A TRAGEDY IN A PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO.

Southland Times, Issue 3296, 13 January 1879, Page 3

A TRAGEDY IN A PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO.

_ . " Considerable;- excitement," states the Darling Downs Gazette, " was caused in Toowooruba, Queensland, on the 28th ult., the,-; report that a young woman had been poisoned at Mr Minogue's photographic . studio in Ruthven street, and on making inquiries we discovered that the rumor. was too true. It appears that on the evening in question the deceased, Mary O'Brien, in company with a girl named Gerahty,'both servants at the Queen's Anns Hotel, went to Minogue's at about halfpast 8 o'clock for the purpose' of inquiring about some photographs he was doing. They ■ met 'a girl named Bridget Frawley, and the' three of them went into his studio to find, however, that the photographs were not completed. Minogue told them the photos were in the bath, and the young women insisted on seeing them, and went into his workroom for the purpose. Bridget Frawley asked him for a drink, and he gave her one. The drink was a : cooling, one,- mixed withtartaric acid, which was in a pickle bottle on a small table, on which were several other bottles also, amongst them a pickle bottle similar to the one that contained the aeiil. The second pickle bottle contained cyanide of potassium, a chemical used by photographers, and a deadly poison. The girl Gerahty.had a drink also,- and' all with the exception of the deceased were turning to leave, when she helped -herself '• tp„ a y drink, and, it is presumed, mistook the bottle with the poison for that containing the tartaric acid. However, the three had their attention suddenly called to the girl O'Brien by bearing a heavy fall, and Minogue, at once suspecting the cause, and finding her to be in.an appar- ' ently dying .state, , rushed off formgdical aid, returning with Dr Howlin. The doctor administered .the usual remedies in such cases, but without avail, as the unfortunate young wpman.died in about, 2s.minutes after swallowing the poison."