SUICIDE THROUGH GRIEF.

Evening Post, Volume XIX, Issue 14, 17 January 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUICIDE THROUGH GRIEF.

On the 17th November Mr. Colley, deputy-coroner, held an inquest at the Apple Tree Hotel, Maiden, on the body of Miss Ellenor Bright, aged nineteen, daughter of a West India merchant, 'who committed suicide by poisoning herself. Mr. Charles St. Clement Bright said that the deceased was hiß daughter, and resided with him at Princess Lodge, Maiden. She had appeared very depressed for some weeks past, and arrangements were being made to send her to Paris for a change. She lost her mother in September last year, and this appeared to affect her considerably ; in fact, she had seemed a different girl altogether. On the 16th November he was called to her bedroom and found her dead. Elizabeth Bright, Bister of the deceased, said that* during the night deceased got out bed and drank something ; she then kissed witness and said she would not be alive long. She called her father, but when he arrived she appeared to be dead. A letter which wai found on the table in the deceased's bedroom was handed in and read as follows: — 16th Nov., 1879.— My dear Father and Friends, I regret to say that I have caused my own death. I feel poor mother's death to the extreme ; lam going to meet her above if God will forgive me for this wicked act Let Elizabeth have all my cloths and jewels, and may God spare her so that she may wear them. Good-bye all; good-bye. — H'llbn Bright." Medical evidence was given showing that the deceased had died from the effects of prussic acid. She had taken enough to kill three people. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity.

One day recently a funeral took place on the unconsecrated side of the Guildford cemetery, Surrey, England. The minister who had promised to officiate did not put in an appearance, and the mourners sat for a long time in the cold chapel, looking at each other in mute expectancy. At last one of the mourners recollected that he had a Bible in his pocket This he produced, and ascending th« desk, read one or two appropriate chapters. The coffin was then carried to the grave, and lowered into its resting-place without further ceremony.