Suicide

Hastings Standard, Volume IX, Issue 5150, 17 March 1906, Page 3

Suicide

(Per Press Association). Duncdin, March 10 At the inquest liclil on Joseph Ernest Sargent, the evidence of Dr. Fulton, who saw the deceased several months ago, was to the effect that the man was in a state of nervous prostration, and worried over trifles, and was in a state bordering on insanity. Witness told him he should ask for three months' leave and go for complete rest and change As the man had not done so, witness was not in the least surprised at what had happened. - The deceased's wife and her father deposed that Sargent was overworked. He worked from '.' a.m. till about midnight, and sometimes on Sundays. He had told his wife he had made mistakes, and that he would end in gaol or in a lunatic asylum. J. C. Thomson, managing director of Thomson, Bridger and Co., said that, with the exception of two or three days at the beginning of the month, the. staff wer enever back after hours, which were from '.) to 5.30. He was not aware that tiie deceased went back. Witness went back occasionally, but it was very seldom that he ever saw the deceased there. He was a most accurate worker, and his work was always up to date. There was nothing in his appearance to suggest that there was anything wrong with him. In saving he had made mistakes, he was suffering from a hallucination. Had he asked for a holiday, lie would have got it at once. If witness had any idea that the deceased went back on Saturdays and Hundays, he would have stopped it at once. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity.