GIRL'S STRANGE CONDUCT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

GIRL'S STRANGE CONDUCT.

STRUGGLE IN BEDROOM. Extraordinary conduct on the part of a girl was described at North London recently, when Beatrice Taylor, dressed in the uniform ot a nurse, was charged with attempting to commit suicide. A constable said that he was called to the house in Newick Road, and found the girl in the bathroom in a hysterical condition. She admitted that she had taken poison, and he administered first aid. She told him that she had taken the poison because her mistress had accused her of disgracing herself. A doctor was called and although he recommended that the girl should be taken to the infirmary, he was of opinion that she had not taken sufficient of the poison to do her serious harm. Mia. Edith Schollotter said Taylor had been in her employment for about four months, and until a few weeks ago she had given every satisfaction. Then a young I man of eighteen came upon the scene and came to the house in Mrs- Schollotter's absence and against her wish. She had seen letters written by the young -man, and she objected to their character. Referring to the events leading up to the charge. Mrs. Schollotter said that her baby had been ill for the last few months, suffering from a mysterious poisoning. She was in the act of making some food for the infant, whom she was carrying, when she saw Taylor rushing towards her looking for all the world like a maniac with the bottle of poison in one hand and a knife in the other. Mrs. Schollotter dropped the baby and went towards Taylor, who turned and fled to her own room. Mrs. Schollotter sent for a girl friend of Taylor, and together they went to the room. There Taylor, after biting at them and clutching at their throats, made an attempt to jump out of the window, and when prevented from doing that, she made an attempt to kill her girl friend with a tumbler. " Oh, I didn't do anything of the kind!" exclaimed Taylor. Then the magistrate read*Taylor a little homily: "Let me tell you," he said, ''yon have behaved very badly. You were with your mistress three or four months, giving satisfaction, and then something happens. You get into some sort of a philandering with some young man who writes improper letters, and when your mistress tries to protect you against him and against yourself you become frantic. You ought to have been grateful to one of your own sex who would save you from calamity. You will be remanded in custody for leven [days."