The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1868-01-31 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

POVERTY AND SUI4IDE. On Saturday afternoon, an inquiry was held at the Crown Tavern, High-street, Shadwell, by Mr. John Humphreys, coroner, relative to the suicide, through poverty, of Mary Yems, aged 30 years. Charles Yems, 6, Plough-alley, Wapping, a gaunt and poverty-stricken man, deposed that he was a general dealer, and that the deceased was his wife. He last saw her on Monday, at noon. He had gone to market at eight o'clock in the morning, and he had stayed there till twelve o'clock In the morning, but he had so little money—is. 51d.—and things were so dear that he could not find anything cheap enough to buy. He came home, and when his wife saw be had nothing, she said, "You have bought nothing ?" lie said, "My money would not allow sue." She cried, "Oh ! what will become of us ?" and went away, and he never saw her again.. He was sure she had drowned herself through poverty. They had gone through great distress. They had four children, and for the last six months he could not make more than G. a week. Out of the Oa. they had to pay 81. a week rent, and Is. 3d. for the hire of a barrow. They could not have lived only that two ladies were very good to them. A juror said that he knew the man Yems, and all he said was quite true. The family was very hardworking and well-conducted. Mary Yems, a little girl of great intelligence, said that her mother returned to the house at half-past ten o'clock on Monday night, and made the bed and suckled the baby. She asked whether the rent and the barrow- man were paid. She then said she would go and get some fancy shirts and would sit up all night to make them. She went out and never came back. She used to work at making slop shirts for a Id. a shirt. For the better sort of shirts she used to get 11d. and lid., and even 2d. She had to find her own needles and thread. She could make about three or four shirts in a day. Richard Howell proved that he found the body of the deceased in the Thames near the entrance to the London Docks on Tuesday morning. She was dressed in clothes that denoted great destitution. The coroner, in summing up, remarked that the story as told by the witnesses was one of the saddest of the many sad ones lie had to bear from time to time. The life of the poor woman, as she tried to eke out her husband's scanty earnings by making shirts at a penny a piece, finding her own needles and thread, was such as well might upset her reason, and cause her in a moment of despair to throw herself into the river. Ile was Wormed tha t the testimony of the juror as to the good ailracter and Industry us the lannly was borne out by that of the district visitor. The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide while in a state of unsound mind through distress." The man Yems was recalled, and asked what he had had to eat that day. He replied, "We have not had a bit to eat to-day (it was then half-past two o'clock). If you go to my place you will find that we had nothing all day." The little girl was recalled, and asked the same question. She said that she had now been taken by a lady as her servant, and she had enough to eat, but her sisters had only a bit of dry bread and her father had nothing. The coroner and the jury made up a small subscription for the family.  • BA.