The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1908-04-25 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

ATTEMPTRP' SUICIDE. • . , STRANOS STORY OF A WOMAN'S RASH ACT  There was a good deal of mystery about the evidence given at the Borough Police Court ou Thursday, in a ca.* in which a stout, middle-Uged woman, named Alice Lewis, of 15. Cleveland-avenue, was charged with attemptiug to commit suicide by swallowing a quantity of salts of lemon on the 13th -inst.  The first witue,-. called wa,; Ellen Lewis. aged 17. a daughter of .the accused. who said that on Monday evening, April 13th, her father and mother were la. the kitchen talking about going to the Queen's Han, and witness went out,'lnaving thew there. The witneas tiaid she. did not know anything more about the matter.  The husband of the accused, a labouring man, said that on the evening in question his wife asked him to take her to the Queen's Hall (to an entertainment), lie said it was a hit too late then, but they would go the neat night, and the children as well. She did not raise any objection when he said that. They were both sitting in the kitchen, lie did not know where I the prisoner got the salts of lemon from. lie heard her go down into the cellar, but he did not see her take anything with her, and he did not take any particular notice of her going, because there wias a tap In the cellar where she sometimes did some work.  —iiiiestioned by the Magistrates' Clerk (Mr. Copeland), the witness. said his suspicion was not aroused at all, even though the prisoner did not 6011.te back in a quarter of an hour. He did not see anything of the poison. The first he knew was that the prisoner had sent the little girl for a policeman, and the policeman was there before he (witness) knew anything was the matter. The Clerk: Had you had any quarrel with her i!  Witness: Not at all. He added that he had seen prisoner in the hospital, and she told him she really did not know why she took the poison. He thought she Was quite cane, but she had been a little depressed 'because her daughter (Ellen) had twice left home. The girl once went off to witness's parents at Bromborough, and once to friends at Manchester. Prisoner was quite sober at the time she took the poison. P.C. Broster deposed to being called to Ithe house about 8.40 p.m. by the first wit,' ness, and to finding the prisoner lying in the cellar. He at once gave her an emetic, and then telephoned for the ambulance. He could hear the woman groaning as he went down into the cellar, and the husband was then sitting in the kitchen. The prisoner was nearly unconscious. Gladys Agnes Lewis, aged 10, daughter of the prisoner, was called, and the Clerk elicited from her that on the afternoon of the 13th inst. her mother sent her to buy some salts of lemon, and put it in a drawer in the kitchen. After witness's father had refused to take her mother to the Queen's Hall, she (prisoner) told her to get the packet out of the drawer, and she did so, and prisoner emptied it into a basin and poured hot water over it from the kettle, and she then drank it. The Clerk (with surprise): Drank it in the kitchen? Witness: Yes. The Clerk: And your father was in the kitchen at the time? Witness: He was reading a paper. The 'child further said, in answer to questions, that her father was quite sober. She did not say anything to her father after her mother had gone down into the cellar, but ran out for her sister. Nellie (Ellen). Be. fore primmer went down into the cellar (the witness added, in answer to further questions: she told Nellie "to go for a Bobby," and her father then said, "Oh, she's only saying that.'" She was sure her father said that.  Louisa Annie Walthew, a married daughter of the prisoner, deposed that she lived at her parents house, but went out to work. The last time she -saw her mother on the 13th. she was quite sober. In the evening her sister Nellie came to her and told her her mother had taken poison, and she ran to the house, telling her siker to go for a policeman. Iler mother was nearly unconscious when she got to the house and saw her.  Dr. Daniel Johnstone. of the Borough Hospital, deposed that the prisoner wa. brought in at 9.20 p.m. on the nth inst. suffering from shock' and was vomiting.. and she was treated for salts of. Imps' poisoning. She was also considerably nadAr the influence of drink, he thought. There was a strong smell of drink, and the washing out of the stomach showed that the woman had taken a considerable quantity of beer. Prisoner recovered consciousness in about two hours, and afterwards she made different statements as to why she had taken the poison—one was that her daughter had been troubling her, and another that there had been a quarrel with her husband because his tea was not ready. She had shown no signs of insanity. The prisoner now said she was very sorry for what she did. She could not tell what came over her to make her do it. She denied that she gent for the salts of lemon with any idea of taking it. She wanted it to clean a white straw hat. There was really no quarrel because her husband's tea was not ready. She sent for some beer for him as the tea was not ready, and she had a g!tisp_f it herself. _  The Benh (Mr. J. and Mr. J. Bridges) put the prisoner back until the end of the court sitting, to consider what they should do with her. The Chairman then told her that she had done a very serious thing, and they had been in doubt whether they ought not to send her for trial at the Quarter Sessions. IL however, she would promise never to make any such attempt again they would discharge her.  --tile prisoner trove this promise and was released.