Year: 1874

garments and valuables, and chanting
the celebrated Shakesperian chant.





The Terrible Cincinnati Tragedy.


The telegraph has briefly mentioned
terrible tragedy in Cincinnati but
special of Sept. 80, gives the following
details:


One of the most appalling chapters in
crime was written in the blood of lit.
tie child and its mother. by the mothers
hand, this morning. The parents of
the murdered child are intelligent, well.
to-do young married people, living in
afHuence and, hitherto, without any
thing to give suspicion Of the existence
of causes to produce the terrible result.
The horrid fact is that this morning Mrs.
Chas. L. Perkins cut the throat Of her
daughter, less than three years Of age,
and then cut her own throat, and. TAX
ing her child ia her arms, laid down to
die together. The child died, but the
unhappy mother yet survives to mourn
that she was not successful in taking
her own life. The testimony before
the coroner $ inquest showed that the
parties were married four years ago.
Clara Perkins, the little child, was born
three years ago last December. The
husband had trouble last night, the ex-
act nature of which is not known. Mrs.
Perkins. who. lying on her bed, de!iv-
cred her testimony with great clear
Hn <on hat
the cause Of their trouble was; her
husband might if he wanted to; but
she said she never would. They had
trouble all last night, and about four
o'clock this morning she attempted
the life Of her child with a razor.
but her husband interfered and pre-
vented it. At o'clock her husband
went away to his business. Immedi-
ately she determined to carry out her
design. She sent away the servant
girl, closed the doors and windows of
her room, turned on the gas, and, find.
ing no instrument with which to take her
life and that of her child, she took the
glass case covering French clock on
the mantle, dashed it on the hearth,
and took one Of the broken pieces, about
two by three inches in size, and with
this instrument proceeded to cut the
throat Of her child and her own.
She says: II had dressed the
baby, but not myself. l took her
into the corner of the room, kneeled
down, and threw my left arm around
her head. She cried out, Mamma! !!
mamma! don't kill me- She seemed
to know what intended to do. drew
the glass across her throat until blood
came in torrents. She said, 'Mamma :!
mammal and that was the last.
then cut my own throat, took the child
in my arms, and layed down to die to-
gether. In about two hours I found
myself getting cold and weak,
and / took the baby and
lay down with her on
the bed. thought was going to die.
/ lay there until was faint When
asked about the cause she said: II
tried to kill myself because I was un-
happy. killed my child because I
could not leave her.


The child is beautiful blonde, and
was neatly dressed in white clothing.
The blood had entirely saturated the
front part Of the child's clothing.


The husband who is member of a
leading firm in the manufactury of sad
dlcry, suspected something wrong, and
went back to the house about IL o'clock
and found the door locked; he went
again at half-past one, and, with the as
sistance Of friend, broke open the.
house and found the child dead and
cold, and his wife wcltering in blood,
but still sensible.


The doctor says she will survive.
She regrets that she did not die. and
says she will kill herself yet.


The husbands testimony is not clear
as to last night. He says he accused
his wife, but will not say Of what. He
says also there were parties in the
house last night, bnt declines to say
who they were. The inference remains
that the trouble arose from The pres
ence Of improper parties in the house.
Whoever they were, they left early in
the morning.


The case is almost without parallel,
and public interest will naturally be
deeply concerned to know what weight
of woe could drive a mother to take
the life Of her own child and then kill
herself.