AN ARMIDALE AMOUR:

NZ Truth, Issue 67, 29 September 1906, Page 7

AN ARMIDALE AMOUR:

fa CATASTROPHIC \ CONCLUSION. flay Prater's Pitiful Plight THE TRIMMING OF ARTHUR TRIM, I Barmaid Quaffs the Strychnine Cup. (From Sydney "Truth.") .

the public of Armidale have been greatly shocked by the sad suicide of a young barmaid m that town, named May Prater. She was very popular be-, cause of her bright, cheerful, amiable disposition, and because of her industry and attentiveness. Her treatment by a barman named Arthur Trim, who was employed at another hotel, is generally regarded as the occasion of her suicide, and, from his own admission at the inquest, his conduct was certainly not above reproach. He had vbeen keeping company with her. for about eight months, and had been on such terms of close intimacy with her that the girl bold him that she was enceinte by him. He then asked her whether she had kept company "WITH TWO MARRIED MEN, and this question, to which the girl indignantly replied, "I'm surprised at you believing it," seems to have so greatly upBet the poor girl that she said, "For two pins, I'd take poison." She did . take poison, and the poisonous dose proved fataL At the funeral the great popularity of the girl was shown by the fact that there wiere over forty vehicles .m the funeral cortege. Why no marriage took place between the barman, Arthur Trim, and the barmaid, May Prater, is not clear. Trim says that she never asked him to marry bar, bat what had he been keeping company with the girl for if the understood object was not marriage? He admits, too, that he had been intimate with her; and, as he did not assert that one of the two married men referred to was the father of her child, why did lie not marry the girl who informed him that he was the FATHER OF THE CHILD that she would have brought into the world? This 'man Trim had kept company with the young woman for eight months, end had been so intimate with her that she told him < that he had made her encur, te; he does not- appear to have produced any proof, or to have had good grounds for believing, thai she was illicitly intimate with any other man; yet he did not marry the girl. That there was nothing m his suspicions is shown by his testimony that, when he spoke about Ihe married men, and she expressed! her surprise at his believing such, a thing, he merely said, "I only asked you if you did," and he parted with her on terms of "good friendship," co he says; .but this is the letter that the girl left behind her when ehe, shortly afterwards, destroyed her life. We publish it m the form m which it appears m one of the Armidale papers, m which form the names mentioned m the letter are omitted: — Farewell, dear mother,, and all! — - — has broken my heart and ruined my life, and' came down to-night, and the words he spoke ran me to this. ; , forgive me for speaking the truth, as those cruel words about married men, thai, you say you heard, would turn any girl to take poison. t . ' Your broken-hearted MAT. Good-bye, dear mother, and all! ! The girl certainly seems to have been FOND OF THE MAN Trim, for on her. death bed, when suffering acute agonies from the effects of the strychnine that she had taken, she is said to have repeatedly asked for him. He appears to have been present at her . death; for when Senior-Sergeant Rank entered the room containing her dead body, he found Trim sitting on the bed.' Under tho head of the dead woman he found taJe fetter, that we have published. The most interesting evidence at the inquest was that of Arthur Trim, which we here append:— Arthur Trim, barman at the Central Hotel, deposed that he knew the deceased, Maria Prater, and last saw ' her alive at fcbout 10 minutes past 8 on Sunday night. He HAD BEEN KEEPING COMPANY with deceased. She seemed "down m the dumps" on Sunday night when he went to see her, and talked of taking poison. He told her not to be silly, and that he would see her next day. Oa Wednesday week she told him of her trouble. He understood her to mean that she was IN A CERTAIN CONDITION, but' she did not mention anybody's name. He had been on terms of intimacy with deceased, and understood that she referred to him as being responsible for her condition. She did not ask him on Sunday nighi to marry her. He had never PROMISED TO MARRJ fleceased at any time. On Sunday night deceased said, "for two pins I'd take poison." Tb^re was a conversation about married men. He asked her if it was tree that she had kept company with two married men, and she replied, "Em. surprised at you baKeving it." Witness said, "I only asked you if you did." He stayed there for a while, and told her that he wotSd see her on the following afternoon. Deceased 'made no mention of her condition on that night. THE? PARTED GOOD FRIENDS. He had no words with deceased about taking another girl to the play last week. When deceased spoke of taking poison, he did not think she meant it. He bad kept company with deceased for about eight months'. The Coroner found that deceased came to her death at TatteisaU's Hotel on September 2, and that the cause of death was strychnine, self -administered.

""Why do you say sfae is passee ?" "B«cause she can't adopt any new wrinkles." ..• • * * ,-• f'l wonder why Judasberger is m love With such a fat girl ?" "He always tried ,to_get as much money as goissiWe/'