday by deliberate ' suicide is so strange a phenomenon that for a long time naturalists looked upon the storks of the migration of the Lemmings as an improbable fiction; yet the facts are beyond dispute. At irregn lar intervals these rat like creatures start out from their homes in the fastnesses of Northern Scandinavia in huge droves, numbering tens of thousands, and travel steadily southwards. Death pursues them in a hundred forms. Hawks and other birds of prey hover above them, Foxes, Wolves, and man decimate them. Thousands are drowned in rivers, yet the rest struggle on until they reach the sea. They do not stop; they plunge in, swim out, and struggle on, until at last their strength fails and they drown. Not one ever returns from this journey of death. This extraordinary migration of the Lemmings has long been a puzzle to naturalists. One curious explanation that has been offered is that the little beasts, stimulated by inherited in,stinct, arc striving to reach long-lost winter quarters in the lost continent of Atlantic which now lies Ideep buried beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.---J. Littlefield, 28, Cockburn-street, Lingdale, B 3:J*l:feel:. Y elks.
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1907-01-26 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

ZARY 26, 17.  He laughed dryly. "You forget that in your hurry to see me von came in with your small impedimenta, a rug, kc Among the papers I noticed a letter with a blaek. bordered envelope. It is from Hitehenswell, and addressed to you at Bristol. Of course, it is froze Captain Fulton. As td suicide, if the verdict had been otherwise it would not have been so easy to keep it out of the papers." " I had forgotten the letter," I said. "It came as .I was leaving. It contains nothing of any moment. I wrote him yesterday that I was leaving Bristol, and gave him this addre9S " "That was wise. Now for your news." I told him as minutely as I could all the events which I have set out in these pages. He lay back in his chair with his eyes closed and his hands clutching at the chair arms. Now and then be asked a short. pertinent question, but for the most part he was silent, listening intently. At the close of my narrative he remained for some moments wit ho u t uttering a word. " You did right, Erndale," he said. "Tell Fulton as little as possible. He is an impulsive man, and indiscreet."  What do you think of it?" I inquired. "I think it will prove one of the most intereeting. mysteries I have yet met," he said, slowly. "1 wrth to goodness I was well." There was a knock at the door, and a maid entered with a letter for me. I glanced at it casually, and then jumped to my feet. It is from Roper Fulton !" I exclaimed. _ .  " Read it aloud,- directed Partens. I did. It was exceedingly brief, but the news it contained was startling. " Dear Cheniston,- it ran, "I have just learned that Dr. Jorrocks has left England, having thrown up partnership with Dr. Charles. Come down i.L,s soon as you can.---Yours, " RoPhal
Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1907-12-07 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

FAT MEN.  During the war between King and Parliament, in the reign of Charle.s 1., a young Puritan soldier was stationed with his regiment at Leicester at the time of its memorable siege. Sentinel duty was extremely dangerous, and recourse was had to drawing by lot the names of the relieving guard. One night the young soldier's name was drawn. He was a mere lad of seventeen years; danger was nothing to him, and in a moment more he would have gone on duty; but a young friend, tired of inactivity in the camp, begged to go in his place, and he was allowed to do so. That night the substitute was shot. The youthful soldier whose pawls he took lived to become the author of The Pilgrim's Progreee," the world-famous John Bunyan. A little over a hundred years ago three officers were struggling with the turning tide, and nearly drowning, off the coast of St. Helena. One of them was particularly helpless; yet he was saved along with the others, and afterwards became that renowned warrior, Arthur, Duke of Wellington. in the year 1744 a young fellow landed from an English vessel at Bombay. Ile had a mean, poorly-raid position in the great East India Company's service. Disgusted with his prespects, and hopeless, heart-sick, and angry at "fate," he walked out of tbe city, and put a pistol to his head. Snap! the weapon missed fire. Returning to his room be repeated the experiment, but again the pistol tailed to go off; and the disheartened man, feeling that even death was against him, leid the weapon upon the table. Presently a friend. came In, took up the pistol, pointed it out of the window, and with a loud report it went off! would-be suicide afterwards lived to betorne Lard Olive, the conqueror of all India. Centuries ago two friends were walking along a higlevay in Germany chatting together. A black cloud rolled up, and a terrific storm of thunder and lightning was quickly upon them. They were instantly drenched, for there was no ahelter. Suddenly a bolt shot out of the cloud, and struck one of the men dead on the spot. The other was Martin Luther,the great Reformer, and the .most conspicuous character of his time. Ia 1599 a monkey stole into a gentleman's house in Huntingdon, snatched a baby out of the cradle, and carried it to the top of the roof. Every moment the alarmed spectators expected to see the child teased to the ground. Attempts at rescue only served to excite and infuriate the animal. At last, by an impulsive freak of kind• on the part of the monkey, the baby, the future Oliver Cromwell, was returned, unhurt, to the cradle.—T. Matson, 28, Coverdale-street, Brotten.  Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, for Coughs and flialtim never tail& la lid, 211 941.—