VAIN VIGIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

VAIN VIGIL.

! MOTHER ACCUSED. INFANTICIDE CITALOE. How a husband awoke to find his two children dead and his wife lying injured with a throat wound was described at Chichester when the wife appeared in the dock. Brought from hospital. Ivy May Goldsmith, 31, of Streams Cottage. Tfurston, Sussex, was accused of the murder of her two children, June Patricia, 7, and Priseilla Una, 5. Mr. F. Donal Barry, prosecuting, said that for some time prior to the day of the tragedy the woman had been suffering from depression, which caused her and her husband considerable distress. The husband had stayed awake at nights to look after her. The depression bwamp bo acute that a doctor who was called in told the husband not to leave her alone until the next mprning, when other arrangements could bo made for her welfare. The husband tried to keep awake all night, but went to sleep and awoke to find-his wife in the backyard. "I Want to Drown Myself."

He persuaded her to go hark to bed, but she said, "Leave me alone. I wayt to drown myself." Thev went back to bed, but she pot out, again. When he awoke slio said, "Let me alone. They are going to burn me and the children, and people will laugh at me."

The husband got her back to bed again, continued Mr. Barry, and for (he third time, unfortunately, he fell aeleep and found her missing.

In the children's bedroom lie found bis wife lying on the floor with a wound in her throat. The children were lying on the bed apparently dead, and death was later certified to be due to asphyxia.

The mother's injuries were not very serious, being caused by an ordinary table-knife.

Patrick George Goldsmith, a bricklayer, stated his wife was an excellent mother, and a devoted wife. He had eat up with her for four or five nights, but found it impossible to keep awake that night.

Dr. J. E. F. Andre, of Sidlesham. stated that when he was attending Mrs. Goldsmith on July 17 she said to him. "I am a most exceedingly wicked woman. I am not fit to live, and I am going to kill myself." She was suffering from acute mental distress, and he gave the husband instructions that she must not be left.

Dr. A. M. Barford, the police surgeon, declared that marks on the two children were consistent with strangulation by means of a silk stocking.

Mrs. Goldsmith was committed for trial at Sussex Assizes, a plea of not guilty being entered on her behalf.

Sleeping coaches on a new train running between San Francisco and Chicago are built in two storeys. On the "top lloor" are seven bedrooms and beneath then: an additional nine. The upstairs rooms, which have their own windows, are reached by steps. The - bed/ run cw—■ud. &orm "~5" vhgriiflm