An Edinburgh Tragedy.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 7, 9 January 1886, Page 6

An Edinburgh Tragedy.

THEfeelingßof the inhabitants of Edinburgh have been shocked by a cad occurrence which came to light on the 23rd September. A young man who was walking along Kadical Road, in the Queen's Park, on the morning of that day, came upon the dead body of a young woman, lying in a position which indicated that she had fallen over a precipitous portion of Salisbury Crags, about 40ft high at the spot in qusstion, opposite the High School cricket-ground. Inquiries which wero at once set on foot led to the immediate identification of the body as that of a girl named Margaret Cunningham residing in Fountainbridge, and only 19 years of age. As she was known to havo been in company the previous evening with her sweetheart, a young man named Cooper, employed as a porter at the University Club, ha was at once arrested. After he had been examined by the authorities, howevor, he was released; but four other men have since been arrested on suspicion of having been concerned in the affair, and they are now in custody. One of them, it is averred, has been accepted as Queen's evidence The investigations set on foot have brought to light the existence of a disgraceful state of matters in regard to the Queen's Park. That resort is not under municipal control, and at night it has hitherto been both un lighted and unwatched, the results of this being very disastrous from a moral point of view. Among other things tho lack of supervision has led to tho park being haunted at night by bands of low ruffians, who have levied black-mail off young persons whom thoy found theie in lonely spots after dark. Their mode of procedure appears to have been to threaten to charge their victims with having been guilty of improper conduct, and to demand money as the price of silence. They then made the couple separate, and thereafter took gross advantage af the young woman. According to the published version of Cooper's story, something like thia took place in the present instance. The couple were in the Hunters Bog when a gang of men thus intimidated and separated them, and it is commonly supposed that the girl Cunningham was endeavouring to effect her escape from them when she fell over the browof the Crags; However this maybe, the revelations made regarding the state of the park at night have led to the Government taking steps to have it brought under the surveillance of the city police, and it is to be hoped this will lead to an improvement in the state of matters, though from the extent and physical characteristics of the park it is impossible to watch it as thoroughly as is desirable, The sensation caused in tbe city by the occurrence was very great, and at the girl's funeral the street near her parents' house was blocked by crowds who had assembled. On the following Sunday, morever, the spot where her body was found was visited by thousands of persons afflicted by morbid curiosity. The trial of the men who are now in prison on suspicion of having been concerned in the affair will be followed with a more thai) usual degree of interest.