HOPELESS LOVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

HOPELESS LOVE.

MILKMAN'S FATAL FANCY. "There's nowt so queer as folk," was the Yorkshire adage quoted by the coroner at an inquest at Hessle. near Hull, on Ernest Bowers (23), milk salesman, who took his life following his infatuation for a married woman. Emily Gertrude Vincent (41), Aigburth Avenue, St. George's Road, Hull, said she was the wife of an ex-naval man, now a dock labourer. Bowers was a very distant relative, and during the last four yfears he had visited them regularly. He called nearly every Sunday until, for some reason not known to her, he discontinued his visits. The Coroner (Mr. T. Roltby): Did the poor chap think ha was in love with you? —I cannot say. He never showed it. Had he kissed you?— Very, very rarely. Perhaps at Christmas, if we had a party. The Coroner: Then all this 6tuff (referring to a pile of letters) must have been written by a demented man?— Yes, it must have been. Mrs. Vincent said that Bowers got very depressed, and when she told him it would be better if he did not visit them, he had

uncontrollable fits of crying. There was nothing improper in their relations. She last saw Bowers at a club on a Sunday night. The Coroner: lam not suggesting that you gave him any cause to, but is it not a fact that this boy has fallen in love witl. you and that you told him to go elsewhere?—l told him for his own sake to go elsewhere. Mrs. \ incent agreed with the coroner that Bowers must have fallen in love with her. She said there was no reason why he should do so. Mrs. Vincent said her husband was always willing for Bowers to visit the house, time I told this boy not to come, she said, "he has cried and cried and threatened to commit suicide." She told him she did not want him, and that if people saw them out together they would think he was taking his mother out. The Coroner: And so you quarrelled because you wished to cut him off?— Yes. The Coroner: That is to your credit. Asked about some of the letters produced, witness said she wrote them to pacify Bowers. The coroner, in returning a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind, said, "I suppose this is one of those unfortunate cases that happen from time to time, human nature being what it is."