The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1883-10-23 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

THE HERALD.  ESTABLISHED JANUARY 10TH. 1863.  BARROW-IN-FURNESS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23rd, 1883.  Tins Ulverston Sanitary Authority may very likely be perfectly unconscious that they are responsible in some degrce for the occurrence of a sad case of suicide ; but it may for all that be distinctly asserted and shown that by a recent action of theirs they contributed to an individual deciding that they only courte left him was to take away his own life. It is only a month ago th at the Authority read over the testimonials of nine applicants for the post of, medical officer to their District. Amongst these was an excellent testimonial in favour of one Mahomet Ismail Khan, M.R.C.S. and M.g.C.P., aged 27, a Hindoo surgeon who was seeking to obtain an English practice. As our readers wellknow—at least the Ulverston part of them— the appointment was by a large majority given to Dr. A. Thompson, of Ulverston, while M. Ismail Khan, along with several oth ere, did not receive a single vote. Consequent upon this decision all the unsuccessful applicants had their testimonials returned within 14 days after, with the official notification from Mr. S. Sykes, the clerk to the authority, that the choice had fallen upon another than themselves. A few days after he would have received the notification of his failure to obtain the post Mahomet Ismail Khan decided that there was nothing left worth living for—it is barely possible that he might have to come the same cmclusion after a short experience of official life under the Authority if he had received the appointment—that is on 'y a doubt which can never be resolved—certain it is however that on Monday week he methodically prepared for his own execution. He wrote two letters stating his intention ; one of them to the Coroner was a long one stating that he had been convinced since he was 13, that he had a right to take away his life, that he had tried to do so at the age of 21, but was prevented by the sagacity of a noble lady, but this time he intented to make sure, He had spent his small fortune of £1,500 and could not ask his mother for money that she herself might need, so he would take a light supper on Wednesday night "so as not to interfere with the post rnortem." He slept well the night before he " effaced " himself but says he "cot better than I shall to-night." He would have three bottles of prussic acid, one of which would be more than enough for the purpose, but he would take all these to make sure. He left his body to the University Hospital for dissection and his skeleton to the Museum for preservation. And so at aree o'clock in the morning of Wednesday last he laid himself down upon his bed, in his lodgings, quietly and alone, carried out his design and was found next morning properly prepared for the inquest. Apart from the slight thread of connection with this neighbourhood the case is not without its features of interest to thefieneral public.  IF is certain that Liverpool has attained an unenviable notoriely during the past fortnight for having had committed within its borders some appalling crimes—one of which, at least, is unique in this country for its beastly ferocity and its horribly atrocious nature Liverpool has had the questionable pre-eminence of being looked upon as "the black spot on the Mersey" for the amount of its drunkenness, and not unfrequently has it contributed to the annals of crime some of the darkest pages on record ; but never before had it the degradation cast upon it of having produced a novelty in murder of so frightful a character that its details may not be published lest shuddering humanity should sicken with loathing at the terrible revelation. Philanthropists, religious and secular; are brought face to face with the fact that there is a section of the population of our large cities who  ire from the cradle to the grave with their brutal instincts developing stronger every year of their lives ; whose tendency is to hide away 'in the dark plac.s of the earth" where their actions and their habits can flourish in all their vileness without the active interference of any good and merciful leaven that would humanise them and make them feel their possibilities of a life better worth living. That a young girl of eighteen could live in England amongst a class of people wherein one lived and moved—who could conceive the plan of mutilating her with a knife, next beating her features out of recognition, and finally drop her into the ooze and mud of a canal, and then hope to step quietly home to a wife and children with the expectation of living undiscovered thereafter— is almost incredible. How can such a strata of society be reached so as to bring them within the cultivation of nobler instincts Not by the ordinary machinery of education, for this is the very class who keep their young from the reach of education; who think it a virtue to evade the attendance officer; or, if that is not possible, will sullenly and passively submit to have summonses and fines with a feeling of revengefulness against the law that will breed lawlessoess and brutality of an obstinate, pertinacious description. This density of ignorance and secret crime cannot be got at except by the selfsacrificing few who are to be found spending their lives in the back slums and courts of our cities, bent only on the effort to mitigate—not daring to hope to eradicate—the hidden mass of brutishness and misery that loves darkness rather than light. A contemporary very aptly points out that it is a disgrace to our civilisation, such localities ofstreets and dwellings should be allowed to exists, and that the first step to the improvement of this population should be to provide new habitations of a healthier sort, and then sweep away the miserable tenements in which so much squalor and gnorance is bred and fostered.