BRIDAL TRAGEDIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 249, 17 October 1908, Page 15

BRIDAL TRAGEDIES.

COWBOY SHOT AND ENGAGED GIRL POISONED. l|,wo tragedies, all the more pitiful because of the fact thut each of the victims was about to be married, occurred recently, one at New Brighton, near Liverpool, the other in London. In the New Brighton case, which occurred on Wednesday, September 2, the circumstances were very remarkable. For some months a gooe-iooSmg, stalwart young cowTjoy ol uumeu George Price, hailing from Oklahama, has been performing in Colonel Cummins , Wild West Show at New Brighton. He was a bright merry fellow, a staunch teetotaler, a great favourite with his comrades, and the very last person to be suspected of entertaining any morbid ideas. Six weeks ago he became acquainted with Margaret Reilly, an attractive waitress at a restaurant near by, and their friendship developed into love. He became engaged and taade all arrangements for marrying her on Thursday, completing the final de- i tails by buying the ring on Wednesday | morning, and visiting, with his prospective bride, a registrar's office in Liverpool. After a loving adieu to his sweetheart, Price returned to the Wild West Show, and on Wednesday evening commenced his usua duties of preparing the weapons for use during the performance. While thus engaged, and in the absence of tne other cow boys, he tied a gun between two posts, fixed a wire to operate the trigger, and, placing the muzzle in his mouth, blew his brains out. A pathetic incident is that after the discovery of the body, and just as it was being carried away on a stretcher, Miss Reilly came to the show to see her lover. When she heard what had taken place she collapsed, and now lies seriously ill. During their brief courtship the two had been perfectly happy, and there is nothing to account for Price's rash action. SEPTIC POISONING. The r-iory of tne otner tragedy was told at an inquest on Thursday, September 3, at Wood Green on Comfort Webb, thirtysix, who was for two years barmaid at the SoHthhampton Hotel, Surbiton. Eleven weeks ago, according to the cvi dence or Mrs. Lane, of Buckingham-road, Wood Green, with whom she had been lodging, Miss Webb left the Southampton Hotel to get married. Tire ceremony was to have been on August 1, but the bridegroom, Sidney Elphlnstone OlHffe, of Kedcot, Ditton-road, Surbiton, editor of a Japanese paper, postponed it on account of a law case. The deceased, said Mrs. Lane, wrote or wired to him almost every day, bnt 3he never saw him again, though she went to his office in Byworth-street, and to his house at Surbiton, where she had stayed on one occasion for two days. She seemed worried, and was hard up, but was otherwise quite well until Tuesday morning, when she suddenly became ill, and died a few hours later, medical evidence showing that she died from septic poisoning. The coroner said there was no satisfactory evidence of what caused the poisoning which resulted in death. It was remarked that the deceased was absent from her home for seven hours on Monday week, and he should adjourn the inquest for further inquiries.